Record collection of the month
The Post Office Appointment Books
The Post Office Appointment Books cover the years 1737-1969, with the main series of these records being introduced in 1831, when a centralised register of every employee’s appointment was begun. These registers are contained in large, heavy, bound volumes, with the entries painstakingly entered in ink by hand.
The appointments cover England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland (the latter up to 1920) and include post office employees in a wide range of roles, for example postmen, postwomen, sorting clerks, telegraphists and telephonists. Messenger boys and girls are rarely listed in the Appointment Books, however, if they continued working for the Post Office from the age of about 18, then it can be possible to find their appointment then.
The Appointment Books only record those directly employed by the Post Office; people who worked as a Sub-postmaster
or Sub-postmistress do not always appear. This often suggests they were not directly employed, but instead ran their Post Office independently as a franchise alongside another business, like a shop or a blacksmith’s.
Usually only a person’s first appointment with the Post Office is recorded in the Appointment Books, although there are exceptions. Any subsequent promotions, or a move to another role in the Post Office can sometimes be found in the Post Office pension records or other archive materials such as the staff magazines or Establishment Books.
It is fascinating reading the Appointment Books and seeing the great range of roles and skills of Post Office staff. Sometimes several generations of the same family worked for the Post Office, and examples of this can be seen in the Appointment Books.
Archives Assistant Susannah Coster introduces The Postal Museum’s Post Office Appointment Books, a valuable source of information on past Post Office employees
An example from the Post Office Appointment Books, 1878, © Royal Mail Group Ltd [1878], courtesy of The Postal Museum (finding number: POST 58/88)