“History will be kind to me for I intent to write it”: Contemporary Social and Political Perceptions of British Employment Policy, 1939-45

“With dust still in their throat”: Employment provision for suspended South Wales miners on account of silicosis and pneumoconiosis during the Second World War,

“Train to Win” – Promoting Solidarity and Nation-building in British Ministry of Labour posters during World War Two

Later published in Marlene Groner and Jeff Gaab (ed) War and Nation Building, Cambridge Scholars, 2007

“Warts and all?” Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill as subjects of political biography’

“British Trade Unionism in World War Two: An interpretation of power relationships?”

“From Bleak House to Great Expectations? British Employment Policy in the Age

Making Use of Idle Hands: The response of Welsh Miners to the 1926 General Strike

'Bring Along Your Wives, Sweethearts, Sisters and Lady-friends.' The Post Office's response to war, 1939-45.

The ‘Treachery of the Blue Books’ and Nonconformist anti-imperialist attitudes in nineteenth-century Wales,

Welsh Miners saved by English Quakers? Wales, national identity and the 1926 General Strike,

“From Bleak House to Great Expectations? British Employment Policy in the Age of Chamberlain and Churchill"

The ‘Treachery of the Blue Books’ and Nonconformist anti-imperialist attitudes in nineteenth-century Wales

Welsh Miners saved by English Quakers? Wales, national identity and the 1926 General Strike

Voluntary Organisations and political participation: The Trade Unions and Employment Policy in World War Two

Inclusion and Subversion? The Contemporary response to the Treachery of the Blue Books

‘Wales and the Lib-Lab Consensus, 1900-1906’,

With dust still in their throat”: Employment provision for suspended South Wales miners on account of silicosis and pneumoconiosis during the Second World War

“A Land Fit For Heroes?” Lloyd George and Employment Policy, 1918-22

Telegraph work in a telephone silence cabinet – women workers in the GPO

“The War is making things happen that never did happen before. Here is one – Mr. and Mrs. Postman” Women Workers and the British Post Office, 1939-45

The public presentation of the British Post Office during the Second World War

Welsh Miners saved by English Quakers? The formation of the Maes-yr-Haf Educational Settlement in Wales, 1926

“In the interest of the public service?” Workers’ protests and gender conflict in the British Post Office, 1939-45

“A man’s wage is a family wage, and he wants it for a long time; a woman’s is an individual wage for a short time pending marriage, her real career” – Women and the Marriage Bar in the Post Office, 1939-45

Think of the “Hello Girls” during an air raid. Every telephone exchange must continue to operate when the sirens have driven ordinary citizens to cover” The Second World War, and increased female recruitment to the General Post Office, 1939-45

“Bring along your wives, sweethearts, sisters and ladyfriends”. Recruiting women to the General Post Office, 1939-45,

“Their voices were only heard as a gentle hum” Women Telephonists and the development of automatic telephone exchanges in the Second World War

“Return to sender?” The Post Office’s response to the Welsh Language during the Second World War,

“Think of the “Hello Girls” during an air raid. Every telephone exchange must continue to operate when the sirens have driven ordinary citizens to cover.” Women and the Post Office’s response to aerial bombardment in the Second World War

“All boloney?” Women, the Post Office Home Guard and Air Raid Precautions during World War Two

The General Post Office during World War Two

“Bring along your wives, sweethearts, sisters and ladyfriends”: Women doing “men’s work” in the British Post Office, 1939-45

“I fear that there is no prospect of our finding it practicable to modify our view” The Post Office and the equal pay debate during World War Two

Do women in the Post Office want equal pay with men? No, oh dear, No! Why not? Oh well, for one thing, we aren’t quite equal, really, are we? It would be silly to pretend we are, don’t you think?” Women and the campaign for equal pay in the Post Office in World War Two

“There can be no doubt that duty at a telephone exchange now is a war task in every sense of the word”. Female Telephonists in the British Post Office during World War Two.

“Mass observation: Literature, Social research & Social anthropology in Britain, 1937-1950”

Higher education in Britain: the experience of study, working and research

“It would be embarrassing from an administrative standpoint if their services were retained after the war, as they could not be fully interchangeable with men”. The ‘indispensible’ position of women Post Office workers in Britain, 1939-1950.

