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History of Post Office workers revealed in online archive
A post girl messenger with a policeman in 1942.
Records of Post Office workers dating back to 1737 were released online for the first time yesterday, including women who kept the post going during wartime – and 3,000 men called Pat.
Family history website Ancestry.co.uk said the collection of 1.5 million names included details of pay, dismissals, transfers and resignations.
The Post Office Appointment Books 1737-1969, tell the story of some legendary women postal workers, including Fanny King who was still trekking her nine- mile route in the Cotswolds at the age of 65 in the mid 20th century.
The records list 3,000 men called Pat and 4,500 named as Patricia.
From its early days, the Post Office employed women often as sub-postmistresses, running post offices as part of their business, or as postwomen, particularly in rural areas.
From 1870, when the Post Office was given control of the telegraph system, many more women were employed in running the telegraphs.
During the First and Second World Wars women plugged the gap left by men leaving to join the armed forces, with 100,000 women employed by the Post Office at the height of the Second World War.
Ancestry.co.uk international content director Dan Jones said: “The Post Office was a true leviathan of British industry, at one point employing more people worldwide than any other company. As a result, the value of these archives as a family history resource is massive.
“But the records also tell us a lot about the social history of the Post Office, in that it actively recruited women, particularly during the world wars, which led to a growing acceptance that work roles should not be defined by gender.”
Gavin McGuffie, head of archives at the British Postal Museum and Archive added: “We see the digitisation of these records as a crucial step in making the rich history of the Post Office available to everyone.”
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