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The General Post Office phone and telegraph network. Formed in 1660 as a government department to provide postal services - by Charles II, the one who got rude

The General Post Office phone and telegraph network. Formed in 1660 as a government department to provide postal services - by Charles II, the one who got rudely interrupted by Cromwell's republic. Took on telegraph, telephone and radio transmission as they were developed. As a government department until the 50s or 60s when they became a state owned company, they always had a distinctly "comfortable" relationship with the intelligence services right back to their inception. Opening post, intercept stations at cable landfalls, etc. Phone and post have since been privatised. Tommy Flowers, creator of Colossus, worked at GPO Research Station Dollis Hill. Pre-war in the 30s he'd been working to create all electronic phone exchanges.

gumby 7y ago
BTW it was Charles I who lost his head thanks to Cromwell — Charles II was the restored monarch. Interesting that the post office was important enough to be chartered almost right away after he assumed office, despite all the other things going on at that point.
- jessaustin 7y ago
  Perhaps the younger Chuck felt incentivized, somehow, to provide services of actual value to British subjects?
  - twic 7y ago
    Or to have a more efficient way to spy on their correspondence.
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  Of course it was, and I knew that, or at least used to. Not quite sure what brain was thinking. :) Royal Mail goes back to Henry VIII or Elizabeth's time, perhaps further, but it was royal mail only then, not for the mere public yet. I think that might have come before the Civil War, and before post offices. Don't know what happened to Royal Mail during Cromwell's time. Given the start date of the GPO, post might simply be one of the many things that had legislation between Civil War and restoration. All those were thrown out and re-legislated or forgotten.
  - gumby 7y ago
    Yeah, I got the feeling it was a brain fart, so I hope starting with "BTW" made it come off as a friendly note. I know, I know, this is the internet so I should have coughed up a bolus of lava, skewering your entire claim based on a trivial misstatement, and claiming that your motivation was to support that political party I detest.. I apologise for letting society down.

gumby 7y ago

BTW it was Charles I who lost his head thanks to Cromwell — Charles II was the restored monarch. Interesting that the post office was important enough to be chartered almost right away after he assumed office, despite all the other things going on at that point.

jessaustin 7y ago
Perhaps the younger Chuck felt incentivized, somehow, to provide services of actual value to British subjects?
- twic 7y ago
  Or to have a more efficient way to spy on their correspondence.
NeedMoreTea 7y ago
Of course it was, and I knew that, or at least used to. Not quite sure what brain was thinking. :) Royal Mail goes back to Henry VIII or Elizabeth's time, perhaps further, but it was royal mail only then, not for the mere public yet. I think that might have come before the Civil War, and before post offices. Don't know what happened to Royal Mail during Cromwell's time. Given the start date of the GPO, post might simply be one of the many things that had legislation between Civil War and restoration. All those were thrown out and re-legislated or forgotten.
- gumby 7y ago
  Yeah, I got the feeling it was a brain fart, so I hope starting with "BTW" made it come off as a friendly note. I know, I know, this is the internet so I should have coughed up a bolus of lava, skewering your entire claim based on a trivial misstatement, and claiming that your motivation was to support that political party I detest.. I apologise for letting society down.