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Britain’s longest-serving Royal Mail postman has recalled hand-delivering turkeys, kippers and last-minute gifts for Christmas as his record 60 years comes to an end this festive season.
Robert Hudson, 76, known as Rocky, from Leyton, east London, started his Royal Mail career in December 1964 when he was 16 – beginning as a messenger in the Whitechapel Delivery Office distributing telegrams on a motorcycle come rain or shine.
When he was 18, the grandfather-of-nine moved to an outdoor role as a postman where he would carry his parcels in a sack on his back through the streets of Poplar, a job which he “loved every minute”.
Christmas parcels back in the 60s were also a strange affair as Rocky recalls hand-delivering perishable festive goods through the post, such as turkeys “wrapped up in brown paper or a cloth with a leg sticking out”, salmon, kippers and cream – and he remembers seeing the joy on someone’s face as he handed them a last-minute gift from a loved one.
This year, Rocky will be carrying out his last shift on December 28 at the London Docklands Delivery Office where he has spent the last 40 years working nights – which made it easier for him at the time to care for his three young children following the sudden death of his wife, Sheila, at age 26, in 1980.
Looking ahead to retirement, Rocky said it will be strange but he is ready to “relax”, spend time gardening and seeing his family, including his granddaughter – British Paralympic archer Jessica Stretton – but the very first item on the agenda is turning off all his alarms.
“I’m the longest-serving union member, the longest-serving postman in England and I loved every minute of it,” Rocky told PA Real Life. “We often wear Santa hats and go around at Christmas, seeing the look on the kids’ faces when you’re at the door is so nice.
“People used to say, ‘here comes Father Christmas’. The amount of work we get around Christmas is incredible, it’s so busy, but you push through and get it done – there’s nothing left behind.”
(Image: PA)
Rocky started working with Royal Mail in the Whitechapel Delivery Office in December 1964 when he was 16 years old. He began as a messenger where he would ride around Limehouse, Poplar and the Isle of Dogs on a motorcycle to deliver telegrams.
“When you’re 16, you start as a messenger on a little red motorcycle delivering the telegrams, I loved doing that, that was lovely,” he said. “There were no phones in 1964, the only way of communicating with someone was to send a telegram.
“I went down to Poplar and the Isle of Dogs – that was my area and I covered every bit of it.” Rocky said he would deliver “all different” kinds of telegrams, from congratulatory letters to death messages.
“I’d deliver quite a lot, most of it was information, ‘contact me as soon as possible’, that sort of thing,” he said. “You had to get through it whatever the weather, you were committed to it. The priority and urgent ones, they had to go out and it didn’t matter it if was snowing, you had to deliver those ones.”
When Rocky was 18, he moved on to an outdoor role delivering parcels as a postman – and he would encounter a variety of strange packages every Christmas. “You had some weird things come through there at Christmas, really weird things,” he said.
“At Christmas, you used to get turkeys coming through wrapped up in brown paper or a cloth with a leg sticking out the bottom and you had to take that round to someone’s house. You used to get salmon which had to go out, cream from Cornwall, Norfolk kippers.
“They were marked up as perishable and they had to go – you had a commitment and it had to go that day.” Rocky also recalls delivering last-minute Christmas gifts to those in the area he covered.
“It was fun, all the presents wrapped up,” he said. “It’s nice to knock on the door and see someone’s smiling face.”
Rocky said postmen were also required to carry their parcels in a sack back in the day. “In the past, you had to carry it all on your back with a sack which was heavy,” he said.
After spending 10 years going door-to-door, Rocky transferred to night shifts at the London Docklands Delivery Office. This came after his wife died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage in 1980 at the age of 26 and he needed to take care of their three children, who were around the age of 10 at the time.
“I started nights when the wife died, I came home from work one day and she was in the passage, she was only 26,” Rocky said. “I had little kids to bring up on my own and the night shift was the only way I could sort of get round it.
“I didn’t start until midnight so I could be there with them right up until then, get them in bed, tuck them in, shoot off to work, come home again at 7am in the morning and get them up to go to school.
“It worked out absolutely perfect.” Rocky has since spent the last 40 years from 11pm to 7am emptying and organising the delivery trucks to go out each morning.
“It’s very, very busy at Christmas and some offices struggle – I managed to keep my one running.” Rocky has also met the King when he was the then-Prince of Wales after he completed 50 years of service with Royal Mail.
“I went with some other guys who had also done 50 years and met him at the Houses of Parliament,” Rocky said. “That was nice, we shook hands and had a chat.”
To mark 60 years and the end of his service, Rocky and his colleagues celebrated his retirement party at the Docklands delivery office on December 7 – the date he first started in 1964. For his retirement plans, Rocky said he will “relax for a little while”.
“The first thing I’m going to do is turn all my alarms off,” he said. “I’ll finish building my shed down the garden and do some maintenance things.
Rocky also plans to spend some quality time with his children and grandchildren, including his granddaughter and British Paralympic archer Jessica Stretton, who won gold at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. He said his last official day at Royal Mail on December 28 will be “strange”, but it is an achievement he is proud of.
“It’s going to be a big change but that’s fine, it’s time to go, I’ve done 60 years and that’s enough,” he said.
“It’s an achievement and I’m really proud of it.” In his advice to his fellow postman, he added: “Keep up the good work, stick with it and enjoy it.”
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