ANZAC Q&A - Were the Anzacs able to send and receive mail?

Image: Four men queue to send or receive mail at the field post office at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli Peninsula. 1915.

Q.   Were the Anzacs able to send and receive mail?

A.   An Army Postal Service was formed at Melbourne in September 1914 from AIF volunteers under the command of Staff Sergeant A.W. Ross, organised into field post offices for HQ 1st Division, 1st Light Horse and 1st, 2nd and 3rd Infantry Brigades, plus one in 1st Divisional Train to service divisional troops. Arrangements were made with the Postmaster General’s Department to sort mails into unit lots. The field post offices set up in Egypt after arrival received and delivered mail and transacted normal postal business of money orders, parcel post and registered mail. When it became apparent that the AIF would be committed to operations in the Middle East a base post office was set up in Cairo, and then a second at the port in Alexandria. Divisional and brigade post offices were established at Gallipoli; men would drop items to be mailed at their unit orderly room and the mail would be taken by the postal orderly to the field post office for despatch. Postal orderlies collected incoming mail from the field post offices and carried it back to their unit for distribution.

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