The British Post Office has been the subject of significant political debate over the last three years, especially in view of successive British governments’ plans to part-privatise its operations. However, despite its vital importance, very little has been written about this vital institution. The last major works were those of Alan Clinton and Martin Daunton in the mid-1980s. However, these studies largely neglect its role two world wars, when its importance and function was of utmost importance. Furthermore, the vital part played by women in the British Post Office during the Second World War is not examined in the historiography, although there are numerous studies of women in other areas of business during the conflict. The absence of a study of Post Office women workers is surprising for a number of reasons, especially owing to the fact that they were employed in greater number there than in any other wartime institution. The requirement for women to undertake work previously performed by men in all areas of the labour market, owing to the conscription of the latter in both wars, suggests that many areas of the historiography concerning wartime work remain unexplored, and this paper will seek to fill one of these gaps by examining the significance of women to the operation of one of Britain’s largest businesses: the Post Office.

This paper will draw on hitherto unexplored archival material at the Public Record Office, London, the British Postal Museum and Archive, London and the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, together with Oral History materials at the British Library Sound Archive and the Imperial War Museum, London, to highlight the significance of the Post Office as a business during the Second World War and into the post-war period. It will highlight its contribution to the war effort, and its position as an essential provider of services during the conflict, demonstrating how it evolved according to the demands placed upon it by war, and became a key business in Britain during the conflict and beyond. Its role in communications, especially telephones, will be examined in detail, showing how this became the most lucrative section of the Post Office business during the conflict. Its role as an essential component in maintaining morale on the home front during the war through the provisions of a variety of communication options will be examined. It will show how women played an essential part in this business, showing how women grew in importance within the organisation, and how their work ensured that their position was safeguarded after the war - unlike other employers, who forced its women workers out of work to make way for the return of men who had been conscripted. Drawing on original material, this paper will seek to shed new light on an aspect of business history in wartime that, as yet, not been examined.

"Women are, without doubt, equal to men" - Post Office propaganda to recruit women workers in the Second World War

The Post Office played a vital role in the Second World War, although its role has not been the subject of the vast historiography of the war, nor the growing number of works on women workers during the conflict. This paper will fill this gap in the historiography by analysing in detail how women became the public face of the Post Office in the Second World War. It will show how the Post Office used women in their recruitment campaigns in order to attract more women workers, in addition to how women, owing to conscription, became an indispensible part of the workforce. It will show how the growing number of women workers brought other issues to the forefront, such as the provision of better working conditions and most notably, equal pay. This paper will also show that the work of women workers during the conflict became central to the Post Office - an organisation that was key to the preservation of solidarity on the home front owing to its vital role in communications. In the current major studies of the Post Office, namely Alan Clinton's 'Post Office Workers' and Martin Daunton's 'Royal Mail: A History', a detailed study of women is absent, and it is this gap in the historiography that this paper will seek to fill, showing how the Post Office not only used women as a key part of their recruitment strategy, but also that the Post Office could not have functioned had it not been for the vast numbers of women workers. Indeed, the Post Office, owing to its large number of women workers, was the largest single employer of women during the war.

The economy drive: Reducing labour in the British Post Office during the Second World War

The presence of a strong and unified labour force was considered essential for the Post Office when planning for the Second World War, and in their prosecution of the war effort.  However, the cost of maintaining the labour force was high, especially in view of the new wages and bonuses arrangements that women had successfully negotiated through trade union pressure during the war.  Inevitably, this forced the Post Office, in the interest of maintaining financial stability, to contemplate reductions in staffing at certain levels.  This paper will examine the motivations and reasons behind these decisions in detail, showing that the Post Office would afford different priorities to its various sections, believing that some areas would be more important to the overall war effort.  Therefore, recruitment and retaining staff in these areas were prioritised over others.  Recruitment to areas such as Engineering, Telegraphy and Telephones were prioritised, whereas economies were pursued in sections such as telegram deliveries and the Post Office Savings Bank.  Nevertheless, the Post Office sought to retain the majority of its women workers during this economy drive, primarily owing to the lower wages that they could command and the greater skills that they had acquired as a result of undertaking wartime work in the Post Office.  To achieve savings, the Post Office sought to improve efficiency and to remove older male staff, with an overall target of a 10 percent reduction in staffing.  This paper will put these reductions in context to examine how effective the Post Office were in achieving these ideas, and why, when other areas of the labour market were seeking to increase its number of workers, the Post Office sought to reduce its workers.

Drawing on original material at the British Postal Archive, National Archives (London), British Library Sound Archive (London), Imperial War Museum (London) and the Modern Records Centre (University of Warwick, UK) this paper will shed light on an area hitherto neglected by historians.  It will show how the Post Office continued to function despite a lower amount of staff, and highlight its vital contribution to the war effort.