Other Sources for Family History
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The British Postal Museum & Archive holds other useful sources which can help to paint a fuller picture of postal history and can help add detail to your ancestor’s life.
- Post Office Magazines
- Post Office Guides
- Visual Reference Collection
- Post Office Circulars
- Reference Library
- Portfolio Collection
- GPO Film Unit
Post Office Magazines 1850 - Present
This is picture is of Smokey the Post Office cat, glamorous cover girl for a 1950 Post Office magazine. The Post Office magazines are available on the shelves in the Search Room and includes information about employees.
The Post Office magazines began in 1850 with the Blackfriars Magazine. Intended as a way of communicating events among Post Office staff, it consisted of sketches and essays, biographical tales, poetry, stories and announcements. Staff were able contribute atricles to the magazine.
In June 1890 the Blackfriars Magazine was replaced by a new magazine for the Post Office, entitled St Martins-le-Grand, the Post Office Magazine. Published quarterly, it was intended to appeal to a wider audience. In April 1892, it began to include details of retirements, deaths, appointments and promotions as standard. The magazine was wound up in 1933, and from this date on another publication known simply as The Post Office Magazine was published.
The Post Office Magazine include advertisements, photographs, news, poetry from readers, and articles on what was happening in the various offices and departments around the country. It was stopped on the outbreak of war but resumed again in July 1946. The last issue of The Post Office Magazine was issued in September 1966, when it was replaced by Courier as the Post Office staff newsletter.
The Courier contains national and regional news and features and was intended to keep staff in touch with news, sport and recreation in the Post Office. It celebrates its 40th birthday this year - see our online exhibition for a great selection of front covers.
If there is a particular volume you are interested in and you can't find it on the shelves in the Search Room, please ask a member of staff as we may have the copy you require in the repository.
Post Office Guides 1856-1986
Our annual Post Office Guides - and its predecessor the British Postal Guide - list post offices throughout the United Kingdom (and Ireland), showing the different services offered by each post office.
The guides also provide information on postal regulations for inland and foreign and colonial mail and other information relating to all Post Office services. These guides are available in the Search Room for reference.
If there is a particular volume you are interested in and you can't find it on the shelves in the Search Room, please ask a member of staff as we may have the copy you require in the repository.
Visual Reference Collection 1890 - Present
This photograph shows William Gates, a Brighton Postman. His uniform shows four good conduct stripes.
The Visual Reference Collection held at the BPMA consists of thousands of images, from the early 1900s through to the late 1990s. Most are photogrpahic prints, of actual photographs, but also of notices, maps showing the circulation of mail, postal-themed paintings and much of the poster collection.
These images can be used to add detail to an ancestor’s life in the Post Office - from what uniform they wore, what their job was like, and what their place of work may have looked like.
Our Visual Reference Collection is available to consult in the Search Room.
Post Office Circulars 1861 - 1969
We have Post Office Circulars available on the shelves in our Search Room. Circulars were issued as a way of giving instruction to staff. Many of them include details of appointments, promotions and vacancies of senior workers, such as Postmasters. The list of appointments include their old position and where they’ve moved to.
During World War One and World War Two, the Post Office Circulars list those lost in action and those awarded medals. If your ancestor was a postal employee and fought in the war, the Circulars may provide more information about him.
Reference Library
Within the British Postal Museum & Archive's Search Room, we have a small library.
Our Reference Library has sections covering general postal history and transport which includes rail, air, and sea.
We have a section on biographies, which include notable postal personalities such as Tony Benn, Anthony Trollope and Sir Rowland Hill.
We have a section on wartime, which includes books on the British Army Postal Service, the Post Office Home Guard and the Post Office Rifles.
We have a section on local postal history, which includes books on street names, the London Encyclopaedia, the topography of London, and various local postal history societies' publications.
We hold also various journals including those of the Travelling Post Office Society and the Forces Postal History Society. There is also a large collection of philatelic volumes.
Portfolio Collection
The Portfolio Collection holds material that has been drawn from a wide variety of sources. These include copies of previously researched information, press cuttings, articles from magazines and newspapers, photographs; as well as plans, papers and copies of some archive records.
This material covers a wide range of topics, relating to almost every imaginable aspect of the Post Office, from the local histories of post offices in Great Britain, to the employment of women and the duties of the Post Office Cats!
It is especially useful as a source of visual material, with many photographs that are extra to those held in our official Photographic Collection. The Portfolio Collection is constantly being updated.
GPO Film Unit 1933 - Present
The GPO Film Unit was founded in 1933 headed by documentary film maker John Grierson.
The GPO Film Unit covered subjects such as transport and communications in Britain and abroad, the home front during the Second World War, British industries, the nation's health, and developments in the Post Office service itself. Films such as Housing Problems, Workers and Jobs and Coal Face focus on some of the social issues facing a rapidly changing Britain in the 1930s.
You are able to view part of the GPO Film Unit collection on VHS video in the Search Room, including classics such as the 1936 film Night Mail. Night Mail shows the overnight journey of a post train from London to Glasgow with a score by Benjamin Britten and rhythmic verse by WH Auden.
You can also view more light-hearted films such as The Fairy of the Phone where the titular fairy gives useful hints as she tiptoes along the wires giving instructions to subscribers on how to use the telephone. Although there is little direct link to family history, the 1930s films help us understand the postal world at that time.
