The Telegram Boy  that kept a promise.
The date was 5.2.65 and mum told me to go out to the employment agency to get a job now that i was sixteen, they only had two on the books
and the job as a telegram boy appealed to me at the time, i was told to go next door into the post office to see the post master
and after all the intros etc i started work that very day.
I was shown where everything was like the lunch room and locker room etc and was told what bicycle i would be using, but the most fascinating thing to me was the way messages came through those teleprinters, those large brown typewriters, i thought at the time WOW.
The guys i was working with were great and there was only six at any one time, and it did not take me long to learn the routine, some of them became very close friends, and i am still friends with one today.
I loved this job for the fact that here in Australia with it’s open spaces and lots of fresh air what more could one ask for,the place i started my career was in the city of Elizabeth South Australia named after her majesty the queen.
One day my aunt caught up with me and asked if i had a job to which i replied with great pride, “Yes aunt Lil i am a telegram boy”.She said to me” Promise me you will stick to it because it’s a very secure job”,so i did , i did my job to the best of my ability and was proud to wear the uniform, at the age of eighteen i became a postman and retired from Australia Post in 2005.
                                                          
                                                                                                                                                         Frank Robinson  ex Junior Postal Officer
                                                                                                                                                            1965-1967 Elizabeth South Australia.

 

EARLY DAYS OF THE TELEGRAPH SERVICE

Before the General Post Office was given the monopoly for the Telegraph Service by Act  of Parliament in 1869 there were several private companies providing a limited service nationally. In June 1846 an Act of Parliament the first commercial service was established by the Electric Telegraph Company.

Other Telegraph Services were provided by the various Railway Companies and after a further Act of Parliament in 1850 The Magnetic Telegraph Company, the British and Irish Telegraph Company and several smaller companies were formed.

The E.T.C. had by March 1864 opened offices at 1, Millstone Lane Leicester and  the Midland Railway Station in Campbell Street.

A picture of one of the E.T.C.  Messengers was kindly sent to me by Harry Robinson a Ex Messenger from Hull in Yorkshire. The pouches worn by the E.T.C. messengers were adopted for use by the G.P.O. when they took over the National Service as they were considered better than the small bags used by their own boys.

A picture of the boys in their mess room at Hull Central Telegraph Office was also provided and a copy of a Telegram sent on 17th November 1859 from Stafford to Hull via the E.T.C. at this time all telegrams were hand written.

In Leicester a rival to the E.T.C. was the United Kingdom Telegraph Company which had an office at 2, Hotel Street Leicester sometime after 1864.