In addition to the delivery envelopes used to deliver telegrams, the Telegraph Department also required envelopes for ordinary correspondence.
These envelopes - all marked O.H.M.S. or On Her Majesty's Service (as Queen Victoria was the Monarch) - are interesting because of the designation of the name of the office. The names of the offices are summarised elsewhere.
The main designations were:
- Electric Telegraphs (pre-1893);
- Postal and Electric Telegraph Department (post-August 1893).
When the Department was first created within Public Works under Captain Martindale, it was called the Electric Telegraph Department. When E.C. Cracknell was appointed as Superintendent in January 1858, it was referred to as Electric Telegraphs.
Official envelopes were therefore marked with either Electric Telegraph Department or Electric Telegraphs.
Used 17 October 1893.Printed during the early 1890s.
Registered at the Mount Victoria Telegraph Station and sent to St Louis Mass, USA.
Has arrival backstamp of 15 November 1893.
Also has Registered backstamps in Sydney, in Vistoria British Columbia and (on 9 November 1893) at Seattle, Washington in green.
Annotations in manuscript added to show Post & Telegraph Station plus Post & Electric Telegraph Department in accordance with the changed Department name.
Size: 100 × 227 mm.
Printed on white paper.
Printed during the 1880s.
Used 1 April 1897 from the Hunter's Hill Telegraph Station (well after being printed).
The additional printing of Telegraph Station is rare.
This envelope, being used post 1893, has been modified in manuscript to the changed Department name - although the decade was not been changed.
Size: 79 × 142 mm.
Printed on light grey paper.
Size: 23× 28 mm.
Used 14 November 1898 at Sydney. Very late usage.
Printed on light grey paper.
2. Postal and Electric Telegraph Department.
After August 1893, all correspondence - including envelopes - was altered to incorporate the new name.
Postal and Electric Telegraph Department.
Used 7 August 1895 for a Registered Correspondence.