What is "Northampton News"?

"Northampton News" is the name of a newsletter produced between 1942 and 1945 by Northampton Post Office to keep in touch the staff, families and former employees then in the Forces all over the world. It was posted out on the Friday before the last Thursday of each month and somehow reached servicemen and women, often constantly moving, all over the world. No doubt the Ministry of Supply's restrictions in Article 1(i) (a) of the "Control of Paper (No.36) Order", of late 1941, dictated the closely typed format and trimmed pages of the earlier issues, which were retained throughout the newsletter's production.

I was fortunate to find myself in possession of most of the original monthly newsletters, which consisted of between 2 and 10 sides of A4 paper per issue, in a bundle of 306 pages, hole punched and tied with a treasury tag. A few pages are ragged and crumbling and some issues are missing but nearly all are legible. The papers have been donated to the British Postal Museum and Archive.

http://postalheritage.org.uk/

"Northampton News" is an interesting piece of social history which, containing excerpts of letters home from the servicemen, gives an insight into the attitudes of ordinary people in extraordinary times.

Edited by a Mr Needham Smith and his wife Gwen M Needham-Smith, it must have taken considerable effort to produce some 500 copies per month, but it seems to have had an enormous benefit to morale and industrial relations. See below: Page 3, April 1944 for a description of the newsletter's production by Sapper Dick Mepham, and the cover of the Victory Edition.

The editor indicated that he was retaining all the letters and souvenirs sent by the servicemen, for posterity. One wonders what became of that fantastic collection. However the Album of photographs kept by the Head Postmaster was found and images from it have been added at the end of the web album. The album itself has also been donated to the British Postal Museum and Archive.