The Development of Public Relations and Integrated Marketing Communications at the General Post Office, 1933-39: a Study in the Emergence of ‘Admass’ in the United Kingdom

In the interwar period the British Post Office, or the General Post Office (GPO), was the largest organisation and employer in Britain. In the 1930s the GPO employed over 250,000 workers. The organisation was in fact several businesses. Its primary activities revolved around communication, principally postal services, telegraphs and telephone. In relation to the former the interwar period, and particularly the 1930s, witnessed a massive growth in international postal services via airmail. In addition, the GPO operated a major bank, the Post Office Savings Bank, and oversaw the broadcasting license for the British Broadcasting Corporation whic h it represented in Parliament. Finally the GPO was responsible for the payment of government benefits, including old age pensions. With the increase in social welfare from the liberal reforms of 1906-14 onwards, the GPO for many people in Britain became the embodiment and symbol of the state. It was the one government institution that most people regularly interacted with