Addenda and Corrigenda to The Post Office and the Colleges

Below are listed addenda and corrigenda to West 2004ii. Those already published in West 2008 are asterisked.

Back cover and page 7: *The illustrations of the Keble cover do not show the stamp clearly; below is a better illustration of the stamp:
Page iii line 6: Replace second "colleges" by "colleges¹".
Add new note 1: Coase 1955, a useful historical survey of the Post Office monopoly, remarks at p.33 note 1 that this material is "still regarded as confidential and not available for study".
Page iii line 28: After "Royal Mail." add "The Oxford Union through their Archivist Graeme Hall kindly gave permission to consult and quote from their Archives held at the Oxfordshire Record Office. The Master, Fellows and Scholars of St John's College Cambridge also kindly gave permission to quote from their Archives".
Page 2 line 15 and page 5 line 3: *Replace "Mr Ashurst" by "W H Ashurst".
Page 6 note 23: Replace "17" by "18".
Page 9 line 1: *After "knighted" add "and one of the founders of the National Trust".
Page 11 note 19: Add new third sentence "These changes are recorded in the Minutes of the College Council for 28 April 1884 and 20 March 1885 respectively as quoted in Catling 2014 p.6, though there are no corrections on the college's copy (St John's College Archives D103.122.28)".
Page 13 line 10: *After "1885" add "(as the Cambridge Training College for Women)".
Page 18 line 13: *After "Lewin Hill" add "(nephew of Sir Rowland Hill)".
Page 18 line 22: Replace "copies..." by "copies...^10a".
Add new note 10a:
"Dryhurst sent the Master of St John's College a copy on 19 November - he had shown him the table on 16 November (St John's College Archives SB1.24 p.116)".
Page 21 line 21: *Replace "afternoon" by "afternoon^24a".
*Add new note 24a:
"This meeting is also mentioned in The Oxford Magazine 9 December 1885 p.429 which refers to the messengers as Hermae (Hermes was the messenger of the gods)."
Page 22 note 26: *Replace by "A legal opinion was taken (see Chapter 5)".
Page 24 line 5: *Replace "communication" by "collaboration^1a".
*Add new note 1a:
"There was however awareness of what was happening in the other place. The 'Oxford Letter' in the The Cambridge Review (9 December 1885 p.139; 3 February 1886 p.186, 10 February p.205, 24 February Supplement p.lxxi, 12 May p.309) reports the ongoing Oxford discussions with the Post Office; The Oxford Magazine 24 February 1886 pp.70, 72 refers to the Cambridge messengers".
Page 27 line 16: After "represented." add "The letter was prepared as a result of two meetings of various college representatives in Henry Tottenham's rooms at St John's College on 1 and 8 December^7a".
Add new note 7a:
"St Johns College Archives SB1.24 pp. 115-116, 119".
Page 28 line 10: Replace "two" by "three".
Page 32 line 21: Replace "Catherine's" by "Catharine's".
Page 33 lines 20 and 22: Replace "Macalister" by "MacAlister".
Page 33 line 22: Replace "day'" by "day'^37a".
Add new note 37a:
"Confirmed by College Council Minute Book for 20 November (Catling 2014 p.26)".
Page 34 note 38: After "Mail" add ", but preserved in St Johns College Archives SB1.24 pp. 114-115".
Page 39 line 25: Replace "no reply... has been traced" by "no reply... was sent. The Post Office Secretary sent a reminder on 1 June to St John's College (and presumably to the other six colleges), asking for an assurance that the messenger arrangements had been discontinued. Robert Scott, Bursar of St John's College replied that they had been stopped^14a".
Add new note 14a:
"St Johns College Archives SB1.24 pp. 135-136".
Page 39 note 14: Replace "L. Bidwell" by "Leonard Bidwell".
Page 41 line 7: *Replace "fine" by "give".
Page 41 lines 21-22: *Replace this sentence by:
"Thus the Oxford Deputation tamely acquiesced to the Post Office's demands^19a. A London Counsel's opinion was taken but it was 'distinctly adverse to existing customs, and it is certain that considerable changes must be made if the law is to be exactly complied with' (The Oxford Magazine 3 March 1886 p.95, 10 March 1886 p.109)^19b."
Add new paragraph:
"The subject was raised in Parliament by Walter Shirley, MP for Doncaster, on 25 February (Hansard Vol. 302 cc 1208-9) in a question to Henry Fowler, Secretary to the Treasury. Henry Raikes, MP for Cambridge University, gave notice that he would ask Fowler to state the Act of Parliament which justified the Post Office interference. On 4 March (Hansard Vol. 302 cc 1905-6) Sir John Mowbray, MP for Oxford University, asked on behalf of Raikes; Fowler responded '1 Vic Cap 33'."
