THEY were once a familiar sight dashing around the roads on their motorbikes. Telegram boys were an essential part of the communication system before telephones became widely available.

If you wanted to tell relatives your latest news, you would write a letter and post it.

But if the message was urgent and you or your relative didn’t have a phone, there was only one way to deliver it.

The message would be handed in, typed, then delivered as quickly as possible by the telegram boy.

We were reminded of those far off days of technology by Clive Binning, who found an Oxford Mail photograph of four telegram boys on their bikes (Memory Lane, June 20).

The picture reminded reader David Brown, of Jordan Hill, Oxford, of the days he spent as one of them.

He writes: “I started work on my 15th birthday as a telegram boy, working out of St Aldate’s post office in Oxford, so to see the picture of the four telegram boys was a bit special.

“I ended my three-year maximum term and became a postman in 1961 and so I am unable to name the lads in the photograph.

“I can confirm the picture was taken in the post office yard in St Aldate’s and the windows directly behind them were in the telegram boys’ office.

“During my time as a telegram boy, I took several photographs in this yard and enclose one of a colleague, Alan Burgess, in the same spot.

“Your readers will note the wooden turntable used to turn vehicles around in the yard but this has since been removed.

“Telegrams were received and processed in Telephone House opposite the Town Hall and were then delivered by a compressed air shoot in containers which sped down the pipes and ended their journey in a cage in the telegram office. They were then delegated to the boys for delivery.

“To improve the speed of the engines, we used to unscrew the carburettor top to allow the needle to rise and allow more fuel through to drive the engine.

“This practice was ended when the mechanics were instructed to seal the carburettor to govern the engine speed.

“We rode BSA Bantam motorcycles after the age of 16 and it is rare to find a period colour picture of a BSA Bantam with a telegram boy in the saddle. For this reason, I recently commissioned a painting by Oxford artist David Langford to preserve the memory of delivering a telegram from the GPO in St Aldate’s.”