Crazy caper in a crate
QUESTION Has anyone posted themselves in a box?
In 1964, Australian javelin thrower Reg Spiers posted himself from London to surprise his daughter on her birthday.
He survived this foolhardy adventure, which is certainly not recommended.
Spiers had come to Britain to recover from an injury, but when it became apparent he would not recover in time to take part in the Tokyo Olympics, he decided to return home. Unable to afford a plane ticket, he asked British javelin thrower John McSorley to build a wooden crate in which he could post himself.
The box allowed him to sit up straightlegged or lie on his back with his knees bent. The two ends of the crate were held in place by wooden spigots operated from the inside, so Spiers could let himself out of either end.
It was fitted with straps to hold him in place as it was loaded and unloaded. The box was packed with tinned food, a torch, blanket, pillow and two plastic bottles — one for water, one for urine.
The crate was labelled as containing paint and addressed to a fictitious Australian shoe company.
According to Spiers: ‘I’d seen animals come through all the time and thought if they can do it, I can do it . . . I just got in the thing and went. What was there to be frightened of? I’m not frightened of the dark, so I just sat there.’
Spiers was loaded onto an Air India plane bound for Perth, Western Australia. Following a 24-hour delay and a stop-off in Bombay, the journey took 63 hours.
Worried for his friend’s safety, McSorley alerted the Australian media and Spiers became a sensation.
This wasn’t the end of his escapades. He was arrested in Sri Lanka in 1984 and sentenced to death for drugs offences. He appealed against the sentence and spent five years in jail in Australia.
Tom Davies, Gerringong, Australia. One of Britain’s great eccentrics was W. Reginald Bray, who not only posted himself, but also his dog, though he did not use a box. A previous column of Answers To Correspondents described how Bray became obsessed with the Post
Office regulations. He discovered that the smallest item you could post was a bee and the largest an elephant.
He began testing the mail system, sending unwrapped or partially wrapped items including a half- smoked cigar, turnip, bowler hat, bicycle pump, seaweed, clothes brush and rabbit’s skull.
The list of exceptional express Services stated ‘a dog furnished with a proper collar and chain may be, at the discretion of the postmaster, taken to its address on payment of a mileage charge’.
On February 10, 1900, Bray took his Irish terrier, Bob, to his local post office in Forest Hill, South London. Bob was dispatched at 6.54pm and signed for at the family home just six minutes later.
Following this success, Bray tried the regulation that ‘a person may be conducted by express messenger to any address on payment of the mileage charge’.
An official form dated november 14, 1903, and signed by the postmaster at Forest Hill acknowledges ‘Delivery of an Inland Registered Person Cyclist’ to Bray’s home address. The fee charged was thruppence a mile.
Lauren Smith, London SW16.
QUESTION Can I nominate someone for an
Academy Award? OnLy members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can nominate someone for an Academy Award, popularly known as an Oscar.
The Academy has 8,469 eligible voters. This has increased from 7,000 in 2018 following a diversity drive. It is an exclusive club: you have to be sponsored by two members from your branch.
There are 17 branches that represent actors, casting directors, cinematographers, costume designers, directors, documentary film-makers, executives, film editors, make-up artists and hairstylists, marketing and PR, music, producers, production design, short films and feature animation, sound, visual effects and writers. each branch nominates for its own c category. Once all the branches h have voted, auditing firm Price water house Coopers uses a weighting system to determine the fiv five nominees for each category. All m members then vote for the winners ac across the various categories.
Justin Moore, Malvern, Worcs.
QUESTION For how long after World War II was the corner opposite St Paul’s Tube station a bombsite?
THIS is the site of the BT Centre, the company’s corporate headquarters since the 1980s.
It is renting the building, having sold it to Orion european Real estate Fund for £209.6 million in preparation for its move next year to a new 18-floor building above Aldgate east Tube station.
Historically, it was home to the Central Telegraph Office (CTO), a five- storey building erected in 1874 as GPO West.
CTO was a clearing house for inland and overseas telegrams. It was connected to major cities around the world by teleprinter, which was the forerunner of the fax machine. It was also linked to most Central London post offices by a pneumatic tube system.
On December 29, 1940, Luftwaffe bombers carried out raids on the City of London. As a vital communications centre, the CTO was a prime target.
Fire damage resulted in the eventual loss of the top three floors. By the time the refurbished building was reopened in June 1943, much of the telegraph work had been transferred.
The CTO never regained its former importance and was demolished in 1967. The BT Centre was built on the site and officially opened in 1984.
Martin Foulds, London E7.
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