The Herald

75 years ago

SALISBURY, 19 May 1942. — The sale of airgraphs had a great send-off in Salisbury yesterday. The airgraph counter was steadily busy from the opening of the Post Office, and later in the day purchasers returned with completed letters ready for dispatch.

Before the Post Office closed 500 airgraphs had been received and the staff were at work sorting them for the next stage of their flight to Britain.

Remarkably few mistakes were made by those who used the airgraphs. The instructions in almost every case had been carefully followed. Only three faults were noted, the effort to crowd as many words as possible on to the page, the typing of the recipient’s address, and servicemen’s failure to include their rank and regimental numbers in the sender’s address.

Since the enlarged photograph of the airgraph which reaches the addressee overseas is considerably smaller than the original airgraph.