British Forces Post Office - BFPO Addresses and Numbers

BFPO Addresses and Numbers

Below is an example of a BFPO address, using the fictitious Loamshire Regiment:

12345678 LCPL B Jones B Company 1 Loamshire Regt BFPO 61

BFPO 61 is for Milan, Italy. Until the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, BFPO 1 was the address for British forces serving in the then colony.

When sending mail from the UK to a member of HM Forces serving overseas, the sender must address it to the appropriate BFPO number, and not to the country in which that person is based. This is especially important as mail to BFPO addresses is often charged at the inland UK rate, and if it is addressed to an overseas destination with only UK postage attached, this will result in delays.

For security reasons, mail to civilian addresses in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland must be handed directly to BFPO staff, not placed in the post box, and must not have a return military address displayed on the envelope. In addition, mail to those destinations cannot be sent using the Bluey system.

In 2012, in collaboration with Royal Mail, the BFPO introduced UK-style postcodes, to help ordering items online, owing to problems with websites not recognising the BFPO addressing format. The addresses are assigned to the notional post town "BFPO" and, as of 2012, the postcodes all begin with "BF1". For example, the above address would appear as:

12345678 LCPL B Jones B Company 1 Loamshire Regt BFPO 61 BFPO BF1 2AY

The postcodes are provided for compatibility with non-BFPO UK addresses and are not required.