Isle of Man Post Office - History

History

The Isle of Man's postal service was originally operated by the United Kingdom's General Post Office, with a daily postal connection with the UK since 1879. In 1966 the UK Government commenced planning to convert the General Post Office into a public corporation, and as part of this process offered each of the Crown Dependencies the opportunity to assume control of the operations of the GPO on their territories. On 18 October 1968, Tynwald decided that they did not wish to take up the offer, but provision was made in the Post Office Act 1969 nonetheless.

In the Channel Islands, the authorities did accept the offer, and postal and telecommunications activities of the GPO were transferred in October 1969 to form Jersey Post and Guernsey Post (telecoms activities were transferred to Jersey Telecom and Guernsey Telecoms).

In 1972, following negotiations by Tynwald to have the telephone system excluded from the transfer, it was agreed that the Isle of Man would, after all, take over control of the insular postal administration. As a result, the Isle of Man Post Office Authority was formed and took over the postal assets and functions of the Post Office on 5 July 1973. The monies paid for the assets of the Post Office, £148,624, were recouped within the first year from the surpluses generated by the Authority. It was reconstituted as a Statutory Board and renamed the 'Isle of Man Post Office' under the Post Office Act 1993.

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