Postie who let women wear the trousers
AS a teenager, she was responsible f or f emale ‘ posties’ f i rst being allowed to wear trousers – and had them named after her.
Now Jean Cameron is being celebrated as part of the 500th anniversary of the Royal Mail.
The postwoman from Glen Clova, in Angus, is one of several Scots being featured in an online gallery telling the story of the postal service and its contribution to social and political development.
She was only 19 when, in 1941, she asked permission to wear trousers in place of the officially issued blue skirt. As a result, the GPO nationally approved smart women’s trousers with zip fasteners on the hips and thin red piping down the side seams, otherwise known as the ‘Camerons’.
More than 500 pairs were ordered in the first two months, and within two years, 14,000 pairs were worn all over Britain.
Her tale is among many helping to commemorate 500 years since Henry VIII knighted Brian Tuke, the first Master of the Posts, in 1516.
Royal Mail is working with the British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) to create the online gallery of 500 objects, people and events. Other Scots include Robert Wallace from Greenock, Renfrewshire, who in 1837 was chairman of the committee whose ideas led to the development of postage stamps, and Bill Cockburn, the teenage Scot who joined Royal Mail in Glasgow in 1961 and became chief executive in 1993.
Sir Brian Tuke had the influence and authority to establish key post towns across the country, but until 1603 the postal service in Scotland was used only for special purposes for limited periods of time.
With the Union of the Crowns that year, the postal service was placed under dual control, with official communications between Scotland and England overseen from London, while the service in the rest of Scotland was controlled from Edinburgh.
The world’s first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, was launched in 1840, and Scotland’s first postbox was installed in 1861. The box, on the front of the Golspie Inn, in Sutherland, can still be seen today.
Moya Greene, chief executive of the Royal Mail, said: ‘We are proud to celebrate the heritage of this great company.
‘The history of the postal service in the UK reflects the tremendous societal and political change that has taken us from 16th century Tudor England, via the Act of Union, to the United Kingdom today.
‘In all its guises, Royal Mail has been responsible for a number of world firsts – the Penny Black stamp and the first ever airmail flight to name just two.’
‘Responsible for a number of world firsts’