Catalogue description Post Office: Overseas Mail Services: Records on Air Mail

The material is arranged in chronological order within sub-series.

The first official conveyance of mail by air was in 1911, to celebrate the coronation of George V, between Hendon and Windsor. It was the brainchild of Captain (and later Sir) Walter Wyndham. Termed 'The Coronation Air Post', the service was only a temporary measure, 16 flights were made, involving thirty seven bags and approximately one hundred and thirteen thousand pieces of mail. It was only after great developments in aviation, accelerated by the First World War, that air mail began to look a practical proposition. In 1917 an agreement was drawn up with the French Post Office for a joint air postal service. On 10 November 1919 a regular London - Paris service began, operated by Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd., and air mail expanded to include Amsterdam and Brussels.

The UK air line companies were finding it hard to survive commercially, so in 1924 three separate UK air carriers merged to create Imperial Airways Ltd., which was given the monopoly for air mail transportation, and also given a subsidy, which would gradually decrease, until the company was commercially viable. In 1927 the air mail service extended to India, and the first experimental night flight service took place in 1928, between Stockholm and London.

1934 saw the announcement of a new policy by the Postmaster General. The Empire Air Mail Scheme was devised to provide an improved, accelerated and more frequent service on the Empire routes, between the UK, South Africa, India, Malaya, Australia and New Zealand. Agreements drawn up with Imperial Airways were due to expire in 1937 and 1939, and the Post Office and Imperial airways recognised that to keep the operations viable, a more organised scheme needed to be drawn up.

The result was that all first class mail to the involved countries was to be forwarded by air as the ordinary means. Before, all mail was transmitted by land and sea unless an air mail surcharge was paid. After the Empire Air Mail scheme was introduced, a flat rate for first class mail meant that the mail automatically went by air. The plan was implemented in three stages. The first stage was the introduction of the scheme between the UK and South Africa. The second stage was between the UK and India, Burma and Malaya, and the third and final stage was between the UK and Australia and New Zealand.

Aircraft played an important role in the Second World War, and this included the transportation of mail. Inevitably civilian mail was disrupted, but military mail increased tremendously, and it was quicker to send mail by air. In 1941 air postcards were introduced, special forms printed on very thin paper, which took up very little space and weight, and in 1942 these were replaced by air letters. The airgraph was also introduced, as a solution to circuitous route for air communication between Britain and the Middle East. The airgraph service, first suggested in 1932, reduced letters on special forms onto microfilm, and enlarge them at the end of the journey. A contract was signed with Kodak Ltd, and the first equipment was in place in April 1941, allowing letters to be filmed in Cairo and enlarged in the UK.

The service was extended to include East and South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, and was made available between citizens. The forms were made available free of charge, the completed forms were accepted over the counter, and a fee of 3d for members of British and Allied Forces, and 8d otherwise, was charged. (although after the introduction of the air letter, the fee was standardised to 3d) The huge reduction in bulk of the letters meant that it was possible to send the airgraphs on flights that would otherwise have been unavailable for carrying mail.

However, the introduction of the light-weight air letter, and the increasing capacity of aeroplanes meant that the airgraph declined in use between 1943 and 1945. The service finally ceased on 31 July 1945. In the four years it was operational, the airgraph service transmitted over three hundred and thirty million messages, weighing approximately fifty tons, which would have been four thousand five hundred tons of letters in ordinary format.

After the war, it was obvious that the Empire Air Mail Service could not function as it had before. The other participating countries were introducing competing services running alongside the Imperial Airways services, and government subsidies were being withdrawn. The Post Office was keen to introduce an 'all up' service world wide (i.e. no surcharge for mail going by air), not just to the countries involved in EAMS. Aviation has developed enormously in the past forty years, reducing delivery times, increasing load capacities, and delivering mail all over the world, and the Post Office now uses many different airlines to transport its mail.