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How and why telegrams were important in everyday life, early 20th Century

How and why people used to send telegrams, the process of sending and receiving with images of telegrams from the 1930s. Written by the webmaster, based on original documents and recollections from older people who were alive at the time.

'Telegram' is an English word. Outside the UK, telegrams were widely known as wires or cables. This page describes and illustrates the two types of telegram: the standard and the greetings type, both sent and received through the Post Office. It explains how people sent them and how they were delivered by telegraph boys. Charges are also included.

Why people in the UK sent telegrams in the past

In the early years of the 20th Century, ordinary people, as distinct from governments and war correspondents, used to send telegrams for one of two reasons.

1. The only way to get messages through fast was by telegram from the local post office because very few ordinary households were on the phone.

Standard telegram, 1938

2. The other reason for sending a telegram rather than a letter or greetings card was to make the recipient feel special on a special occasion. In those early years, it was often difficult to attend events that one was invited to. Cars were rare luxuries and travelling long distances normally involved taking a bus to the local railway station, then a train journey - frequently changing trains in London - and a bus at the other end.

Greetings telegrams

When someone had to decline a wedding invitation or other special event, it was customary to show enthusiasm and support for the event by sending a specially designed telegram, known as a greetings telegram. This was timed to arrive so that the best man or other official could read it out to all the guests as part of his speech at the reception.

Greetings telegram, 1938.
Clearly the receiving post office was short of greetings telegram forms as the design of this one is hardly suitable for a wedding.

This practice like so many others, was interrupted during World War Two. However, I remember it well afterwards, in the early 1950s. The practice gradually died out as faster technologies were developed.

The above telegram was sent for my parents' wedding in 1938.

How to send a telegram in early-20th century Britain

To send a telegram, the sender had to contact a Post Office. In the first part of the 20th Century, this normally meant going there because few people had phones at home.

At the Post Office, staff had either to type the message into a teleprinter if it and the receiving post office had one or simply write it by hand and dictate it over the phone.

Later in the century, senders could phone directly to the Central Telegraph Office in London.

How telegrams were delivered to recipients

When the receiving post office had received the message and transcribed it, a delivery boy, known as a telegraph boy had to cycle to the destination address to deliver it.

Telegraph boy delivering a telegram

Telegraph boys were of course used to cycling long distances but I am told that it was particularly tiring and irritating for events like weddings when there were any number of telegrams which all arrived at the post office at different times, and no-one knew in advance how many there would be. A delivery boy could cycle several miles to deliver a telegram only have to keep doing it all over again as new ones came through.

See also David Pickles' detailed piece about how the Central Telegraph Office handled telegrams in the final years of the service.

Charges for sending telegrams

Understandably, sending a telegram was expensive.

Charges for sending telegrams are listed in old money in an old undated Pocket Companion judged to be about 1938:

9 words 6d (to and within I.F.S., 12 words, 1/6). Every additional word, 1d. Names and addresses charged for. Free delivery within 3 miles. 6d a mile beyond. (I.F.S. stands for 'Irish Free State'. What became the Republic of Ireland was a Dominion of the British Empire until 1937.)

In view of these costs which were substantial at the time, the brevity of the messages is understandable. Because telegrams, were charged per word, every attempt was made to keep the number of words down. Eventually a form of shorthand developed, not unlike that used in text messages today. The charge for the greetings paper was an add-on. There would have been some choice of design, but subject to what was available at the receiving post office.

David Pickles explains how the charges for sending telegrams were paid. This probably changed little over time.

Another example of a greetings telegrams

Three designs of telegram were sent as greetings at my parents' wedding in July 1938. One was standard, as shown at the top of the page, and two were decorative which must have cost more than the standard sort which was normally sent only in emergencies. Possibly senders chose the style of the greetings telegram at the time of sending, although whether their choice would be available at the destination Post Office was probably uncertain.

Gold-coloured envelope used for sending out greetings telegrams

Stamp of post office receiving the telegram, showing the date received and the location of the Post Office.

You may be surprised that the address for the telegrams is given as a Post Office rather than a personal address. It was actually 'The Old Post Office', the house where my mother's parents lived, which had formerly been a regular Post Office.

At my parents' wedding; there were only two styles of greetings telegram with one of the standard type. Whether the sender of the standard one selected it on the basis of cost or whether the destination Post Office ran out of greeting forms can only be guessed at.

It is interesting that all the telegrams were handwritten by the staff at the destination Post Office. The West Wratting receiving Post Office was small in an extremely rural village which would not have had the latest equipment to print out the message onto paper tape. Interestingly, the receiving Post Office wrote the standard telegram in pencil, whereas the greetings telegrams were written in ink, seemingly - but somewhat unsuccessfully - trying to make the greeting ones look neater and more professional.

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