The staff at the UK’s Rothera Research Station in Antarctica have been gifted an iconic Royal Mail ‘lamp’ post box featuring the King Charles III cypher – just in time for Christmas.
The new lamp box was requested by Kirsten Shaw, a station support assistant who runs the staff-only Post Office at British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) Rothera Research Station, in British Antarctic Territory. The service allows Kirsten’s colleagues to send and receive post from friends and family back home while they are deployed to the frozen continent. As well as overseeing the formal Post Office logistics of getting mail in and out of Antarctica from Rothera, she handles the unpredictable process of getting post out to staff to other UK stations and science field camps - an informal operation affectionately known as ‘Antarctic Postal Logistics’.
Seeking an upgrade for their hand-made box, Kirsten wrote to His Majesty The King. