It is really amazing how a simple passing conversation on the street can bring forth a lot of wonderful personal nostalgia and local history facts.
Rummaging about in the boot of my car on a residential street in my home city of Hull I saw an elderly gentleman making his way carefully along a wintry wet and icy pavement. I had almost come a cropper that same morning in not appreciating a patch of black ice as I walked across a street and so passed on my experience to the cautious pedestrian.
At the age of 94 he was still very mobile, excepting the challenging weather conditions, and dismissed my concerns in a kindly but authoritative manner. He qualified this by mentioning that he was no stranger to adversity as in 1943 in Hull, very much on the front line of Luftwaffe Attacks ,he was a Telegram Messenger or Boy Messenger which exposed him to hostile action in conveying, by bike, sometimes urgent but also mundane communications from the Post Office to business and private citizen recipients.
That will have been quite a role for him as a 14 year old but as part of a cohort of 60 Hull Messengers in smart uniforms and very aware of representing the auspicious and much respected HM Post Office.
Although a junior position it had to be very disciplined and as well as the uniform there was a rigid code of conduct and on arriving for a shift there was an inspection for smart turnout with the sanction of being sent home if not up to the expected high standards.
In wartime many Messenger Boys had initially to provide their own bicycles and quite a lucrative income could be gained from a 4 penny a mile allowance before being provided with an official mode of transport.
A typical weekly wage was fifteen shillings and eightpence equating in modern money to 78 pence.
The Messengers worked three different shifts starting at 8am, 8.30am and 10am on a seven day week and working through to around 8pm in the evening. The Messenger Boy ranks were very important as the majority of the able bodied men were recruited into the fighting ranks leaving an aged demographic of working Postmen supported by women on the rounds and in the sorting offices.
In the war years few people had telephones and so Telegrams were a quick means of communication. In the heyday of telegrams in the 1930's an average of 65 million were delivered although on a loss making basis for the Post Office estimated at £1million annually.
The cost of a telegram was sixpence (6d) for 9 words and a penny for each additional word. This included the address and text but very abbreviated so save cost to the sender. A good local knowledge amongst the Telegram Boys was therefore essential.
Greetings Telegrams were in a pale blue envelope and the message printed or, in smaller Post Offices, actually hand written by an employee.
The Code of Practice on delivery was for the Messenger Boy to only hand over to the addressee and not simply push the Telegram through the letterbox or leave with anyone else. It was then a case of waiting for the telegram to be read and asking if there was a reply and acting on that. A card could be left for a failed delivery but it was necessary to leave and come back another time with the message.
The Rule Book, often carried around whilst on Duty, forbade accepting gifts or gratuities but tips were graciously received anyway.
In Hull a main destination for Telegrams was companies trading and operating on the Docks and Quays onto the Humber Estuary serving the North Sea trade and beyond. The extensive complex of docks were key targets for enemy aerial bombing and so the Boy Messengers ran the risk of injury or death.
There were also risks from dock traffic on the road and the maze of freight railway lines which had to be crossed on a daily basis.
A Telegram delivered to a residential address was quite an event sparking curiosity and intrigue amongst nosey neighbours. There was also the on going battling with dogs who found great sport in chasing, cornering and biting a Telegram Boy.
As a fourteen year old my pavement acquaintance will have seen a lot of city life, not all of it wholesome and moral.
There was also quit an emotional aspect particularly where the contents of a Telegram were bad or sad news.
In Wartime the Telegram Service was used by the War Office to inform families of those killed in action, lost at sea or taken as a Prisoner of War.
Many Messenger Boys continued to be employed after the war and progressed to the roles of Junior Postmen and then full time adult employees. At the age of 16 it was necessary to sit a Civil Service Exam which was quite wide ranging but basically was to establish competency in the three R’s of reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic for continued employment.
In parting on the pavement the old gentleman brought out from his wallet a black and white photograph of him in his Messenger Boy uniform.
As he headed to the bus stop on the main road he appeared to have a new spring in his step after availing me of part of his life story.
(inspired by a brief pavement exchange on Hotham Road North and supplemented by the memoirs of John Vickers sourced from 1993 BBC WW2 Peoples at War)
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