A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters.
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional services, which vary by country. These include providing and accepting government forms, and processing government services and fees. The chief administrator of a post office is called a postmaster.
An Post is the state-owned provider of postal services in Ireland. An Post provides a "universal postal service" to all parts of the country as a member of the Universal Postal Union. Services provided include letter post, parcel service, deposit accounts, Express Post, and EMS.
This is a partial timeline of significant events in postal history, including dates and events relating to postage stamps.
John Thurloe was an English politician who served as secretary to the council of state in Protectorate England and spymaster for Oliver Cromwell and held the position of Postmaster General between 1655 and 1660. He was from Great Milton in Oxfordshire and of Lincoln's Inn.
The Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). The company used the name Consignia for a brief period in the early 2000s but changed it afterwards.
Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day.
The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs was the holder of a position in the Government of Ireland. From 1924 until 1984 – when it was abolished – the minister headed the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, the government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service covering the Republic of Ireland.
Henry Cromwell was the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bourchier, and an important figure in the Parliamentarian regime in Ireland.
The Ministers and Secretaries Acts 1924 to 2020 is the legislation which governs the appointment of ministers to the Government of Ireland and the allocation of functions between departments of state. It is subject in particular to the provisions of Article 28 of the Constitution of Ireland. The Acts allow for the appointment of between 7 and 15 Ministers of Government across 17 Departments, and for the appointment of up to 20 junior ministers, titled Ministers of State, to assist the Ministers of Government in their powers and duties.
The Postal Service Act was a piece of United States federal legislation that established the United States Post Office Department. It was signed into law by President George Washington on February 20, 1792.
Postal services in the United Kingdom are provided predominantly by the Royal Mail. Since 2006, the market has been fully opened to competition which has had greater success in business-to-business delivery than in ordinary letter delivery.
Henry Bishopp (1605–1691), also spelt Bishop and Bisshopp, from Henfield in West Sussex, England was a Postmaster General of England and inventor of the first postmark used on mail. He was the second son of Sir Thomas Bishopp, 1st Baronet of Parham also in West Sussex. Henry at first fought for King Charles I, but was reconciled with parliament in 1647, after spending two years in Virginia. In the meantime his Rectory estate in Henfield had been sequestered. However, he was restored to royal favour in 1660 and served as postmaster-general between that date and 1663. At his death in 1692 (N.S.) his Rectory estate in Henfield passed to his great-nephew Sir Cecil Bishopp, 4th Baronet.
The Postmasters General of Ireland, held by two people simultaneously, was a new appointment set up as part of the establishment of the Irish Post Office independent from that of Great Britain, by the Act 23 & 24 Geo 3 c. 17 (I) in 1784. The post lasted nearly fifty years. The act was not repealed upon the Act of Union in 1800 but in 1831.
The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific sender to a specific receiver ; it was overseen by a Government minister, the Postmaster General. Over time its remit was extended to Scotland and Ireland, and across parts of the British Empire.
In the Kingdom of England, the title of Secretary of State came into being near the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, the usual title before that having been King's Clerk, King's Secretary, or Principal Secretary.
The Post Office Act 1969 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that changed the General Post Office from a department of state to a public corporation, known as the Post Office. It also abolished the office of Postmaster General of the United Kingdom.
The Postmaster General for Scotland, based in Edinburgh, was responsible for the postal service in the Kingdom of Scotland from approximately 1616 until the Act of Union unified Scotland and England in 1707, creating a new state called the Kingdom of Great Britain. From 1711, the posts in Scotland were the responsibility of the Deputy Postmaster General for Scotland, until in 1831, that position was subsumed into the duties of the Postmaster General of the United Kingdom.
