Royal Mail unveils UK’s first post box bearing Charles’ CIIIR cypher as Kretinsky vows to keep uso
Royal Mail has unveiled the UK’s first post box with King Charles III’s cypher in the new town of Great Cambourne – which was lucky as it needed a new one!
Julia Spence, Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, did the honours on Friday, 12 July, helped by pupils from Vine Inter-Church Primary School, who posted handwritten notes to the king asking his advice on achieving a sustainable future and formally inviting him to open their new forest school.
And just a couple of days later the man who looks set to buy Royal Mail promised he would not walk away from the universal service obligation to deliver letters six days a week across the UK for the same price.
Having already committed to honouring the uso for five years – after which the new owners could just dump it – Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky expanded on this to the BBC in an exclusive interview released today, 16 July, promising: “As long as I’m alive, I completely exclude this, and I’m sure that anybody that would be my successor would absolutely understand this.
“I say this as an absolutely clear, unconditional commitment. Royal Mail is going to be the provider of universal service obligation in the UK, I would say forever, as long as the service is going to be needed, and as long as we are going to be around.”
His £3.6billion offer for the 508-year-old organisation has been accepted by Royal Mail’s board and is expected to be approved by shareholders on 25 September but the new Labour-led government still has the power to scrutinise and block the deal.
With assumed debts making the complete offer worth £5bn, Daniel also told the BBC he would be willing to share profits with employees, but appeared to reject the Communication Workers Union’s call for workers to share ownership, stating it would create “a lot of complexity”.
Despite the ongoing questions over the future of Royal Mail, its history has been marked with the latest post box installation where the stainless-steel cylinder is painted the classic pillar box red, while the cypher – which is Charles’ personal property and he has granted RM permission to use – is uniquely painted gold to mark the status as the first one, and there’s a commemorative plaque on the back.
The new cypher has the King’s initial C, the Roman numeral III and R for rex, which is Latin for king under a Tudor Crown, and the tradition of the royal marker goes back 170 years to Queen Victoria with some from her reign, which saw 33,500 installed, still in use around the country as they stay in use until removed or damaged.
Holwell in Dorset still has a VR box that’s over 160 years old – and there’s a very rare example in Worcester bearing Edward VIII’s mark, as he reigned for less than a year before abdicating to marry Wallis Simpson.
Royal Mail chief executive Emma Gilthorpe said that 115,000 post boxes have recorded the succession of monarchs so far, and added: “We thank His Majesty for granting us the use of his personal cypher as we begin the next chapter in the story of the iconic Great British post box in Great Cambourne.”
Posting on social media Julia explained that, even though it’s almost two years since Charles became King: “It’s the first one anywhere – it’s literally the next site needing a box on the Royal Mail list after the last Queen Elizabeth II box was used. The King insisted there is no waste so all previously-made boxes were used first – no preferential treatment for us, we were just lucky!”
In fact, while it is the first in the UK, the Isle Of Man beat the Brits to it with a box that also takes parcels unveiled in April 2023 to mark 50 years since the Post Office on the self-governing British Crown Dependency was inaugurated from Britain’s postal service.
Royal Mail has also announced a change in its brand logo where the company’s vehicle livery, buildings, website and stationery, will now feature the rounded Tudor Crown used by the King, rather than the arched St Edward’s crown used by the late Queen for her cypher.
Following guidance from the royal household, the new logo will only be applied to new or replacement signage, stationery and vehicles to avoid unnecessary costs and waste, and it’s being unveiled on Royal Mail’s fleet of vehicles with an initial roll-out on 100 trucks due on Friday, 19 July, and a further 290 over the next six weeks, with 3,636 being updated by the end of October
However, in Scotland post boxes will keep the St Andrew’s Crown which has been in use since 1955 after protests when Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne in 1952 that she wasn’t the second queen of that name there because her Tudor ancestor and namesake had never been monarch of the nation.
A box in Edinburgh bearing the EIIR cypher was defaced and then blown up so the government agreed to the different branding for post boxes and Royal Mail vehicles in Scotland.
