Originally Posted by
Lance Shippey
Info if possible please.
Berlin SXF had a Postamt (post office) during
DDR years with 1189 Postcode, including a
telegram department. The U.K discontinued
telegrams in 1982. How was it possible for
telegrams sent from the SXF postamt in 1987
delivered by the GPO (British Post Office) to
a British address ?
Lance Shippey
I believe regardless of address they were received at a central point in the UK, typed out, any short "telegraphic addresses" (eg "Speedbird London") expanded from the list of them, and put in the first class mail. British Telecom was broken away from the Post Office in 1981 but this was one of the residual joint responsibilities they retained as the PTT, as the United Nations styles it, for the UK.
I must have got one of the last telegrams at Easter 1982 (they stopped a few months later), sent by my office one Friday afternoon to my house in London to await me returning from holiday on a Sunday evening, telling me I was Ticket on Departure on the 8am Shuttle from Heathrow to Edinburgh on the Monday morning ... !