The Perim Post 1857-1936

This article is a summary of the Perim Post from 1957-1936. At various stages in these 79 years the post was carried either overland, or by sea or – from 1928 – by air. From 1871 onwards two of these methods were often available at any given time.

From the permanent occupation of Perim in 1857 to September 1871 mail for Perim was delivered on an opportunity basis by whatever government vessel might be sailing there from Aden, whether it be the Station Steamer, a visiting warship or a dhow or buggalow chartered by the Commissariat to carry rations and other supplies to the island. At various times up to 1936 the system had to fall back on this opportunity method and it was a standing (operational) procedure that captains of all vessels had to check with the post office and the harbourmaster that there were not items to be taken to any outlying ports or islands due to be visited.

In February 1871 Captain L G Brown, the OC Outpost on Perim, asked that a fortnightly overland courier service between Aden and Perim be introduced to provide a more frequent and dependable service. This was agreed but it took nearly another seven months to set up, including as to which department would finance it. A trial run of what became known as the Rural Messenger left the post office in Camp (Crater) on 19 September 1871 and the fortnightly service proper began on 3 October. The story of the Rural Messenger will be covered in more detail in another article. It ran reasonably well until sometime in 1879 when it was suspended because of unreliability. Until late September 1883 mail to Perim reverted to being delivered (and collected) on an opportunity basis, by sea. The Rural Messenger service was re-started in the autumn of 1883 at the instigation of the newly-arrived Perim Coal Company (PCC). It continued until February 1890 when the contract was cancelled due to post being plundered, Perim again having to rely on opportunity deliveries by sea for the next eight months.

This was the time that was needed to set up a much more reliable postal service, in conjunction with the regular postal service to Somaliland. In November 1890 Cowasjee Dinshaw (CD) signed a contract to deliver mails seven times every eight weeks, at intervals of not less than six nor more than 10 days. This contract was renewed yearly until 31 March 1899, when the Consul General & Resident in Berbera decided he wanted his own contract with CD.

Aden was given warning of the change and the PCC and CD were both invited to tender for a separate contract for Perim; the PCC were not interested and the CD tender was not accepted as being too expensive. Aden therefore on 1 April 1899 had to revert to a Rural Messenger service for Perim, but this time with a weekly contract subsidised by the PCC. On 10 March 1900 this service had to be suspended due to cholera in Aden.

There followed three months whilst steamers of the PCC ran a temporary service whilst a contract was been drawn up. This contract mail service by the PCC lasted until August 1915, under the same conditions of frequency of the CD contract of the 1890s.

Next there was a temporary non-contract service by the CD vessel being used to resupply the southern Red Sea lighthouses. In theory this was three times a month, but by mid-1916 this was often only monthly. This infrequency resulted in a contract being drawn up with the PCC which worked until the PCC’s last steamer, the Sheikh Berkhud, was requisitioned in September 1917 for use as a minesweeper at Aden. As a result a new contract with CD was entered into until the withdrawal of the wartime garrison on Perim sometime in 1919.