Post Office Workers
The General Post Office, Lombard Street, London
Image from Wikimedia Commons, in the public domain
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Please scroll down to read the stories
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The data sets that we will be using for this Forgotten Women Friday are the Post Office Establishment Books, which are held at London’s Post Office Museum www.postalmuseum.org and are available on Ancestry for the period 1691-1979. These cover the whole of the United Kingdom, as well as Ireland up until 1920. Some of these are more informative than others but they normally have a potted career history of the person. Those for small or rural Post Offices often have very little information.
Other records on Ancestry that will be useful are the Appointment books www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1933. These show date of appointment, who appointed by, where they worked and why they left.
And the Royal Mail Pension and Gratuity Records 1860-1970
www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62452. These show date of retirement, final salary, pension awarded, any days of sick leave in the few years leading to retirement and other comments including reprimands that may have affected a final pension. It is rare for records to exist if people left before official retirement. These are listed by date of retirement, which was typically at the age of sixty, or from 1876, for women, on marriage. Later, women who had worked for more than six years got a gratuity on marriage, which was a month's pay per year worked. Many women used this for a nest egg.
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You may also like to check the Addressing Health website, which lists pension details for some workers.
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There were two categories of post office staff, ‘established’ or permanent staff who appear in these records and ‘unestablished’ seasonal workers. Employees in small, local and rural post offices, where it was run as part of another business, were not classed as working for the Post Office. Instead, they were ‘agents’ so the rules regarding retirement didn’t apply as they were not civil servants. Married women could therefore be ‘sub-postmistresses’, again not under Post Office rules and could retire when they liked. The weren't eligible for a Post Office Pension but depending on the circumstances, might be paid a gratuity.
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We will be researching female staff across the date range, although the earlier books record few employees. From the mid 1700s, the information that they contain includes name, role, the name of the office where the individual was employed and until 1969, when the post office was nationalised, the salary.
There are an increasing number of different roles as time goes own, ranging from postmen and sorters, to telephonists and postmistresses. Note that, from 1876-1946, women were forced to resign on marriage, so those listed will be unmarried or widowed.
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Women in the employ of the Post Office were mostly office workers, sorting clerks and telephonists/telegraphists. Women didn’t work at night and were often escorted in and out of office buildings out of sight of the men. Only staff who worked outdoors wore a uniform. Women letter carriers were only used in rural districts if men were not available. In the larger offices, women and men were physically separated, even if they were doing the same job/role. The number of women PO workers expanded during the World Wars. In the Second World War, a worker in Angus, Scotland called Jean Cameron campaigned for female Post Office workers who worked outside, to wear trousers rather than a longer skirt. This was approved and the trousers were called ‘Camerons’ and introduced in 1941.
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Established Staff were those who had sat and passed the Civil Service exam and medical and completed two years' probation. They were entitled to a pension and sick pay. Unestablished staff were more temporary/part time; they didn’t sit an exam or face medical examination and had no pension or sick pay.
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There was an interesting article about the Post Office Establishment Books by Susannah Coster in the October 2025 issue of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine.
Clinton, Alan Post Officer Workers: a trade union and social history George Allen & Unwin (1984) available on the Internet Archive.
Daunton, Michael J. Royal Mail: the post office since 1840 Athlone Press (1985)
Hemmeon, J. C. The History of the British Post Office Cambridge Harvard Press (1912)
A Short History of the Post Office The History Press (2018)
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Winifred A Allaway, later Winifred A Brownjohn 1865-1962. From Chirton, Northumberland - Women at Work, Post Office. 8 minute read.
Eva Bessie Allen, later Eva Bessie Ripper 1859-1938, from Stoke Damerel, Devon - Women at Work, Post Office. 4 minute read.
Catherine Augusta Ansted 1861-1886, from St. Martin’s, Guernsey – Disability, No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 5 minute read.
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Mary Carter, later Mary Braund 1690s-1765, from ? - Women at Work, Post Office. 5 minute read.
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Blanche Edith Cheetham, later Blanche Edith McGhie 1864-1924, from Prestwich, Lancashire – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 6 minute read.​​
Caroline Emma Chester 1855-1939, from Pudsey, Yorkshire – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 3 minute read.​​
Mary Clark, later Mary Birkhead c.1705-1779, Mary Birkhead c.1741-1814 and Barbara Birkhead c.1736-1824, from Whitehaven, Cumberland – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 12 minute read.
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Mabel Mary Curry, later Mabel Mary Westerdale 1882-1920 and Hilda Gertrude Curry, later Hilda Gertrude Bagley 1887-1978, from Leicester, Leicestershire – Women at Work, Post Office. 9 minute read.
Kathleen Mary Dawson 1895-1969, from Croydon, Surrey – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 10 minute read.
