has launched a world-wide search for former telegrams boys to keep alive memories of a bygone era.
As a former messenger boy he has set up a website and message board to record stories and memories from old telegram boys around the world, and in just a month has had almost 100 messengers sign up to the site from across the UK as well as New Zealand, Thailand, Los Angeles and Spain.
Most messenger boys began working for the GPO, as it was then, at the age of 14 or 15, and were the bearers of some of the best and the worst news.
In the days before phones, texts and emails, when a telegram was the only way of getting a message to someone on the same day, the boys were dispatched on foot, bicycle or motorcycle. They delivered news from weddings and pools wins, to strikes, funerals, and informing widows of lost servicemen.
Being a telegram boy was preparation for entering the man's world of work. 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.
The messenger service was disbanded in 1981, but the new website hopes to reunite old friends and create a piece of history which will keep the tradition of the telegram boys alive forever.
Roger has held reunions in Birmingham for the last four years with hundreds of old boys attending, some well into their 80s.
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At the end of the day the telegram messenger boys have a lot of history and it would be a shame if any of that was forgotten.
Anyone wanting to share their stories and photos on the site can log on to www.birminghamsandsclub.co.uk or write to Roger with their memories/stories about their time as a Telegram Messenger Boy. At the end of the day the Telegram Messenger Boys have a lot of history, and it would be a shame if any of that was forgotten.
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