office postmaster general (4 Ergebnisse)

Zustand: Good. Folded Memo, Letter-sized Page, Letterpress on Laid Paper, Good with tears, creasing, losses.

Zustand: Good. Blank Form. 8.5" x 14", Folded Printed Sheet, Good with minor losses, marginal tears, toning.

All five items in good condition, with a little rust spotting from a staple. A little wear to the edge of item two, not affecting text. Four of the five stamped with Horton's call sign '2AHN'. Item One: a printed leaflet (4to, 2 pp), dated GENERAL POST OFFICE, | London | March, 1939.', headed 'B | EXPERIMENTS IN WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY | [.] | AUTHORITY FOR SENDING AND RECEIVING | SUMMARY OF CONDITIONS OF ISSUE | NOTE. - All sending stations must also be equipped for reception'. Item Two: Typewritten copy of Horton's 'Application for Experimental Licence 25th. March 1939', giving personal and technical details (his address is given as 103 Colworth Road, Leytonstone, London E.11) and his reason for the application ('so that eventually I may qualify for consideration for a "radiating" licence to conduct further experiments in particular with regard to propagation as affected by atmospheric conditions, particularly temperature changes'). Stapled to item two is a piece of paper carrying a pencil circuit diagram. ITEM THREE: Horton's printed licence (4to, 3 pp, printed '4/38'), dated 18 May 1939, signed on behalf of the Postmaster General. ITEM FOUR: Typed communication (8vo, 1 p) from the General Post Office, dated 31 August 1939, directing Horton's attention 'to the Notice published in the London Gazette'. ITEM FIVE: Typed copy (8vo, 1 p) of a notice 'To the Sectional Engineer', 'on behalf of the Postmaster General', dated 1 September 1939, announcing that 'an emergency has arisen in which it is expedient for the public service that His Majesty's Government shall have control over the transmission of messages by the Stations mentioned in the Schedule': 'I HEREBY AUTHORISE AND DIRECT you to take possession of each of theh said Stations'. According to one web authority Horton was 'born in East London in 1915. An analytical chemist by occupation, and a lifelong bachelor, he had a thirst for knowledge which led him down many different pathshe was a linguist (Danish, Gaelic), a radio ham, a photographer of great enthusiasm though little talent, an expert on beer and on many other things. A lifelong churchman, he became on his retirement a Lay Reader in the church of England, and a Parish Councillor, roles which he fulfilled with both conscientiousness and delight. [.] A natural hoarder, he died in 1997 leaving a bungalow crammed with memorabilia of all his journeystram and bus tickets, railway timetables, photographs, slides, a home-made wind-up gramophone, many records and cassettes.'.

The recipient of the letter, the 5th Earl of Chesterfield, was Postmaster General between 1790 and 1798. The 'Mr. Palmer' mentioned in the text is John Palmer (1742-1818), MP for Bath, who was Comptroller General of the Post Office between 1786 and 1792. Harraden appears to have been regarded by his superiors as a whistle-blower and trouble-maker. In 1788, as Clerk of the Money Book in the Inland Office (he is elsewhere described as ''Clerk of the letter-bill, and keeper of the cheque-book in the surveyor and comptroller general's departments'), he devised a general system for the registration of property letters. Although the plan was not fully implemented, some of its suggestions were adopted in 1792. Shortly afterwards he was the subject of a curious appendix to a parliamentary paper, which describes him as a tool of 'the Junto', and 'the instrument of their duplicity and the victim of their vengeance at a Board. The report prints 'Mr. Harraden's Plan (his object being 'to prove that a thousand pounds had been stolen in one week', which 'Lord Chesterfield admitted'), and Mr. Stowe's Observations on it'. The extreme craft and imposition which they practised on the Postmaster General, in the affair of the 1st of March, 1796, require to be particularly exposed.' 3pp., folio. Bifolium addressed on the reverse of the second leaf to 'The Right Honrble the Earl of Chesterfield'. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Harraden begins by stating that he is enclosing 'a Letter addressd [sic] to Lord Walsingham in the year 1798 soliciting his Sanction to a recommendation of Mr. Palmers wherein He was pleasd to remark that my services merited an encrease of Salary and earnestly entreating his Lordships Consideration to the hardships of my case but nothing favorable arising therefrom His Lordship entirely forgetting every Circumstance and now compelld by necessity, I have renewd the subject and wrote again and also beg leave to lay before Lordship [sic] some features of my situation that may serve to explain, and satisfy you, that the application merited a more considerate fate than has yet attended it -'. He recounts that in 1800 he 'solicited to retire from the Post Office and was granted a Pension of £53 . 6 . 8 P annm but so overwhelmed in pecuniary affairs owing to the error I fell into by following the first Law Authorities and bringing an Action your Lordship as Postmaster General that from this Cause alone I was under continuall [sic] arrests and suffered near Three Years Imprisonment and now hold my Liberty by a Public Act of Insolvency and as the Income Tax has reduced my Pension under £12 P Quarter I have been forced to Petition the Postmaster General for some relief stating that the Price of every article in Life is raised nearly Double since it was granted'. He quotes the unfavourable response to his petition, and proceeds to explain how he 'sustained the loss of near £500 for endeavouring to recover Money actually expended in a Public Service'. The next paragraph concerns the recommendation of 'Mr. Palmer' for an advance in the pension of £20 per annum, as a result of Harraden's 'attendance and unremitting efforts to his useful Plan [] for it was observed by all I was indefatigable Night as well as Day in the Cause being often called up by Opening all Letters and expresses to Mr Palmer for the first Several Years of his being Comptroller General'. He is 'apprehensive of Trespassing too much' on Chesterfield's time, but feels regarding his case that 'if a Blot could be justly made against me in official matters I would not solicit any great or good Man in my favor and if such Gentlemen as Mr. George White Thomas [MP for Chichester] Mr. Wm. Hayley if Earlham [friend of William Cowper and patron of William Blake] and others did not approve my Conduct and think me worthy they would not have interested themselves in my behalf'. He ends with a flurry of flattery, stating that he was 'in great hopes' when his 'good Friend' Thomas waited on Chesterfield 'purposely on my account and then wrote me word your Lordship was so far favorably inclined as to give hope'.