*Add new note 19a:
"The Oxford Magazine 24 February 1886 pp.73-74 includes an uncredited article 'The Messenger and the Post Office'. This explains the law (and admits that the college messenger does infringe it). But it argues 'the college does not make a profit', repeats the 'family' argument and emphasises the loss of convenience that would be occasioned by any alternative Post Office arrangements. It finally appeals to the new Postmaster General to 'let the colleges alone'".
Add new note 19b:
"See now West 2012ii which shows that a group of Cambridge colleges including five of 'the Cambridge Seven' also took a legal opinion, the only result being that they chose to pursue room delivery".
Page 44 line 6: *Replace "Club" by "Club^24a".
*Add new note 24a:
"The Cambridge Review 17 February 1886 p.209 records that 'several college messengers and all the club messengers have ceased to run'".
Page 44 line 19: *Replace "illustrated" by "included an actual stuck-in copy of".
Page 44 note 28: *After "from the eagle" add "(a symbol for St John)".
Page 45 note 37: *Add "For the present-day college messenger arrangements see Walker 2003".
Page 46 line 8: Delete "has not been traced but it".
Page 46 note 1: *Add "See now West 2012. The Oxford Union Society is now known as the Oxford Union and the abbreviation OUS is used by the unrelated Oxford University Society".
Page 46 note 4: Add "A copy of the letter to the OUS is in the OUS Archives (ref. O22/7/L/2)".
Page 48 note 9: *Before "Postmaster General's" add "next".
Page 50 lines 20-23: *Delete this sentence.
Page 50 line 27: After "Vacation" add ", though it had been returned by the OUS solicitors Morrell and Son on 6 July (OUS Archives ref. O22/7/L/3)".
Page 56 line 8: Replace "maintained'" by "maintained'^28a".
Add new note 28a:
"Referring in early 1888 to a report that 'at Ridley Hall there is a messenger employed to take notes into the town of Cambridge at stated hours, the notes being placed in a box at the Porter's lodge', Raikes wrote 'I feel little doubt that the interference with college messengers was illegal and I am sure it was extremely ill advised' (Post Class 35-564 Post Office minutes 1888/1325 and 1888/1456 to the Postmaster General)".
Page 57 line 17: Replace "L. Bidwell" by "Leonard Bidwell".
Page 61 note 10: *After "postmen" add ", part-time workers without pension or holiday benefits".
Page 62 line 11: Add new paragraph:
"However there were difficulties with insufficiently addressed letters, as on 7 December when the St John's Butler J. G. Merry wrote to Heitland^14a:
... a consequence of the regular postman being ill this morning a fresh man was sent, he arrived at 7.30 - the letters (about 200) had then to be posted, and Bowman assisted in the delivery which was completed by them jointly at 9.30. Only about 6 letters had the letter of the staircase addressed in full."
Add new note 14a:
"St John's College Archives D103.122.8".
Page 63 line 16: Replace "J. Cardin" by "James Cardin".
Page 64 note 22: Add "Room delivery at the Cambridge colleges continued till at least June 1912 (Post Class 23-77, 'Discontinuance of Cambridge Room Delivery 1 June 1912')".
Page 66 line 14: Replace "Catherine's" by "Catherine's^2a".
Add new note 2a: "The correct spelling is Catharine's".
Page 66 note 1: *Replace "recte" by "An earlier name for".
Page 72: Add "Catling, H.D., 2014. The Story of the Cambridge College Messenger Stamps: 1882-5, Cinderella Stamp Club".
Page 72: Add "Coase, R.H., 1955. 'The Postal Monopoly in Great Britain: An Historical Survey', Economic Essays in Commemoration of the Dundee School of Economics 1931-1955 (ed. Eastham, J.K.), pp.25-37."
Page 73: *Add "Walker, J.P., 2003.'Time's wheelèd messengers', Oxford Today, Vol.15, No.2, Hilary 2003, p.43."
Page 73; Add "West, V., 2012. The Postal History of the Oxford Union Society to 1920, Royal Philatelic Society London."
Page 73: Add "West, V., 2012ii. 'The Cambridge Colleges and the Post Office', The GB Journal, Vol. 50, No. 5, September/October 2012, pp. 114-116."

Addenda and Corrigenda to The Post Office and the Colleges

Bibliography A to Z | College Stamps