Royal Mail - Definition and Overview

A Victorian hexagonal red post box. Traditionally UK post boxes carry the initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation: in this case VR for Victoria Regina.

Royal Mail is the national postal service in the United Kingdom.

Royal Mail Group plc is a public limited company, wholly owned by the British Government, with around 212,000 employees.

In 1969 it was converted from a government department, the General Post Office, to a nationalised industry. The office of Postmaster General was abolished in 1974.

In 1981 the British Telecommunications Act split the Post Office Corporation into two nationalised entities - the Post Office and British Telecom. British Telecom was later privatised.

In 2000 The Post Office renamed itself to Consignia to much ridicule. The British Government set up a postal regulator Postcomm and offered licences to private companies to deliver mail. In 2002 Consignia changed its name back to Royal Mail as Royal Mail Group plc with operating divisions of Royal Mail and Parcelforce dealing with the letter and parcel services respectively, and with Post Office Ltd as a wholly owned subsidiary which manages the nationwide network of post office branches.

Timeline

Customers deposit mail in red collection boxes for the Royal Mail to sort and deliver it. This one bears the monogram ER for Edward Rex or Edward VII.

• 1516: Royal Mail established by Henry VIII under Master of the Posts.
• July 31, 1635: Royal Mail service first made available to the public by Charles I. Postage was paid by the recipient.
• 1654: Oliver Cromwell grants UK monopoly to "Office of Postage".
• 1657: Fixed postal rates introduced.
• 1660: General Post Office (GPO) officially established by Charles II.
• 1661: First use of date stamp. First Postmaster General appointed.
• 1784: First mail coach (between Bristol and London).
• 1793: First uniformed delivery staff. Post Office Investigation Branch formed.
• 1830: First mail train (on Manchester & Liverpool Railway).
• 1840: First adhesive stamp (the Penny Black).
• 1853: First post boxes erected in mainland Britain.
• 1854: Rowland Hill becomes Secretary to the Post Office.
• 1858: Ten London postal districts established.
• 1870: Post Office begins telegraph service.
• 1880: First use of bicycles to deliver mail.
• 1881: Postal order introduced.
• 1883: Parcel post begins.
• 1894: First picture postcards.
• 1912: Post Office opens national telephone service.
• 1917: London postal districts divided into numbered zones.
• 1919: First international air mail service.
• 1927: The London Post Office Underground Railway is opened.
• 1968: Two-class postal system introduced. National Giro bank opens.
• 1969: Post Office changes from government department to nationalised industry.
• 1974: Postcodes extended over all UK.
• 1979: Prestel videotex system launched
• 1981: Telecommunications services transferred to British Telecom.
• 1986: Royal Mail separated into letters, parcels and post office businesses.

• 1990: Girobank sold to the Alliance & Leicester Building Society.
• 1997: Royal Mail's association with London railway stations comes to an end.
• 2003: The London Post Office Underground Railway is closed.
• 2004: Abandonment, to much protest, of the second daily postal delivery.

External link

• Royal Mail Group plc (http://www.royalmailgroup.com)
• Western Panda Productions (http://www.westernpanda.com)

See also

• UK topics
• Jersey Post
• Western Panda Productions