Historic Archives Reveal ‘Femail’ Workforce That Saved England

Post Office records profile the women who kept England’s postal service running in wartime.

In a world first, Ancestry and The British Postal Museum & Archive launched online the Post Office Appointment Books, 1737-1969, a collection of 1.5 million records listing employees of one of the world’s largest ever employers — including the ‘femails’ who kept the post going during wartime.

The records date back to 1737, listing both men and women appointed to roles within the service. And they tell the fascinating tale of the women who kept the British Post Office, and therefore the country, functioning during the First and Second World Wars.

Women at Work

From its early days, the Post Office employed women in two main roles, often as sub-postmistresses, running post offices as part of their business, or as postwomen, particularly in rural areas when men were not available. From 1870, when the Post Office was given control of the telegraph system, even more women were employed in running the telegraphs, and from here they moved into administrative and clerical roles.

(And not to be outdone by their rather famous male counterpart, the records list more than 3,000 post office workers named Pat, with another 4,500 named Patricia.)

Women at War

The role of women within the Post Office was rarely as crucial as during the First and Second World Wars, when women plugged the gap left by men who were required to fight in the armed forces. Analysis of the digitised records shows a vast increase in female appointments during the major years of conflict, often filling roles previously reserved for men.

By the start of the Great War, the Post Office employed almost 250,000 people, processed nearly 6 billion pieces of post a year, and was the largest single employer in the world. Yet by 1917, the service had released over 73,000 male staff for war services and so required thousands of temporary staff. This temporary workforce included 35,000 women.

History repeated itself during the Second World War, and by the midpoint of the conflict the Post Office employed more than 100,000 women. These temporary roles were officially referred to as ‘non-established’, and included roles such as delivering letters in urban areas, where women often carried mail through Britain’s war-torn cities.

Famous Female Posties

Many women put themselves in danger, including Florence Marie Cass — a telephonist during the First World War. After an explosion in a nearby munitions works brought down the power in her telephone exchange, she was able to reactivate the crucial centre by navigating her way to the engine room in complete darkness and starting the emergency generators. For her actions she received an MBE for bravery.

A number of other ‘legendary’ female posties appear in the collection, including:

• Elizabeth Dickson — Elizabeth served the Post Office for 30 years as a non-established postwoman. When she retired in 1908, it was reported that she had never once been late for duty and had trekked an estimated 130,000 miles during her career — equivalent to walking five times around the world.

• Annie Cooper — One of the longest-serving sub-postmistresses. In 1946 she not only celebrated her 70th birthday but also completed 50 years of service as sub-postmistress of the post office at Newbridge Lane, Stockport.

• Fanny King — Fanny was a traditional rural postwoman who served the Cotswolds area for much of the early to mid-20th century. At the age of 65 she was still trekking her nine-mile route on foot every morning and was even quoted as saying: “I think I should die if I didn’t have my morning delivery.”

The role of women in the Post Office was also to have a knock-on effect on women’s employment rights. Unions formed by female workers campaigned on women’s rights and particularly equal pay during the first half of the 20th Century. As a result, women working in the Post Office had their pay matched from 1955 — a move that would encourage further progressive moves to take place throughout the British workplace.

Roger Dunbar, Managing Director at Ancestry, comments: “The Post Office was a true leviathan of British industry, at one point employing more people worldwide than any other company. As a result, the value of these archives as a family history resource is massive.

“But the records also tell us a lot about the social history of the Post Office, in that it actively recruited women, particularly during the world wars, which led to a growing acceptance that work roles should not be defined by gender.”