Messenger boys that kept the West Midlands ticking over before the telephone became so popular are being sought to join a special reunion website.
Rather than let their sweaty-browed history fade into the distant memory, a group of Royal Mail workers have set up the site to pay tribute to the vital contribution they once made to society.
Up until the telegram was made completely redundant 25 years ago, messenger boys were the unsung heroes of the British workforce, delivering thousands of messages by hand from business to business.
A Royal Mail worker who created the site is now calling on Express & Star readers to help spread the word by getting former messenger boys to log on and recall their tales.
Roger Green, who started his Royal Mail career in 1976, said: “We believe there are a number of former telegram messenger boys in the Black Country, and we want to reunite them with the Birmingham messenger boys and get them adding stories to our new website.
“The website records past memories of their years as messenger boys, and also features photos of past reunions. There is also a message board for everyone to leave messages for one another, and to reunite past work colleagues.
“We had a reunion in Birmingham in September and 145 people attended, many of them from all over the country. We are convinced, that from the thousands of former message boys still alive, many of them live in Wolverhampton and elsewhere in the Black Country, and we want to get them involved.
“It was great catching up on stories from the times before telephones, when a telegram was the only way of getting a message to someone on the same day.
“At the end of the day the messenger boys have a lot of history, and it would be a shame if any of that was forgotten. The site I have set up aims to prevent that from happening.” To visit the site, log on to www.birm inghamsandsclub.co.uk
9 Comments
My name is John Perkins and I was a ‘messenger’ actually, ‘Junior Postman’, straight from school aged fifteen from approximately April 1954 to approx.May 1954 when I left on a point of principle. I still have many happy memories particularly of friends I worked with. Two of them (Gerry ‘Taffy’ Dillon and Brian Lewis) eventually went to Australia and I would love to know how they progressed. Others I remember are; ‘Blossom’ Beresford, David Smart, Geoff Smith, Joss Evanson and many more.
All new recruits had to endure an initiation ceremony called ‘bowling’which meant the new guy was turned upside down and pushed into a sinkfull of cold water. All good ‘clean’ fun of course. A good many of the messengers were sons of postmen as I was but very few rejoined the GPO after National Service. Would love to hear from any ’survivors’.
Dear john Perkins
I would love to hear all of your memories of your past with the G.P.O./Royal Mail so please visit the web site and register with us and put all of your memories on the web site (www.birminghamsandsclub.co.uk
if you have trouble doing so please don’t hesitate e-mailing me with your phone number and i will talk you through it
Many Thanks
Roger Green
Started as a telegram boy appox June 1954 Retired 1993 manger of REM UNIT AT CHELMSFORD.
The next seven years I worked at run subpost offices
Dear All
http://www.birminghamsandsclub.co.uk
Feel free to register on the web site its free
We are looking for every telegram messenger boy from all over Great Britain and Beyond to add their stories and memories or photos to our story board on the web site
Also please pass on the word to other telegram messenger boys about the web site and if they have not got access for them to send their stories / memories to me in the post and I will add them to the web site
At the end of the day the telegram messenger boys have a lot of history, and it would be a shame if any of that was forgotten.
ADDRESS
Roger Green
S.H.C.
Royal Mail Birmingham
Mail Centre
St Stephens Street
Aston
Birmingham
B6 4AA
i joined the g.p.o.as it was then called in1964 as a telegram boy at threadneedle street post office .now part of the stock exchange.i was 15.we delivered telegrams in the city of london,and colected express items which could be for destinatons as far away as sussex.we were given fares of course! in thos days we were inspected every morning to make sure we were smart and that we were wearing our belt and telegram pouch.wo betide us if we wernt wearing when we was out in the street!i am still a postman working in leyton in east london, retiring in 2009.
I was a mopper from 59-62 at leicester square wc2 I went on to
be a postman and retired after 40
years, we had to walk everywhere
as bikes were considered to risky.
we delivered to st james palace
and the whole of theatre land,
our pouches were carried as if
we were gunslingers, i loved
every minute and have so many
tales to tell it would take
forever.
maxie bacon
on july 1942 at the age of 14.5 I joined as a boy messenger at the royal northern disrict office north london, I WAS ISSUED with a uniform which included a pillbox hat the red button on the hat,it soon disappeared by the senior boys, at 5ft 4 the bicycle seen very large and the seat was lowered so I could reach the pedals and riding over cobbled and tramlines in the roads in wet weather was very hazardous.we all did an 8hr day starting on shifts 8-4 to 11-7 a 48 hr week all for the princely sum of £1 ,When I reach 16.5yrs I was trained to ride a 250cc BSA sv motor bike,which were gear hand change ,I later had an ex-army BSA 350cc ohv and foot change in khaki with GPO
and crown on the tank,all the other bikes were 250cc and had a red tank and black mudguards we used to go out in all weathers and the winter of 1945 was very bad no roads were salted during the war an ofcourse fly bombs were coming over in london during the day ,I often wonder if any of my old work mates are still about ,as an 80yr old not many I suppose, we used to have our 40 minute lunch at the british restaurant.one of our lads sadly was killed in accident with a car at a crossroad . an also some of the older boys went in the army and were killed during the invasion of france only 19yrs, I got called up in 1946 and did 2yrs national service in the RAF, I finished my time working for BT planning cable net works on RAF Bases in norfolk.it was very nice seeing the tornados take off ,I was one of the lucky ones. bi john ansell
I became a post office messenger in August 1942 aged 14.I did 6 months on delivery in London WC1 and was then co-opted to indoor messenger at the Ministry of Information until the end of the war when I resumed delivery duties at the Covent Garden office until being ‘called up’ in August 1946. They were great times despite the war. I met my future wife who was a telegraphist at the MOI and spent the rest of my civil service career at first in the post office and then in the Customs @ Excise but my heart was always with the PO!I wonder if there are many of the old west central messengers still around.
Boy Messenger/ Junior Postman 1946 to 1950 at Billericay Post Office, Essex.
Have many memories of that period, including trying to deliver a telegram to a dead man lying in his co
in a caravan, which was the winter quarters of a circus.