Erected in celebration of World Post Day on Friday 9^th October 2015, this extremely rare King Edward VIII post box is located outside the Heritage Building at the John Mackintosh Square. “Teddy”, as the box is now known, was acquired from Hassan Shaida, the philatelist, through Arthur Reeder, who owns the letter box museum on the Isle of Wight. However, that the box was in a particularly inaccessible location at Henley-on-Thames which necessitated in “Teddy” having to be rescued by a unit of Royal Marines near Henley-on-Thames assisted by the London Fire Brigade. Teddy was officially handed over to David Ledger, CEO RGPO, in the UK by the Royal Marines on Thursday 16^th October 2014.

Teddy formed part of the Royal Marines’ 350th parade celebrations in Gibraltar on the morning of Saturday 25th October 2014, when he was pulled along Main Street, gun-style, by the Commandos. Teddy was then returned to workshops where it was lovingly restored and refurbished by Western Isles Ltd.

This is the only Edward VIII pillar box deployed outside the United Kingdom and only some 75 such post boxes remain operational there.

Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom, the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India, from the 20^th January 1936 until his abdication on the 11^th December 1936. He was Queen Elizabeth II’s uncle.

THE ROYAL GIBRALTAR POST OFFICE

The first organised postal service in Gibraltar dates from 1749, when Governor of Gibraltar Sir Humphrey Bland appointed a Civil Secretary and entrusted him with responsibility for the posts. There was then no regular mail service by sea between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom. Letters were carried by ships whenever possible because the overland route was more precarious, as the roads were unsafe.

In 1806, the British Post Office appointed a Packet Agent for Gibraltar and commenced a regular monthly Packet Service to Gibraltar from Falmouth on contract mail boats, which were known as Packets. Prior to 1830, they were sailing vessels. Steam then supplanted sail. The Civil Secretary continued to run the Overland Post Office.

This led to confusion as there were two post offices in Gibraltar, in separate places, one handling only maritime mail, mainly carried by the official mail packets; the other handling overland mail.

On the 1^st January 1857 the Packet Agency and the Overland Post Office were amalgamated to form the Gibraltar Post Office. The entire postal service in Gibraltar then came under the control of the Postmaster General in London.

A new Post Office was then built. It is still in use today as the General Post Office. The last Gibraltar Packet Agent, Edmund Creswell, was eventually appointed a Deputy Postmaster-General and Surveyor of the Mediterranean. He was based in Gibraltar.

It was in Creswell’s time that the first postage stamps were introduced in Gibraltar. Overprinted British stamps were first sold in Gibraltar on the 3^rd September 1857. They prepaid letters to all countries except Spain, for which letters had to be prepaid in Spanish stamps in order to benefit from lower postal rates, a matter of importance to the poorer classes at the time.

The local delivery of mail was then introduced on the 1^st October 1858. Prior to this, all mail had to be collected from the Post Office. It was then decided to introduce pillar boxes. Three were originally ordered.

One was positioned in Governor's Parade (where there is still an Edward VII pillar box today). The other two were intended primarily for the military garrison and located near the Guard House on New Mole Parade and on Europa Road close to the junction with Windmill Hill. The pillar boxes came into use on 22^nd December 1858 but none of the original three survive.

In 2005, the Gibraltar Post Office was granted the title of “Royal” by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Gibraltar is the only Commonwealth or British Overseas Territory Post Office outside the United Kingdom to be honoured with this title.