Olive Mason Ferneyhough, later Olive Mason Warrillow 1873-1904, from Spratslade, Staffordshire - Women at Work, Post Office. 2 minute read.
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Alice A Fish ?-?, from Blackpool, Lancashire – Women at Work, Post Office. 6 minute read.
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Elizabeth Gear, later Elizabeth Legg 1772-1860, from Gosport, Hampshire - Women at Work, Post Office. 7 minute read.
Margaret Mary Habgood, later Margaret Mary Farmer 1871-1940, from Inkpen, Berkshire - Women at Work, Post Office. 4 minute read.
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Mabelle Emily Harlow, later Mabelle Emily MacNamara 1871-1963, from London, Middlesex and Gertrude Ethel Harlow, later Gertrude Ethel Hilton 1874-1951, from Clapham, Surrey and Ellen Lott c.1851-?, from London, Middlesex – No Descendants (Mabelle and Ellen), Poverty, Sickness, Women at Work, Post Office. 15 minute read.
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Louisa Heath, later Louisa Blay 1823-1861, from Clifton Campville, Staffordshire – Women at Work, Post Office. 2 minute read.
Harriet Ann Elsie Higham, later Harriet Ann Elsie Butcher 1879-1968, from New Ferry, Cheshire – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 2 minute read.
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Ann Hughes, later Ann Dutton 1797-1872, from Whitchurch, Shropshire – Women at Work, Post Office. 4 minute read.
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Caroline Mary (May) Ivett, later Caroline Mary Hancock, afterwards Caroline Mary Planck 1858-1943, from Bedford, Bedfordshire – Women at Work, Post Office. 3 minute read.
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Caroline Henrietta Kelsey, later Caroline Henrietta Woodgate 1899-1942, from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight - Women at Work, Post Office. 9 minute read.
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Caroline Killiner 1871-1948, from Lancaster, Lancashire – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 3 minute read.
Jane Large, later Jane Doncaster 1869-1956, from Burton Lazars, Leicestershire – Emigration, Women at Work, Post Office. 5 minute read.
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Lucy Lawrence, later Lucy Tadd 1821-1891, from Bedhampton, Hampshire – Women at Work, Post Office. 3 minute read.
Lucy Longhurst, later Lucy Dinnage, afterwards Lucy Webb 1813-1898, from Kingston-by-Sea, Sussex - Women at Work, Post Office. 4 minute read.
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Mabelle Emily Harlow, later Mabelle Emily MacNamara 1871-1963, from London, Middlesex and Gertrude Ethel Harlow, later Gertrude Ethel Hilton 1874-1951, from Clapham, Surrey and Ellen Lott c.1851-?, from London, Middlesex – No Descendants (Mabelle and Ellen), Poverty, Sickness, Women at Work, Post Office. 15 minute read.
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Mabel Maude Mitchell Quinn, later Mabel Maude Riley 1882-1935, from Brighouse, Yorkshire – Women at Work, Post Office. 6 minute read.
Caroline Annie Redfern 1881-1976, from Macclesfield, Cheshire – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 16 minute read.
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Kate Redfern, later Kate Eachus 1841-1905, from Macclesfield, Cheshire - Women at Work, Post Office. 15 minute read.
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Mary Smith, later Mary Ruddick c.1787-1842 and Charlotte Ruddick, later Charlotte Hunt c.1821-1875, from Ramsgate, Kent – Women at Work, Post Office. 6 minute read.
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Caroline Amelia Shinton, later Caroline Amelia Thomas 1871-1945, from Passaic, New Jersey, USA and Annie Marie Shinton 1875-1934, from Birmingham, Warwickshire – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 10 minute read.
Margaret Mary Slatter 1880-1970, from Birmingham, Warwickshire – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 6 minute read.
Mary Smith, later Mary Ruddick c.1787-1842 and Charlotte Ruddick, later Charlotte Hunt c.1821-1875, from Ramsgate, Kent – Women at Work, Post Office. 6 minute read.
Alice Austen Stoyle, later Alice Austen Bagnall 1859-1943, from Exeter, Devon – Emigration, Women at Work, Post Office. 6 minute read.
Elizabeth Trembath c.1806-1891, from Mousehole, Cornwall – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 14 minute read.
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Martha Walter, later Martha Crittenden, afterwards Martha Deall 1799-1890, from Wateringbury, Kent - Women at Work, Post Office. 7 minute read.
Lucy Ward, later Lucy Warnes c.1817-1898, from Baconsthorpe, Norfolk – Women at Work, Post Office. 5 minute read.
Caroline Worrall, later Caroline Whitney 1877-1950, from Sheffield, Yorkshire – No Descendants, Women at Work, Post Office. 12 minute read.
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