Telecommunications
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In the past, The Royal Mail Archive held records relating to
telegraph, telephone, wireless and early broadcasting services in the United Kingdom. This is because, from approximately the 1870s until the 1980s, the
Post Office was responsible for the development of the telecommunications industry
in the UK.
We no longer hold all of these records because, in the 1990s, those relating specifically to
telecommunications were transferred to BT Group Archives. Records that do not relate specifically to
telecommunications, or that are exclusively about the delivery of telegrams, have remained here at The Royal Mail Archive.
Each catalogue entry in our online catalogue contains a repository field. The field will tell you whether the record has remained here or has been transferred to BT Group Archives.
Here are four examples of telecommunications records in our collection:
Letter to Postmaster General, 13 December
1871, finding number: POST 30/213c
This letter from the Privy Council thanks the Postmaster General (PMG) for the Post Office’s assistance in distributing
forms of prayers for the recovery of the Prince of Wales by telegraph.
Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and the future King Edward VII, almost died of typhoid in 1871. The prayers were to be recited in churches and chapels in England, Wales and Berwick-on-Tweed on and after 10 December 1871.
The Post Office had only taken over the previously privately-owned telegraph network in the UK the previous year. This event was therefore an early example of the way that the state-owned telegraph was used to communicate important information quickly.
Large image of the first page of the letter (406 KB)
Large image of the second page of the letter (370 KB)
Index of appointments, A-K, 1910-1911, finding number: POST 58/105
The fourth entry on this index of appointments shows that, in July 1910, the Post Office
appointed Rosina D Appleby as a telephonist in London.
Records about staff involved in the telecommunications side
of the Post Office have remained in The Royal Mail Archive. They can be used to trace family members who worked for the Post
Office. Further information about how to
trace a member of your family who worked for the Post Office can be found in Family history research.
Large image (97.2 KB)
Telegram about the sinking of the Titanic, 16 April 1912, finding number: POST 29/1395B
This telegram is the last of three about the Titanic sent to the Secretary at the Post Office in London by the Liverpool office of Ismay Imrie & Co, owners of the
White Star Line.
The Titanic carried mail for the Post Office. At the time of the sinking, there were five postal
workers on board, two of them British. All five died, together with 1,518 others.
The messages in the first two telegrams convey the initial belief that there was no danger of loss of life. With the arrival of this third telegram, the Secretary would have realised the scale of the disaster that was unfolding.
This telegram is handwritten. It was probably telephoned through and dictated to a clerk.
Facsimiles of all three telegrams can be downloaded as PDFs as part of KS3 Resources pack 'Messages Through Time'.
Large image (106 KB)
Greetings telegram form, 14 February 1936, finding number: POST 104/10
This form was designed by Rex Whistler exclusively for Valentine's Day in 1936.
The Post Office was keen to encourage the use of the telegraph. One of the ways in which it did this was to introduce, in the 1930s, beautifully decorated greetings telegram forms and cards for people to send on special occasions. These continued until the late 1960s when the number of telegrams being sent declined.
Large image (445 KB)
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