Post by Matt James on Apr 16, 2009 16:50:26 GMT
Hi I was a telegraphist in Birmingham from June 1970 - April 1992. We moved from Victoria Square in April 1971 to the PLSO were I remained until the 'IG' closed in July 1982. I then moved to the international telegram / telemessage office at 60 Station Street. The actual inland telegram service continued there until it ceased in October 1982. I trained as a telegraphist at the Home Counties Regional Training School at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, now a museum and site of interest due to its role in World War 2. It was a great service to work in and despite not being over-paid in those days it felt very secure to be employed by the Post Office. The main supervisor was Reg 'Billy' Cotton, other supervisors were Lil Walker, Molly Harrison, Peter Green, Bernard Hall, Ray Turner and Tom Andrews. We also had to work at South West TDC (Selly Oak), South East TDC (Sparkhill) and North East TDC (Erdington) - where of course the telegram boys would be mostly based. I do occasionally come into contact with 'messenger' Paul Kennedy who is quite high up in the CWU these days. I am still a member of the CWU as a rep. at Manpower Business Services on the Cable & Wireless contract - where I am a telephone operator. Hopefully I will retire in 2010, just biding my time now. Hopefully some other telegraphists will contact you - thanks for your letter in the Redditch Advertiser. What a good idea to try and get the telegraphists to keep in touch with each other. Regards James (Jamie) Matthews.