Thinking about the old methods for delivery of government documents around the UK made me remember the Queen’s Messengers. Do they still exist?
Well they did in 1995, when a Question in the House of Lords elicited the information that there were 27 of them employed at a total cost of around £3 million a year. However, following the Cabinet Office Protective Security Review of 1993 the FCO were also looking at the future structure of the Queen's Messenger Service.
Happily the Messengers still survived in 2007 when British High Commissioner Nick Archer told a Rotary Club Malta meeting that ‘Our confidential papers are still delivered around the world by members of the Corps of Queen’s Messengers – founded by Charles II.’
Today they are part of something called Secure Logistics, a Trading Fund of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
Queen’s Messengers carry secret or highly confidential documents to our embassies abroad, in special bags which cannot be opened by foreign customs offices. The bag must be in the possession of, & within the sight of, the Messenger at all times.
They usually travelled first class but I sometimes saw one of them, in my 1960s flying days, sitting in the single class of one of the smaller airlines. The bag was disappointingly nondescript, not unlike a canvas holdall or kitbag, something you might use for taking your washing home to mother.
The messenger always looked a bit louche to me – a been there seen it all foreign correspondent or the Richard Burton character come in from the cold to the warmth of the tropics.
They were not to be messed about however. I once saw (but could not overhear) an increasingly tetchy conversation between a Queen’s Messenger & a couple of immigration/customs officers at a small airport. This terminated when the messenger picked up his bag, vaulted over the gate, & legged it. The officials did not move.
I am sure it is all much more formal & disciplined these days.
