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

In the South African War of 1899-1902 the Post Office Corps consisted of 648 men, and 453 men served in the Royal Engineer Reserve. The serious nature of their service is shown by the fact that the losses included several killed in action and about fifty who died of disease. The duties of the Army Post Office are, to put it briefly, to receive, sort, and distribute correspondence, and to sell stamps, stationery, and postal orders, and generally to perform the main functions of a post office as we know it at home. The Army Post Office Corps, which is mobilised in time of war, is a volunteer organisation— that is to say, the men composing it are postal servants who volunteer for the particular service. The work of the Telegraph Battalion during the South African War was especially severe, and no less than 386 men were drawn from the Post Office for telegraph purposes alone. In addition to acting as telegraphists with the army, the men were also required to mend the wires, which were constantly being cut by the enemy, and they were also expected to keep the wires in working order. Seventy-six skilled linesmen were sent out by the Post Office to look after this branch of the work. Some idea of the postal work conducted by the Post Office Corps during the war may be gathered from the fact that in one week the number of letters sent from London for the seat of war was 313,416, and the mail from the Army Post Office, which reached London about the same time, contained 108,150 letters and registered articles. The parcels sent to the troops reached very high figures, amounting in one week to 19,019.