Sound Files

Listen to oral histories from The Postal Museum and Mail Rail exhibitions.

K6 Telephone Kiosk | K8 Telephone Kiosk | Mail Rail Gallery

K6 Telephone Kiosk

001. Letter from German Soldier to Mrs Home Peel

Home Peel joined the Post Office in 1906. At the outbreak of war, in 1914, he joined the Post Office’s own battalion, the Post Office Rifles. Having survived many battles, Peel was killed in action near Longueval on 24 March 1918 during the retreat from Cambrai. A German soldier found his body and was moved to write this letter.
002. Letter from William Cox to family

William Cox was a Post Office worker. During the First World War he posted an Oxo tin to his brother and sister containing a button from the tunic of a fellow worker who had died and also a piece of shrapnel. This is the letter he wrote to explain what these ‘mementoes’ meant to him.
003. Extracts from Thomas May’s diary

Thomas William Ernest May joined the Post Office in 1910 as an Assistant Postman. In 1915, at the age of 20 he joined the Post Office Rifles and went to war. Like so many others Thomas was an ordinary man thrust into an extraordinary situation. These are extracts from the diary he kept whilst at the front, describing his experiences of the war.
004. Battlefield Will, Leonard Eldridge

Private Leonard Eldridge was a member of the Post Office Rifles. Like many soldiers in the First World War he was encouraged to write a battlefield will, in case the worst should happen. This is what he wrote.
005. The Letter by Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen is one of the most famous poets of the First World War. Here we hear his poem ‘The Letter’. In it a soldier writes a letter to his wife back home but whilst writing it he is fatally shot. The poem switches between the contents of the letter and the events unfolding around him.
006. ‘It came by ship’ by Aldis Bajirak

Aldis took part in Communicating Conflict, a First World War Centenary project with Haverstock School in 2014. Pupils took inspiration from the wartime stories and objects in The Postal Museum collections to write their own letters from the Front Line. His poem captures the anticipation of waiting for a letter from home.
007. Roger Osborn

During the Second World War Roger Osborn had to deliver many fatality telegrams, bringing news of death to loved ones back home. Here he recalls his own, and a friend’s experience, and speaks about the devastating effect it could have on families.
008. Frank Hunter

Frank Hunter left school at 14 to start his first job as a Boy Messenger at North West District Office in London. During the Second World War Frank and colleagues sheltered from bombing in the Post Office Underground Railway at Mount Pleasant while working their night shifts.
009. Garvin Kerr

Garvin grew up in the Creggan area of Derry in a Catholic family of six children. Garvin worked for Royal Mail at the height of ‘The Troubles’. Here he remembers the frightening day when he was held up in his van and robbed at gunpoint.

K8 Telephone Kiosk

201. Emma Hastings

Emma Hastings joined Royal Mail in 2003 delivering letters in towns. She describes how she enjoys her job, even when it’s pouring with rain!
202. Grace Kielthy

Every Monday morning Grace would travel to Swansea on the passenger train and come back to London working on the Travelling Post Office (TPO). Grace worked on the London side of the Welsh TPO for just 18 months before she had to leave due to a knee injury, but she remembers her time there with pride.
203. John Nicholas

John Nicholas recollects why he decided to become a Telegram Messenger in 1945 and the uniform he had to wear – or risk the punishment!
204. Sam King

Sam King came to Britain from the Caribbean in 1948, having served in the RAF during the Second World War. He joined the Post Office in 1953 as a Sorter. One of Britain’s biggest employers, the Post Office workforce was starting to diversify, but Sam still had to prove he had the knowledge for the job. With kind permission of Museum of London.
205. Mena Rego

Mena was born in Kenya in 1950 and came to Britain to study at university, after which she joined the Post Office in 1972. Here she speaks about her experience of working in what was still a mainly white, male organisation. With kind permission of the British Library.
206. Tim Kimber

Tim Kimber is one of many postmen who have to face the very real threat that some dogs can pose when trying to deliver letters safely and on time. He describes some of his experiences here.
207. Arnot McDonald

Arnot’s father Cedric John Hardie Horn was a postman who became Pipe Major of the Post Office Pipe Band in Edinburgh. Arnot remembers the first time he played for the Post Office, to lead the march in the 1971 postal strike.
208. Brian Hodson

Brian Hodson worked as a postman in London, often driving vans. He remembers the strange but often effective designs that were tested out – including a swing bar to lock the back doors for security and rubber wings which never rusted and helped prevent damage during accidents.
209. Mick O’Blath

Mick O’Blath worked on the Post Office Underground Railway – known as Mail Rail. Here he explains the route the railway took and how mail was transported to wherever it needed to be quickly and efficiently.

Mail Rail Gallery

Ray Middlesworth – Battery Locomotive

Listen to Engineer Ray Middlesworth as he remembers what it was like to drive the 90-year-old maintenance locomotive. Engineers would drive this loco along Mail Rail’s tracks to deliver equipment, and occasionally recover broken-down trains. Powered by 152 battery cells, it worked independently of the mains electricity that ran the rest of the network.
Ray Middlesworth – Locker Stories

On the last day the railway ran, 30 May 2003, Ray Middlesworth and his fellow workers left things just as they were. Listen to Ray as he recalls the atmosphere on those final days.
John Scott – Electrical Engineer

John Scott describes his role as an electrical engineer and the conditions in the tunnels where he worked.
Ray Middlesworth – Railway Engineer

For over 30 years, Ray Middlesworth was a Mail Rail engineer. Even after the railway ceased operations in 2003, he stayed on. Over his Mail Rail career, Ray worked to maintain the rail system as part of the closeknit engineering team. He also dealt with many dramatic moments as mail cars sped around the track – as many as 18 at a time. If a faulty train wasn’t moved within five minutes, for example, the whole system came grinding to a halt.
George Gardiner – ‘at the Mount’

George Gardiner worked for the Post Office railway for 23 years. He controlled trains at Mount Pleasant station, answering his cabin telephone with ‘Gardiner at the Mount’. Always smartly dressed, George worked shifts around the clock. Trains arrived every five minutes, so a prompt dispatch was vital. Mailbags and parcels had to be loaded and unloaded into the correct containers for delivery to particular mainline rail stations, where they were often sorted aboard Travelling Post Office trains.
Lester Russell – Platform Worker

Lester Russell joined the Post Office railway in his early twenties and stayed for 17 years. He worked six days a week, and within a few months of beginning, could buy a car. Lester enjoyed the team spirit of the underground mail railway. But the work was physically very hard. His role was to load and unload mail from the train. No matter how many bags of letters arrived down the chute for loading, the train had to leave on time.