The man who posted himself

The suburban accountant who tested the Royal Mail to its limits, exasperated Hitler and became one of Britain's greatest pranksters.

Saw this wonderful little story today and thought it was worthy to be posted on ATS.

What do you do with a little money, some free time, an incurable sense of humour and the rulebook of the (British) Post Office? Well...post anything you can think of such as a slipper, a half smoked cigar, a frying pan, a turnip with the address engraved on one side, a live dog and eventually yourself, all without wrapping paper or envelopes and sometimes with a cryptic address.

I guess you could say he liked to push the envelope, without the envelope.

Over the years, he posted, unwrapped, an onion, pipe, bicycle pump, clothes brush, shirt, drawing slate and clump of dried seaweed.

The fact these had been delivered only encouraged Bray to become ever more daring. He was particularly fascinated by the rules on live creatures, discovering that the smallest that could be posted was a bee and the largest an elephant.

On page 37 of the Post Office Guide, in a paragraph entitled ‘Exceptional Express Services’, he read that ‘a dog furnished with a proper collar and chain may be, at the discretion of the postmaster, taken to its address on payment of a mileage charge’.

And so on February 10, 1900, he and Bob turned up at Forest Hill Post Office to test out this rule.

Please click the link to read the whole incredible but true story.

W. Reginald Bray, kudos!

bored people are the best people.

Within W. Reginald Bray there lurked an impish spirit that longed to cock a snook at officialdom' Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

That's hilarious

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


Oh , if I only had the time and money to test the limits of the USG, all in good humor of course.

Chances are though I would end up in jail.

reply to post by TDawgRex

Yeah, this was in the old days when they had just invented the rules and made it more accessible and affordable but these days it seems it's only bombs and anthrax and other nasties that people try to send.