Bill Cowling – Post Office Telegram Boy Messenger.

It was in 1927, when on the recommendation of my headmaster, I took on the job of Boy Messenger at Filey Post Office.

Filey , in those earlier days, was regarded as a select, small holiday resort.  The summer season, in particular was a busy period for boy messengers.  Telegrams were the thing of the day before telephones became popular.

The following names of people who stayed at Filey during my messenger years will no doubt be familiar to you.  They were Terry’s of York, Lord Lascelles family, Herbert Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire cricketer and Owbridges Lung Tonic of Hull.  When delivering telegrams to the hotels on the Crescent and Beach, from 5.30 pm onwards it was usual to see the visitors in evening dress.

Messengers took turns in the delivery of telegrams, so you could be lucky or unlucky – depending on the distance and the weather.  My favourite run during the summer, was to Primrose Valley, particularly if the tide were down and you could cycle on the firm sands.  Time allowance was reckoned on the journey being made by road.  If you were fortunate enough to be given a tip you could treat yourself to a 1d or 2d ice cream and leisurely return to the office.  Incidentally there was no summer uniform and often the dog-collar tunic could be over powering on a hot day.

At about 16,  I joined the Filey Brass Band and played the Tenor Horn.  Oh how I used to enjoy marching through Filey streets on the various parades.  Life Boat Day was my favourite.  Six horses would pull the lifeboat on its carriage through the streets, and on its way to the Cobble Landing for launching.  When the lifeboat had been launched into the sea, there would be a life-saving demonstration.  The person to be rescued from the sea was Mr Albert Shakesby, a well known man who in his earlier years was a boxer.  In later years he was a bone setter and practised in London.

One rocket was fired for a lifeboat practice, two for the real thing.  The horse belonged to a farmer called Frank Collins.  There were often delays in launching the lifeboat due to the location of the horses.  Sometimes they could be working in the fields, or leading loads of sand and gravel.  There was no such thing as a tractor for launching or an engine to propel the lifeboat.  After all this was the age of sail and rowing.

This Frank, the farmer whom I have just mentioned, on being asked what were the twins his wife had delivered replied “well one’s a weisit and tother’s a wousit”, Meaning a boy and a girl.

The roll of a boy messenger finished at 16 or 18.  If there were no vacancies for postmen or clerks in your home town, you were sent elsewhere.  So at 18, I went to Doncaster in October 1932.  My starting pay was 20 shillings a week on a scale of 19 to 39 shillings.

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