Postcodes are introduced in a trial in Norwich. At its peak, 2,500 staff handle 12 million letters and a million parcels in a week. The war also sees a huge rise in letters and parcels being sent to loved ones fighting abroad. The Post Office Rifles received 145 awards for gallantry, and three General Post Office employees were awarded the Victoria Cross. 1,800 are killed and over 4,000 wounded during the war. British aviation pioneer Gustav Hamel flew from the London Aerodome in Hendon to the Postmaster General’s office in Windsor.ġ2,000 postal workers serve in The Post Office Rifles during the First World War. The world’s first scheduled airmail service begins, as part of the celebrations of the Coronation of George V. The two-and-half tonne lorry covers 300,000 miles in its 18 years of service. The first motor vehicle enters the postal service. It’s the first association in the UK civil service to represent female clerical workers. The Association of Post Office Women Clerks is founded. The growth in parcel deliveries sees the title ‘Letter Carrier’ replaced with the more familiar ‘postman’. Parcel Post is launched, reflecting a need for personal and business customers to send more than just a letter. They are green to start with and feature the insignia of the monarch at the time. Postboxes are introduced to the British mainland, following a trial on the Channel Islands the previous year. They jump to more than 1 billion letters a year by 1875. Mail volumes rise from 67 million in 1839 to 242 million by 1844. The introduction of the Penny Post leads to a great increase in the popularity of mail. As the inventor of the postage stamp, the UK is the only country in the world that doesn’t have its name on its stamps. Queen Victoria appears on the stamp and 68 million are used in the first year. The world’s first adhesive postal stamp, the Penny Black, is launched. For the first time, the sender pays the postage instead of the recipient. Uniform postage rates are introduced, replacing a complicated, confusing and expensive system of tariffs. The first route is between Liverpool and Manchester thanks to an agreement between the General Post Office and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. ![]() Steam-driven packet ships are introduced to deliver mail across the British Empire and the Commonwealth. The name Royal Mail is given to the service when mail coaches become a familiar sight across the country. The Post Office Act paves the way for a unified postal service across Scotland, England and Wales. It shows the date of dispatch and is designed to give confidence in the speed and reliability of the mail. It’s called the Bishop mark after the Postmaster General, Henry Bishop. A year later, the world’s first postmark is used. The Post Office Act creates the publically owned postal service. A Letter Office is established in London and six post roads are formalised to carry mail across the country. The postal service is opened up to the general public by Charles I. Although for the next 119 years the postal service operates only for the King and the Court. Tuke establishes key post towns across the country and builds a formal postal network. ![]() Henry VIII knights Brian Tuke, the first Master of the Posts. That proud tradition of innovation continues today as we introduce new technology and digital services and expand our services at home and abroad. Royal Mail and its forerunner organisations are responsible for a number of global firsts, ranging from the Penny Black stamp to the world’s first ‘one-price-goes-anywhere’ Universal Service. ![]() One of the oldest organisations in the world, Royal Mail Group can trace its origins back over 500 years to 1516.
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