Post Office Savings Bank
Archive class POST 75 holds the records of the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB). The POSB opened for business on 16 September 1861. POST 75/1 contains a copy of the Act of Parliament that established the Bank.
The Bank was set up to encourage ordinary people to save money safe in the knowledge that it was secured by the government. It also provided the government with a financial asset. The Bank did not just offer savings accounts. Over time it introduced a range of other services including government stocks and bonds in 1880, war savings in 1916 and premium savings bonds in 1956.
In 1969, the Bank ceased to be part of the Post Office. Instead it became a separate government department and was known as National Savings. However, the Bank’s link with the postal services continued as post offices continued to handle deposits and withdrawals over the counter.
The small quantity of records that we hold about the POSB range in date from 1828 until 1975. We hold the records that the Bank did not take with it when it became a government department in 1969. They include acts and regulations, reports, publicity and publications, forms and notices. Other records of the POSB are held by The National Archives in Kew.
Here are four examples of records about the Post Office Savings Bank in our collection:
Excerpt from a copy of a letter, 30 November 1860, finding number: POST 75/35
This letter is from George Chetwynd. It tells Lord Stanley of Alderley just how
a government savings bank to encourage 'the working classes in provident habits'
might work in practice. Mr Chetwynd became the first Controller of the POSB.
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Deposit book, 1869, finding number: POST 75/105
This
is an early example of a deposit book. Customers used the books to make
deposits and withdrawals from their savings accounts. This one was
issued at Loughton to Rebecca Mary Brewitt.
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The first entry in the book is for a deposit of £5 on 23 February 1869.
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War Savings Certificate book, c. 1916, finding number: POST 75/95
This is an early example of a War Savings Certificate book. It was made to hold twelve certificates. The early books were pink but, due to a shortage of pink paper in wartime, later books were bound in different colours.
War Savings Certificates were introduced in 1916 to help finance the First World War. The certificates proved so popular that, by the end of the war, £207 million of them had been bought. They were renamed National Savings Certificates in 1920.
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Savings leaflet, c. 1942, finding number: POST 75/17
This leaflet has been printed in English and Polish. It was issued to Polish military service personnel in the
United Kingdom during the Second World War.
According to the leaflet, they could open an account and make withdrawals and deposits at the Post Office Savings Bank in the same way as British depositors. Once the war ended and they returned home, they were allowed to take their savings books back to Poland and spend the money 'within the Sterling area'. Alternatively, they could transfer their savings from the Bank to a Polish account.
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