BPMA announce the winner in contest for Greatest Englishman in Post Office History

Curators Chris Taft, Julian Stray and Rebecca Thomlinson all researched one individual and presented their findings at a lunchtime debate on 23 April 2008. They had agreed beforehand, that, due to Sir Rowland Hill’s lasting contribution, he should be excluded from the running. Otherwise the choice was down to each curator and their choice was only revealed to the others as they stood up to speak.

At the end of the debate, the audience was asked to vote on who they thought deserved the title.

Below are summaries of the three Englishmen championed at the debate. Why not make a decision yourself and then scroll down to discover if the audience agreed with you.

Candidate 1: John Wornham Penfold

Chris Taft championed John Wornham Penfold the architect and surveyor, who designed the pillar box that was to bear his name. Penfold was a leading architect and surveyor of his time. His greatest legacy, however, remains the pillar box that he designed and one that all letter boxes are compared to. The BPMA is proud to hold a number of examples of the Penfold in its collection. This box is so influential and important that a special session just looking at this box is planned, to take place on the 28 June 2008. 

In 1866 Penfold submitted designs for a new pilar box to the Post Office. Attempts had been made before to standardise the design of the pillar box across the country. The Post Office were keen to make Penfold's design the new national standard box. Penfold's design was in three sizes to accommodate differing volumes of mail around the country and was hexagonal in shape. It was the first to be produced in the new standard colour, pillar box red, which replaced the less conspicuous green in 1874.

Wherever Penfolds are found today, they retain a special place with people and have become a much loved feature of communities. If damaged, there is always strong support for their repair. Many are now listed buildings in their own right and as such are given special protection by the law.

Candidate 2: Ralph Allen

Rebecca Thomlinson put the case for Ralph Allen who developed the cross-post system and led major reforms of the postal system. Allen greatly improved the efficiency and profitability of the Cross and Bye Post system. He set up a network of roads on which postal services were based until the railways came in the 1840s.

Allen virtually stopped abuse of the system by his thorough accounting skills and by instilling pride and honesty into his postmasters throughout the country. He transformed staff used to cheating the Post Office into a relatively honest and reliable part of the nation's civil service.

Allen created the start of a reliable, safe and profitable postal service, something it had never been previously and he instilled public confidence in a postal service that had been rarely used. Allen's efficiency greatly increased public use of the postal service in general.

Candidate 3: Charles Wheeler

Julian Stray presented Charles Wheeler who developed and built up the Post Office’s own vehicle fleet at a time when motorised transport was still a new idea. Wheeler recognised just what a difference motorised transport could make to the Post Office. In 1913, Wheeler had travelled, at his own expense, to the Ford factory in Detroit, USA. While there, he satisfied himself as to the build quality of their vehicles. This, together with five years experience of Fords while in military service, persuaded Wheeler to make Ford the chosen model for large scale purchase by the Post Office. Some 200 were purchased in the 1920s.

On the home front, Wheeler encouraged Morris to improve their nationwide dealership and reliability. He pushed for these small vans to be used on ordinary mail services. In 1923 he was granted permission to purchase a single van to carry out a practical trial. Following this trial, the British manufactured Morris became a favoured marque for decades to follow.

Wheeler also developed a number of inventions associated with cycles and wrote an authoritative book: Bicycles: In the Making and on the Road. Following the 1897 Jubilee, the radius for the free delivery of telegrams was extended from one to three miles.  100 trade pattern bicycles were purchased for the use of telegram messengers and postmen. Wheeler was not satisfied with the suitability of these machines and so developed a 'Standard Bicycle Specification' in 1898 for Post Office machines and set about getting it adopted.

Wheeler even found time to introduce the typewriter to the Post Office Stores Department and the card index system to the Post Office generally.

Results

We can now exclusively reveal that the winner was Ralph Allen.

 

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