All our pension forms have now been fully transcribed. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to our project, your help is very much appreciated. Our results page contains some preliminary findings and more can be found on our website and our data mapper.
FAQ
Q. What's the point of this project?
A. This transcription programme is part of the Wellcome-funded research project Addressing Health: Morbidity, Mortality and Occupational Health in the Victorian and Edwardian Post Office. We want to find out about the health and working lives of people in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Q. What do the transcribed records contain?
A. The records contain the employment histories of postal workers. The records were created by Post Office officials when the employees retired. When a postal worker became too old or too ill to work, they were often eligible for a pension or other payment. The Post Office used the forms we are transcribing to recommend the worker for their pension or other payment. The Treasury - the central government department responsible for public spending - made a decision based on the form. To make their decision, they looked at information such as length of service, conduct, absence from work and reason for retirement.
Q. Where are these images from?
A. The images are photographs of original documents in the archives of the Postal Museum, London, in series POST 1. You can visit the amazing Postal Museum and even take a trip on the Mail Rail underneath central London.
Q. Why are these records useful?
A. What we know about the health of people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is largely based on records of causes of death. We know much less about the sorts of health problems that weren't fatal. The Post Office records give us unprecedented insight into conditions that were important enough to curtail people's working lives. We can see where they worked, what jobs they had, how old they were when they left employment, how long they had been working, how many days off sick they took and - by matching up these records with others such as death certificates and census returns - how long they lived after retirement.
Q. Where can I find out more?
A. Visit our website to learn more about the team, check out our recent publications and look for the latest job opportunities.
Q. Help! I can't read the handwriting on these documents. Where can I learn how?
A. Have a look at the Natural History Museum's excellent guide, How to decipher unfamiliar handwriting: A short introduction to palaeography.