Pensions & Gratuities
Our Archive holds Pensions and Gratuities records for Post Office employees from 1719 to 1959. They can be found in archive class POST 1. However, records before 1860 generally only list senior officers as not every postal worker was entitled to a pension until 1860.
Pensions were awarded to Post Office employees when they retired. Marriage gratuities were awarded to female workers when they left the Post Office and gave up work to get married. Death gratuities were also given to the families of postal workers who died while they were working for the Post Office.
The Pensions and Gratuities records tend to be the main source of information for family historians. The information they sometimes provide includes name, rank, date of birth, years of service, positions held, and amount of pension/gratuity awarded. We also hold material that deals with the administration of pensions and gratuities.
Examples from our Collection
Here are some examples of records relating to pensions and gratuities in our collection:
Treasury minute, 14 June 1859
Treasury Minute suggesting ways of covering the pensions of Civil Service employees.
Marriage Gratuity for Miss Annie Fairbairn Buchanan, 1906
An example of a marriage gratuity application.
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