Royal Mail: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Royal Mail is the national postal service in the United Kingdom.

Royal Mail Group plc is a public limited company wholly owned by the British Government and has over 200,000 employees.

In 1969 it was converted from a government department, the General Post Office, to a nationalised industry. The office of Postmaster General was abolished.

In 1981 the British Telecommunications Act split the Post Office Corporation into two nationalised entities - the Post Office Ltd and British Telecom. British Telecom was later privatised.

In 2000 Royal Mail renamed itself to Consignia to much ridicule. The British Government set up a postal regulator Postcomm and offered licences to private companies to deliver mail. In 2002 Consignia changed its name back to Royal Mail.

Timeline

• 1516: Royal Mail established by Henry VIII under Master of the Posts.
• July 31, 1635: Royal Mail service first made available to the public by Charles I. Postage was paid by the recipient.
• 1654: Oliver Cromwell grants UK monopoly to "Office of Postage".
• 1657: Fixed postal rates introduced.
• 1660: General Post Office (GPO) officially established by Charles II.
• 1661: First use of date stamp. First Postmaster General appointed.
• 1784: First mail coach (between Bristol and London).
• 1793: First uniformed delivery staff.
• 1830: First mail train (on Manchester & Liverpool Railway).
• 1840: First adhesive stamp (the Penny Black).
• 1853: First post boxes erected in mainland Britain.
• 1854: Rowland Hill becomes Secretary to the Post Office.
• 1858: Ten London postal districts established.
• 1870: Post Office begins telegraph service.
• 1880: First use of bicycles to deliver mail.
• 1881: Postal order introduced.
• 1883: Parcel post begins.
• 1894: First picture postcards.
• 1912: Post Office opens national telephone service.
• 1917: London postal districts divided into numbered zones.
• 1919: First international air mail service.
• 1927: The London Post Office Underground Railway is opened.
• 1968: Two-class postal system introduced. National Giro bank opens.
• 1969: Post Office changes from government department to nationalised industry.
• 1974: Postcodes extended over all UK.
• 1979: Prestel videotex system launched
• 1981: Telecommunications services transferred to British Telecom.
• 1986: Royal Mail separated into letters, parcels and post office businesses.
• 1990: Girobank sold to the Alliance and Leicester Building Society.
• 2003: The London Post Office Underground Railway is closed.
• 2004: Abandonment, to much protest, of the second daily postal delivery.