History
Barbados has one of the world’s oldest postal services. In 1663, during the reign of Charles II, England’s imperial Post Office established a packet agency on the island.
Barbados was the second territory in the British West Indies to establish an inland post service by an Act of Parliament. The local legislature much later passed the Post Office Act in 1851.
Unlike many of the other Caribbean nations, British stamps were never used for any domestic delivery postage in Barbados. The first issue of “Barbados” stamps was placed on sale on April 15, 1852, when the local Post Office also commenced its operations. It is this date on which the anniversary of the Inland Post is celebrated.
An Act of Parliament in 1854, served to fully amalgamate the former UK founded Imperial Packet Agency and the Inland Post Office created specifically for local service. By 1858 the Packet Agency's name and role were retired and all mail received became the responsibility of the colonial Barbados Postmaster.
Ever an innovator, the Barbados Post introduced Registration and Money Order Services in 1861.
For 112 years the Parliament Buildings of Barbados were the headquarters of the Barbados Postal Service from 1872 to 1984. At this location, there were a number of firsts for the Barbados Post.
- In 1874 the first stamps with values were introduced.
- In 1881 the first wall posting boxes were erected.
- In 1886, the Barbados Post inaugurated an International Parcel Service with England and in 1887 a similar arrangement was reached with the United States. [5]
A legacy of the British Empire has been the use of some iconic historical pillar boxes (mailboxes) with the official cypher of the Barbadian monarch, although after political independence their further roll-out has slowed.
20th-century
Over the 100 years in which the Post Office was headquartered in the Parliament Buildings, the Barbados Postal Service has made a valuable contribution to the social, economic and educational development of Barbados.
By 1911 an estimated annual subsidy of £4 000 from the Imperial government was payable to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company specifically for the Barbados postal service.
In the early 1900s when scores of Barbadians emigrated to Cuba, the United States and Panama (Afro-Panamanian), and again in the 1950s, when there was also large scale immigration but to England, the Post was the primary means of facilitating communication between the migrants and their families in Barbados.
In those years, the Post was the only Agency through which families received letters, gift parcels, and cash remittances from their relatives overseas.
When World War II occurred, Barbados was not unscathed and as a result of the War, a special department known as the Censor Office was created in 1939. This office was located in a room under the Senate in the Parliament Buildings, and there all incoming and outgoing overseas mail, which showed no sign of being censored, was intercepted. Letters and packets were opened to determine their content. Any reference to the movement of ships was blotted out to protect ships traveling in the region from espionage and then the mail was resealed with a special Censor Label.
The Parcel Post Department served as the means by which many of the dry goods and hardware stores imported their stock in that era.
The migratory periods during the 20th Century were very profitable periods for the Barbados Post with records showing that in the 1950s, British postal orders paid to Barbadians exceeded $3 million.
Self-governance era
In 1958, Robert Clarke, the first local Colonial Postmaster of Afro-Caribbean ancestry, had the foresight to introduce a shift system and extended business hours in order to better manage the increased business activity of the Post Office.
In an effort to contribute to the personal and professional development of postal workers, departmental training courses for clerical staff, Postal Assistants and Postmen were introduced in 1961.
On 11 November 1967, after earlier being represented as a British territory, Barbados became a full member of the UPU as a sovereign nation.
The Barbados Philatelic Bureau within the Postal Service was established in 1968 for the purpose of promoting the sale of postage stamps in the very lucrative market worldwide.
Following exposure to international developments in the postal service as a result of participation in conferences around the world, a highly specialised International Postal Affairs branch was introduced. This division was to be headed by a knowledgeable and experienced senior postal official. In 1971 therefore, a post of Assistant Postmaster General responsible for international postal affairs was established and Mr. Lloyd Weekes was appointed to the position on August 16, 1971.
As a result of involvement in the UPU, Barbados was able to host its first international postal conference, the pre-Congress Commonwealth Conference of Postal Administrations (CCPA), from September 2 to 5, 1979. This meeting served as preparation for the 1979 Postal Union Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during September and October.
In 1984 the Barbados Government, for the first time, authorised the Postmaster General to sign the Acts of the Hamburg Congress “ad referendum” in addition to the Minister with responsibility for the postal services. Prior to this Congress, only the Minister was authorised to sign the Acts of Congress.
Another significant development in Barbados’ postal services was the introduction of the Express Mail Service to the USA and the United Kingdom from October 1, 1984. [6] The idea to develop this service to attract new business and retain old customers came as a result of a Barbados delegation’s attendance at an International Express Mail Service Conference in Washington in 1983. This prompted Barbados to negotiate its first Express Mail Agreements with the USA and the UK during 1984.
Today, in spite of competition from commercial delivery services, the Barbados Post boasts of door-to-door delivery to 90,000 households in Barbados; thus contributing to a reputation for highly developed postal service for all citizens.
This reputation made Barbados one of the region’s leaders in postal policy.
It was reported in April 2019 that the BPS would embark on a USD$40,000 Integrated Postal Reform and Development Plan (IPDP) in collaboration with the UPU. [7]
