‘DOING ONE’S BIT’ PART 1 – THE POST OFFICE RIFLES
The formation of the Post Office Rifles dates back to 1869, when a company of Royal Engineers was seconded to the GPO on telegraph business. The association lasted through the various re-organisations that followed and by the 1900s, the 8th (City of London) Battalion was recruiting post office workers into the territorials.
When war broke out, some postal workers joined the Royal Engineers Postal Section (REPS), organising postal services to the men at the front. Meanwhile, the Post Office Rifles (POR) became an infantry regiment, and in March 1915, they embarked for France.
The men of the POR were involved in almost every major battle of the war. Their casualties were horrendous, beginning with their first engagement at Festubert, near Bethune, when over half of the original contingent were killed in just a few days. The list continues with Vimy Ridge, the Somme, Ypres, Passchendaele, Cambrai…, and in 1917, a POR Sergeant, Alfred Knight, won the Victoria Cross. Prior to conscription, the GPO was perhaps the country’s best source of new recruits, with a large supply of men. Much in the spirit of the PALS Battalions, managers who encouraged their staff to sign up often fought beside them.
Conscription dramatically increased the supplies of new recruits, but the shortage of workers began to
