Generation game
Deployment lead, Richard Burnell, from our Enterprise programme, is currently in his 42nd year of working for Royal Mail.
The Burnell family, who have form in this field, are certainly no strangers in terms of loyalty to the business as both Richard’s parents also clocked up more than 40 years of incredible service.
‘My dad, Roy (pictured, front row, second from left) started at Royal Mail in 1948 as a 15-year-old telegram boy in Hounslow,’ said Richard. ‘He worked his way up through the ranks to become one of the youngest ever to achieve PHG at 18.
‘He then became Chief Inspector of Hounslow, where he played for the Hounslow Postal Football team from 1959-60. The above photo was featured in the Post Office Magazine, the forerunner to Courier, for winning the league and the Post Office Cup.
‘After moving to Twickenham, he went onto Brighton in 1986. He left in 1992 having achieved a grand total of 44 years. My dad is now 86 and doing very well living in Brighton.’
Richard’s mum Kathy Burnell, nee Woolcock, worked in the Post Office all her working life, starting in a sub office in Heston and then onto the Hounslow Branch Office.
‘Despite her having us four kids, she carried on working in-between and even after she retired, she carried on in sub offices in the Milton Keynes area,’ said Richard. ‘She’s now 80 and we calculate she worked close to 50 years.
‘My grandad was a bit of a maverick as he went off to World War One as an underage recruit, but survived and worked as a postman between the wars. One day, he was performing a collection at Heston Aerodrome on the day Neville Chamberlain returned from his meeting with Hitler in 1938. As my dad was off school that day he joined my grandad on his duty and remembers going on his shoulders trying to see what was going on, which of course was Chamberlain waving that famous “peace in our time” paper around to the gathered crowd as he came off the plane.
‘Despite only being a reservist, my grandad went to World War Two serving in Africa after just upping and leaving my grandma and dad for the entire six years of the war. My grandma refused to leave the house despite living so close to London and Heston Aerodrome so she and my dad lived right through the Blitz!
‘All in all, although I haven’t got an exact number, I think between us as a family, we’re way over 150 years of service.’
