Post Office Board: Papers

This series comprises the papers presented to the Post Office Board that relate to telecommunications issues or to the Post Office as a whole. The subjects covered are diverse, ranging from strategic technical decisions and staff and union matters to administrative details.

The records in this series reflect a former arrangement and have since been re-catalogued. Please contact BT Archives for more information.

The Post Office Archives hold signed copies of the Post Office Board minutes and a full set of Post Office Board papers in POST 69.

The establishment of a functional Board for the Post Office was first recommended in the Bridgeman Report of 1932, and the Post Office Board was subsequently established with eleven members, including all the General Directorate and Directors. Although the Bridgeman Committee had envisaged the Board as a controlling body, in time it became more of a reviewing body and, due to its increasing size and the consequent difficulty of assembling members, its meetings became less frequent.

In November 1964, the Board was reconstituted with the following members: Postmaster General, Assistant Postmaster General, Director General and the General Directorate, with Directors invited to attend as appropriate.

In 1981, when the responsibility for telecommunications was transferred from the Post Office Corporation to British Telecom, there appears to have been an attempt to pass copies of Board papers relevant to the new Corporation to British Telecom. Thus a collection of papers relating to telecommunications and general Post Office issues was created, while the Post Office retained the full set of papers.