大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by Anna Jones of the 大象传媒 on behalf of Grace Wilson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

On D-Day I was working in the Post Office at 344 West Norwood Road and as I was on my way I heard on the radio that D-Day had begun. I remember telling them in the office that this had happened as they didn't realise. Within a few days we started getting telegrams and if anyone local was killed we would get telegrams at the post offfice from the military for the relatives. Those telegrams would come through the teleprinters. The messenger boys - the ones who delivered the telegrams to the families - had a postman in charge of them - we called him "Uncle Percy." They had their own room and loos in the Post Office. I remember something funny hapening to me concerning these rooms- Once when I was locking up the building - firs time I'd done it - you had to search every room - I saw something that looked like a fountain in their room and I didnt know what it was. I had to ask Uncle Percy. He thought it was hilarious and told me it was a men's urinal. Well I'd never seen one before.

Anyway, as D-Day started in June 1944 we were put on overtime to cope with the increase in telegrams. When I watched the D-Day programme on the 大象传媒 recently it dawned on me that they didn't mention the messenger boys and what they did.
I remember that when the telegrams came over the teleprinter Uncle Percy would come down to us and we'd tell him what we'd got. He would sort out which area of Norwood they were for. The messenger boys would go mostly by motor bike or sometimes push bike if it was near. They would know what was in each envelope, whether it was good or bad news. If the envelope contained bad news - say someone had been killed - the boys were told to go next door to find out when the relative might be back. Sometimes they were even next door. Anyway, if there was noone at home when the messenger boy called they were told not to post the envelope but to bring it back.
The boys were all under military age - maximum age 16 or 17 - they grew up pretty fast. If they got an answer at the house the boys would wait until the relative opened the telgram. The boys would ask the relative if they wanted to send a telegram themselves to another relative or friend. Some people had telephones and some didn't. Sometime it was a neighbour they wanted to talk to. After that they just had to get on with it.

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