Messengers asked to reunite

Messenger boys that kept the West Midlands ticking over before the telephone became so popular are being sought to join a special reunion website.

Rather than let their sweaty-browed history fade into the distant memory, a group of Royal Mail workers have set up the site to pay tribute to the vital contribution they once made to society.

Up until the telegram was made completely redundant 25 years ago, messenger boys were the unsung heroes of the British workforce, delivering thousands of messages by hand from business to business.

A Royal Mail worker who created the site is now calling on Express & Star readers to help spread the word by getting former messenger boys to log on and recall their tales.

Roger Green, who started his Royal Mail career in 1976, said: "We believe there are a number of former telegram messenger boys in the Black Country, and we want to reunite them with the Birmingham messenger boys and get them adding stories to our new website.

"The website records past memories of their years as messenger boys, and also features photos of past reunions. There is also a message board for everyone to leave messages for one another, and to reunite past work colleagues.

"We had a reunion in Birmingham in September and 145 people attended, many of them from all over the country. We are convinced, that from the thousands of former message boys still alive, many of them live in Wolverhampton and elsewhere in the Black Country, and we want to get them involved.

"It was great catching up on stories from the times before telephones, when a telegram was the only way of getting a message to someone on the same day.

"At the end of the day the messenger boys have a lot of history, and it would be a shame if any of that was forgotten. The site I have set up aims to prevent that from happening." To visit the site, log on to www.birm inghamsandsclub.co.uk