Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

Just been looking at our resilient Artist , Jim the brush , during which in an exchange of comments about a painting he posted the phrase BFPO was mentioned .

This immediately took me back to Sunday afternoon dinner in the late 50's 60's at home with my parents and the silence whilst we sat eating our lunch glued to the Radio whilst messages and songs were exchanged between members of the forces serving abroad in the armed forces along with their personal messages of love and how much they were looking forward to being reunited again .

I'm sure I as a youngster then, I wasn't alone in these message exchanges and the furtive links that were forged through them ,all long before the likes of modern media communications were you shouted at a box to remind you to order your next bar of chocolate let alone going on your iPad to speak to someone the other side of the world and see them at the same time .......

Did you use it whilst abroad

Ivor do you mean BFBS = British Forces Broadcasting Service - rather than BFPO = British Forces Post Office.

Not sure who's correct their Harry , as we were brought up to believe it was "British Forces Posted Overseas" which most of my dads ex army mates referred to it by ......so I'm only going by what I was told ........so who knows

Well Ivor I had never heard of the term 'British Forces Posted Overseas' in anything other than the Sunday radio broadcast where family messages were read out..... but ..... somebody else has(like yourself); so take a look at the following short excerpt from the blog DECODED The Cold War Blog 1945-1995

As a taster here is a short excerpt that leads up to a list of 'BFPO' numbers and locations:-

Tuesday, August 20, 2013
British Forces Posted Overseas (BAOR Garrison Codes)

The British armed forces maintained their own postal service much like armies around the world, assigning each of its facilities abroad with a postal code corresponding to a garrison. The British Forces Post Office or BFPO had a system of numbered codes for its garrisons across Western Europe primarily those of I British Corps positioned in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia during the Cold War. The vast majority of these codes were assigned to British Army of the Rhine garrisons in the Federal Republic of Germany and a handful of these were assigned to garrisons in Belgium and the Netherlands. Below is a listing of British Forces Post Office Overseas assignment numbers for historical record.

British Forces Posted Overseas Numbers

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See also:-

Guidance
British Forces Post Office locations

A list of British Forces Post Office (BFPO) locations, numbers and postcodes for Ministry of Defence (MOD).
Published 26 April 2012
Last updated 23 August 2018 — see all updates

From:
Ministry of Defence and Defence Equipment and Support

Source GOV.UK

Note the PDF listing of all the (current) numbers and their associated locations

Well done Harry , I knew if Jim the brush and I new of it then the rest of us must have at some time or other , so well done for ferreting it out , as only you can

I only ever used BFPO Ships, so I presume someone at Mill Hill looked up the name of the ship and forwarded the letter to the relevant area. I never had an overseas shore base posting.

Jim

Thats a shame Jim , as I would imagine it would have meant a great deal whilst away from home , but I'm sure I recall messages to Malta , but there again it could have been any one of the many shore bases or the airfields

Never mind look at the ribbing you avoided from your mess mates

British Forces Broadcasting Service via the BBC 1200 to 1400 Sundays - "TWO WAY FAMILY FAVOURITES" . All ships listened in for messages from home followed by the "NAVY LARK" or "ROUND THE HORN" or "THE GOONS" .

Most people at home tuned in as well ....... most of the dedications seemed to be directed at our Army Buddies and Families based in Germany , seem to recall the Germany end was hosted by JEAN METCALF but it could have been the other way round.

Remember it well , and the compulsory washing up , prior to bedroom inspections and completion of ironing ones kit for the coming week .

All a distant memory now , but I did look forward to the Sunday "Treat " by the radio but the high point for me was certainly the series "Victory at Sea" where I would have sold my sole in order to watch that .......and yes you guessed it "I have the boxed set " of that series and the annoying way that dreadful background music used to sometimes drown out the commentary of events ......