Post Offices
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A Post Office was opened in Aden under Indian administration in 1839 and mail is known to have been sent from 15 June 1839. Handstamps quickly came into use but a postmaster was not appointed until 1857. The original Post Office at Crater was called Aden Cantonment or Aden Camp after the main office moved to Steamer Point around 1858.
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Aden became the mail exchange port for the few countries which operated through the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean and Far East. Sub-POs were opened at Sheikh Othman in 1891; Khormaksar in 1892; Dthali in 1903-7, and Maalla in 1922.
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The new Steamer Point Post Office was opened in 1858 but within a year the rapid growth of services demanded larger premises. Despite pressure from Aden the usual procrastination by Bombay delayed improvements. It was finished 10 years later and was officially opened 31st March 1868. At this time the Steamer Point Post Office became the G.P.O., taking over from the Aden Camp Post Office in Crater.
The single-level Aden Camp Post Office (Crater). The bridge identifies the location as being adjacent to the water course (Al Wadi) which ran from the Tawila Tanks out to Front Bay.
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The Maalla Sub Post Office was in the Railway Terminal Building in Maalla. It opened in 1922 and closed seven years later, simultaneously with the closure of the railway in 1929. The railway had until that time carried mail. A new Post Office opened in Maalla 20 years later, in 1949.
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The new Steamer Point Post Office was opened in 1858 but within a year the rapid growth of services demanded larger premises. Despite pressure from Aden the usual procrastination by Bombay delayed improvements. It was finished 10 years later and was officially opened 31st March 1868. At this time the Steamer Point Post Office became the G.P.O., taking over from the Aden Camp Post Office in Crater. The first PostMaster at Steamer Point was Mr. W. L. Nicker. He was replaced a year later by W. Potts and then by Jocelyn Waller in 1859.
In January 1868 an official from the GPO in London visited the Aden Post Office. His main suggestion to Bombay was that on mail days a policeman should be on duty outside the post office at Steamer Point to control irate residents and passengers waiting to receive or post letters. The cause of the problem had been mentioned in the Aden Postmaster’s contribution to the Annual Report for 1867-68. There was only one postal clerk available to sell stamps and on mail days he was needed to help sort incoming mail for Aden Camp. The post office was in effect shut for two or three hours at this vital time, to the annoyance of all concerned. The postmaster solved the problem by taking on an extra clerk purely to sell stamps.
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A Postal Notice in June 1869 gave the following latest times of posting, including on payment of Late Fee at Steamer Point only.
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In order to speed up the mail service between Steamer Point and Crater, in October 1869 a request was made to substitute two of the camels with two horses, which would cost the same 30 Rupees a month. It was pointed out that the camels were labour camels, capable of only three and a half miles an hour, whilst horses with a maximum speed of 10 miles an hour could easily do two trips a day.
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In 1871 a civil contractor had a contract to carry the mail between Steamer Point and Camp. This camel dawk cost 90 Rupees per month. In addition the contractor had to provide a carriage when required whenever Mr Waller, the Aden Postmaster, or other postal officials visited Camp Post Office. This arrangement was not very satisfactory, especially on mail days when a quicker method of transport was required. The Resident therefore suggested to the PMG in Bombay that the mail service would be more regular and more efficiently run if it was independent of local contractors, and that some of the new light mail carts should be sent from Bombay.
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It appears that no change was made then but an opportune moment was on the next expiry of the contract in March 1876. The Aden Postmaster asked for two light mail carts, plus a horse to be used on days when packet mail was distributed. The Postmaster General Bombay replied that he thought that the ordinary light spring carts being used in Bombay would do very well for Aden. Two carts of these carts were sent from Bombay in August and in November a request was made for a water allowance for a mail van and the two men that were employed taking mail between Steamer Point and Crater.
