TELEGRAM boys in Oxford had some tricks up their sleeves to add a little excitement to their lives.

Reader David Brown told how the riders would adapt their motorbikes to make them go faster.

And now Mary Tansley reveals how vanity crept in too – they ‘cooked’ their hats to give them a distinctive look.

She explains: “Their hats had a shiny peak front and I remember the lads telling me that they would wet them and put them in the oven, so that they could mould and shape the peak to their liking.”

Earlier, Mr Brown, of Jordan Hill, North Oxford, wrote: “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.

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

Mrs Tansley, of Arlington Drive, Old Marston, worked for 13 years at the Post Office, which in those days ran the telephone and telegram services.

The career of the then Mary Smith brought an additional bonus – she met her future husband, Cyril, at work.

She worked closely with the telegram boys after she started as a probationer at Telephone House in St Aldate’s on December 4, 1939, aged 14½.

She writes: “From there, I went to the telegraph room – a large room with rows of teleprinters linked to several main cities in the country.

“At the back of this room were two long rows of telephone switchboards, where the operators took down on typewriters the messages for customers’ telegrams.

“The girl probationer dressed in a green overall would collect the messages from a clip above the switchboard and they were despatched to the telegram boys’ room for delivery.”

A sloping path led to the back yard, the telephone exchange, the engineering department and the telegram boys’ room.

Mrs Tansley recalls: “I have walked so many times down ‘the slope’ to speak to the officer in charge in the telegram office. The boys back in 1939 were paraded in this yard and examined for smartness of uniform and shoes; also hands and fingernails were looked at.”

After completing her probation, Mrs Tansley spent a year in the telephone exchange, then went into the telegraph department as a postal and telegraph officer, later becoming supervisor.

Her next job was serving on the counter at the head post office in St Aldate’s.

She then moved to the writing room, handling letters from the public and wireless licences, before finishing as secretary to the chief clerk of telegraphs.

She tells me: “All these appointments were reached by weekly night school classes with examinations.

“I still have all my paperwork from those days. I have many greetings telegrams which I received when I left work to get married. It was in this back yard – down the ‘slope’ – where I was introduced to my future husband, just back from the war and working as a post office engineer.

“My brother-in-law, Ian Boulton, was also a messenger boy during my time. We have often reminisced about ‘old times’. I’ve recently had a visit from a friend living in Wolverhampton who was also a messenger boy. We have kept in touch since 1939.”

“This is an account of extremely happy days. The nightshifts and long hours during the war and the ‘special duties’, never to be divulged.

“You signed never to repeat anything and that stands.”