Office Communications
Ron, George and Eddie - some of the Post Room staff. Bob Dennis was the manager for many years When I began work in the City in 1967, we relied on the post, telegrams, telex and the telephone for all communication. Fax and e-mail hadn't been invented. The post was dealt with in the 'Post Room' which was often the best source of news and gossip and was also where I secured an early copy of Lloyd's List before reading it over my breakfast . There were wooden racks round the walls into which incoming post was sorted before distribution to each department. An important job was to single out post on 'new' claims matters and to get it to the right syndicate. If the post contained a ship's name in the heading, as it often did, those in the post room then looked up which claims 'syndicate' dealt with it and sent it there. An important part of the Syndicate Manager's job was to allocate new matters to the appropriate person depending on how serious it ...