The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

CHAPTER X THE POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK The extension of banking facilities for the upper and middle classes of this country during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries only benefited the working classes indirectly. If they wished to save anything out of their earnings they were either obliged to resort to the time-honoured expedient of hiding their money in out-of-the-way corners of their houses or gardens or they entrusted it to the care of private individuals or institutions, and were in consequence without adequate security. Even in these days the old method of hiding their savings is adopted by many people, but the treasure is now not always money but the Savings Bank deposit book. A man once wrote to the Controller of the Post Office Savings Bank to explain the loss of his deposit book, and he said: “How I came to lose my book was, in a fright I buried it in my garden with other valuables. The garden, unfortunately for me, is very large, and I could never remember afterwards in what part I put it. Within the last month I have sold the premises, and being so deep it is not likely to be found by any one.” The value of the Savings Bank came home to him when he realised that in burying his book he had not hidden his money. A new book was all that he required. I believe that the first recorded instance of the establishment of a Savings Bank in the United Kingdom was in the year 1810, in the little village of Ruthwell in Scotland. The minister of the church, the Rev. Henry Duncan, D.D., conceived the idea for the benefit of his parishioners, but found at first great difficulty in persuading people to entrust their money to him. To meet the difficulty a box was provided with three padlocks, which could only be opened in the presence of the three different holders of the keys. This box is still in existence, and was produced at the centenary of the opening of Savings Banks held at Edinburgh in 1910.