AT WAR: THE POST OFFICE RIFLES
The Post Office Rifles are best remembered for their involvement as infantry on the Western Front in the First World War. Their bravery, tenacity and character during the terrible circumstances of trench warfare are well documented.
The endeavours of The Post Office Rifles at the battles of the Somme, Passchendaele, and elsewhere have earned the regiment a prestigious place in British military history, with many military medals and accolades in evidence of this. The regiment comprised mostly Post Office employees, and approximately 12,000 men fought with the regiment, suffering losses of 1,800 with 4,500 wounded. To accommodate the swell of recruits in the First World War, a second Post Office Rifles battalion was formed in September 1914.
The existing Post Office Rifles was redesignated as the 1/ 8th Battalion, London Regiment and the second battalion was called the 2nd/ 8th Battalion, London Regiment. The 2nd initially served as a reserve regiment, supplying reinforcements for the 1st, but in January 1917 it also moved to the front line, first seeing action in the Second Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917.
There was a long history of collaboration between the Post Office and the armed forces even before the First World War. Post Office volunteers, for example, went to Paris in 1816 to assist British Forces with communications following the defeat of Napoleon, and sorters also served in the Crimean War (1853–56).
The GPO encouraged its staff to join up in both world wars and it kept their jobs open for them to return to afterwards. It was also concerned with providing work for staff who had a disability due to their military service.