In the days before email was the primary source of communication and the telephone was not only unmobile but also a rareity, getting messages out fell to the many Telegram Messenger boys based up and down the country.
Now former telegram boy Roger Green is hoping he can harness the power of the internet to bring those messengers togther again and share memories of their moment in history.
He’s set up a website as part of www.birminghamsandsclub.co.uk and has already started receiving messages from people who worked across Greater Manchester and the rest of the UK.
He said: “We record past memories of their years as Telegram Messenger Boys sent to us, and also feature photographs of the past reunions. There is also a message board for everyone to leave messages for one another and to reunite past work colleagues. We will also be constantly updating these pages to display reunions and activities being planned.
“We hope that former Telegram Messenger Boys from all ove Great Britain and beyond will enjoy the site, and that they feel free to contribute stories / articles, and any old photographs that can be sent on e-mail file attachment that they wish to be viewed on the site. We also accept any correspondence through the post, and will return all items after they have been scanned onto the website.
“Most of the Telegram Messenger Boys began work aged 14 or 15 and delivered telegrams on foot, by bike and then motorcycles in the days before telephones were widespread and In the war years the sight of a telegram boy sent shivers into the heart of women who had family members serving in the Armed Forces, It was part of the job to deliver telegrams notifying next of kin that a loved one had either gone missing in action or had been killed on active service.”
He can be contacted via the site or by snail mail to Roger Green, S.H.C., Birmingham Mail Centre, St Stephens Street, Aston, Birmingham. B6 4AA.
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Dim Sum Digital 
I was a tally lad circa 1958 1960 loads of happy mems met a couple of celebs tommy steele david nixon and one or two more .I woked in liverpool telegraph house sth. john st now sadly gone for redevelps .best job ever had best time of my life .no worries all at £3.7+6 aweek .hope you recieve this .ok p.s. idont know what awag was but we where red devils .bye for now
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I worked as a Tally Lad in Telegraph House Liverpool started in 1968 and we had an inspector who was known as Bunny James and when he gave you a Telegram he would ask you if you liked Trains and then would laugh as he told you the Telegram was intended for Huskisson Docks, if you fell fowl or you got a skin (telegram boys should know what this is) you were put on the carryover which was to collect Telegrams from Five Post Offices around the city every half hour so by the end of your shift you were knackered because as soon as you got back you had to start all over again.When a job came vacant in Overseas Telegrams I then became a Telegraphist and actually took the Telegrams off customers over the phone. As with the phone system certain letters or words can sound the same over the phone so you had to use analogy ie a for apple b for butter etc but on this one occasion a colleague who shall remain nameless took a Telegram from a big company and in the message the company required 100 U Bolts the person in question sent the Telegram forward requesting 100 U Boats. I will admit that i’m 55 now and if i could be a Tally Lad I would go back to doing that job anytime day or night as it was the happiest time of my life great mates of whom I still have contact with and I still work for Royal Mail, by the way my first wages for a week then was £4.16.11
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made up that you have seen my message .have seen a wreck of a bsa 125 bantam but sadly beyond restoration but stirred up happy mems does any body remember what a p18 or skins as we called them,where i do cos i got a few of them .got to go i am the next one out …. i wish.
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Hi roger,
I have an old mate who work as a messenger in the city of london, during the war,he has some very interesting stories to tell unfortunately unable to get on your site,is it possible you could contact him, his e-mail address sylton.fenwick@btinternet.com
Many thanks j.ansell.
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I too was a tally lad in Liverpool from 1965 to 1968. I started out in Telegraph house,South John Street.This building stood alone in a sea of devistation,that was the
left over from the May 1940 blitz and it was here that I was first
introduced to scoffeys(meal vouchers)
I also did a stint in Cable and Wireless and also in Derby House, as an office messenger(all those girl’s with mini skirts)Delivering telegrams to the Cavern Club and the stars at the Adelphi hotel. What plonker said if you can remember the 60s you were not there. I remember Bunny James, I think he was an inspector, the two P.H.Gs who were brothers,Ken Russel and Little Joe. What happy days, paid to walk around the city centre and look at all those prity Liverpool girl’s.In 1966 I past out as a motor cycle messenger and moved to Liverpool South Delivery Office, at Mossley Hill. If it had not been for the the P.H.G. in charge it would have been the best job in the world.His nickname was the Ghoul and he made it very hard for us. But when I was there, we never had any serious accidents, so he must have been doing something right with all his moaning. I still have a motorbike today at sixty and enjoy it just as much as I did at sixteen.I stayed with the G.P.O. until 1971 and then moved over to G.P.O. Telephones until 1974. Have a lot of stories from those days, but no room and time at the moment, sadley have only one photo from 1966, of a road safty ralley that we took part in and cleaned up on the trophies, sadley again no Bantam is shown in the picture.
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