Prince Charles shows his ‘profound appreciation ‘ for the Royal Mail

Prince Charles has shared a video showing his ‘profound appreciation’ for the Royal Mail adding it’s an ‘incredibly important lifeline’ in his first public appearance since visiting his father Prince Philip in hospital. 

Appearing via video on the Royal Mail’s Twitter account this morning, the Prince of Wales, 72, shared a sweet message expressing his ‘heartfelt but inadequate thanks to the tireless efforts’ to the postal service adding staff are working ‘incredibly hard on every corner of this land.’

The royal, who believed to currently staying in Highgrove, Gloucestershire, with his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, 73, retweeted the video via his Clarence House Twitter account. 

It comes two days after the royal was said to be teary-eyed as he arrived at King Edward VII’s hospital in London to visit his father the Duke of Edinburgh.

Philip, 99, has been in  hospital since Tuesday. He is expected to remain there until next week.

His son, who made a 200-mile round trip to visit, was pictured wearing a face mask as he walked from his car into the hospital. 

‘Ladies and Gentleman. In May last year, my wife and I were delighted to have a socially distance conversation with our postman Neil Martin outside our home and Scotland,’ Charles explained in the video, referring to Birkhall, his home in Aberdeenshire. 

‘Afterwards, Neil delivered a letter from us addressed to everyone at Royal Mail expressing our heartfelt but inadequate thanks to the tireless efforts, you would all be making to keep our country connected. It’s right the most difficult of times.’

‘Now, while we are still in the grip of this dreadful pandemic. I want to express once again, my profound appreciation to you all for continuing to work so incredibly hard in every corner of this land. 

‘The truth is that the Royal Mail remains an incredibly important lifeline to us all, especially to the vulnerable, the lonely, and those who have to self-isolate,’ the heir added.

Postman Neil Martin talking at a distance to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall after receiving a letter addressed to postal workers from them at Birkhall, Aberdeenshire

‘And if I may say so I’ve been immensely impressed by the determination you’ve shown, even when faced with the additional challenges of extreme weather, colleague absences, and of course, greatly increased volumes of parcels.  

‘I know that on a daily basis, The Royal Mail is playing a really crucial role in delivering hope through letterboxes across the land, not least by carrying those those critical illnesses, for the NHS inviting people to their vaccination, which offers our best route back to normality. 

‘I realised too that you have helped deliver more than one billion items of personal protective equipment to the NHS and to those in adult social care settings and deliberative central medication to those who are unable to leave their homes,’ he continued.

He went on: ‘There are so many unsung heroes and heroines working for the role of delivering COVID tests to home addresses and safely collecting the completed kids from a network of 35,000 priority postboxes, seven days a week. 

‘In addition to performing such a continuous public service. I have been enormous impressed to see how many of you have leapt into unstoppable action in an astonishing variety of unexpected outfits, in order to raise our spirits. 

‘And in the process, raise thousands of pounds for good causes. I caught a glimpse of all the extra selfless efforts, you could be making when I visited Cirencester delivery office. 

Postman Daniel Edwards holding a letter from the Prince of Wales,who has hailed the ‘dedication, resilience and hard work’ of Britain’s postal workers

‘I saw that you were delivering to Father Christmas, an absolutely essential service with children, and the vast numbers of parcels you sought.

‘And it was here that I was introduced to what could only be described as an incredibly inventive fancily address those men and women. 

‘Ladies and gentleman,  Royal Mail is a service that has delivered for more than 500 years. 

‘But in the last 12 months you prove that your work remains utter vital.

‘For what it is worth, I can only offer you my greatest possible thanks once again for what every single one of you continues to do day in and day out, during these long days of lockdown, what you do, and the service you provide makes such a difference to so many people, and we would truly be lost without you.

Tweeting the video, the Royal Mail added:  ‘We’d like to say a huge thank you to HRH The Prince of Wales for taking the time to record such an incredibly heartfelt video; recognising the hard work and dedication of everyone here at Royal Mail. 

Prince Charles, who has spent most of the year in lockdown in Gloucester, is currently expecting his fifth grandchild as his daughter-in-law Meghan Markle, and son Prince Harry, are currently expecting their second child.

Last year, the Royal Mail has launched a Thumbs Up For Your Postie campaign to encourage customers to show their appreciation for their postie.

The public is being urged to give them a ‘thumbs up’ – from a safe two-metre distance, which is just over the height of a Royal Mail postbox – as a way to stay connected with their local postie while respecting the social distancing rules.

Giving a thumbs up is also a handy reminder for people not to reach out to try and take parcels direct from postmen and women to ensure the delivery is contact-free, the Royal Mail said.