THE RELOCATION OF THE ADEN POST OFFICE AND THE APPOINTMENT OF AN OFFICIAL POSTMASTER

In March 1855 Brigadier Coghlan, the Acting Political Agent at Aden, wrote a long letter to India in which he listed the changes to postal arrangements that were urgently needed. The basic problem was that the Post office was in the wrong location: it needed to be at Steamer Point and not at Crater. The present system was that when the sighting of a mail steamer was signalled a camel-mounted peon would be sent from Crater to collect the Mails, which were then brought the five miles back to Crater to be sorted and then delivered. A different steamer carried the mail on to Bombay and this sailed at most six hours after the arrival of the one that had brought the English Mails from Suez. Therefore due to this inefficient system it was necessary to close the Bombay Mails the moment the mail from England arrived in the Post Office, before it had been delivered. Coghlan stressed that it was often essential for both Government offices and the community at large to keep their outgoing letters open until they had received their mail from Europe, which at present they were unable to do. The problem was particularly acute for those at Steamer Point, whose numbers and importance were on the increase.

The number of steamers had greatly increased since the arrangements currently in force had been introduced, and the number was likely to be increased again soon as Coghlan had heard that it was proposed to start a mail service between Mauritius and Suez. This would lead to a significant increase in the amount of mail arriving at Aden to be held for passengers in transit. It would be of great benefit to them if their mail could be held at Steamer Point. Coghlan’s final point was that it was becoming increasingly frequent that two or more mail steamers arrived on the same day; on such occasions the limited Post Office staff was really no longer able to cope.

Coghlan stated that the solution was not only obvious but, considering the increasing importance of Aden as a communications hub, also a necessity. At the very least there should be a Receiving House at Steamer point, but ideally the Head Office should be transferred there and the post office at Crater made a receiving house. The Mails would then be opened and closed at Steamer Point and letters could then be posted several hours later than at present, to the benefit of all concerned. He went on to specify what extra staff were required. His proposal would require four post office staff instead of three plus four peons instead of two. The increase in the cost would be only 49 Rupees a month. But any request to increase the establishment of any Government department almost invariably met with considerable opposition from higher authority, and this was to be no exception.

The proposal was forwarded by the Bombay Government to the Director General Post Offices India, together with their opinion that it was ‘worthy of adoption’. The latter replied that the problem could be solved with no increase in expenditure. On 12 June the DGPO directed that the Aden Post Office (and the postmaster’s residence) be transferred to Steamer Point as soon as possible, leaving one member of staff to man a receiving office in the cantonment. If the Postmaster was an officer of the garrison it would be necessary to appoint an ‘uncovenanted official postmaster’ – in other words someone whose only job would be postmaster, but not properly qualified. The DGPO could not see why it was thought necessary to increase the establishment of the Post office as the amount of mail received and dispatched from Aden was comparatively very small. In addition, for no other Post Office of equal size was a salary of 100 Rupees allowed for a postmaster. A working postmaster with one clerk at Steamer Point ought to be able to perform with sufficient rapidity the work of closing and delivering the Aden Mails. The DGPO added that he did not think it necessary to increase the number of Delivery Peons as under post office rules regiments had to send orderlies to collect the Soldiers & Sepoys letters from the post office.  This reply did not please Coghlan who ordered the Postmaster not to move the Post Office until he had challenged the DGPO’s ruling.

There were therefore two options: either he remained as postmaster and continued to live in Crater or, since Mr Rassam could not easily be replaced, the Civil Department must be prepared to pay all the 300 Rupees of his salary as interpreter. Coghlan’s letter ended by saying that if the proposition he had made in his original letter was not adopted he would rather that things remained in the present imperfect state than attempting to carry out his proposed reform with an inefficient establishment.

At this point in time (1857) Coghlan was half way to achieving his aim. He had a full-time postmaster, albeit not yet a fully qualified one, and also a Receiving Office in Steamer Point. This was in a small building, described as being of mud and plaster, until finance was available to build a new purpose-built Post Office. It was to be quite a few years before this was authorised and the Main Post Office was not opened until early 1868.

In the autumn of 1858 Mr Potts replaced Mr Nicker as the Postmaster at Aden. Potts started off on the wrong foot as he omitted to send an official letter to the Resident informing the latter that he had taken up his appointment. The Resident recorded his displeasure in a letter to the PMG in Bombay, who wisely decided to replace Potts without delay. Mr Waller was nominated to succeed him on 24th January 1859 and he had arrived by 10th February. Mr Waller was still postmaster in 1872, but his postmastership at Aden may not have been continuous for the following reason: before retiring in 1859 the PMG in Bombay had agreed to a change in post office establishment at Aden as long as the postmaster was appointed from London and was of the grade of Deputy Postmaster, whose salary would be 250 Rupees a month (compared to the 100 Rupees paid to Mr Waller on his appointment). Until a qualified postmaster was sent out from England, Mr Waller could be paid a half the rate of a Deputy. More research is needed to find out if he left Aden for a period to get properly qualified. At any rate he seems to have been a good postmaster. 

From the first part of this article one can gather that from 1839 to 1857 the postmaster at Aden was an Officer serving in the garrison or a Residency official. This is thought to be the complete list of those who undertook this task, together with the names of the first three official Postmasters.