With Christmas fresh in the mind, and various articles appearing in this newspaper and online about the strain and the pressure the Royal Mail is feeling due to the season, I thought it relevant to tell the tale of two Wantage Postmen in the past.
The first of these was John Alfred Gauntlett (1844-1924) known as Alfred who first came to Wantage around 1860 as a servant to the Postmaster Joseph Lewis when the Post Office was part of what is now the Post Office Vaults.
Born in Southall Middlesex, Alfred married a local girl Ellen Holloway and the couple eventually had three children Arthur, Selina and Alice. Alfred was appointed a town postman in Wantage on the 12th August 1864.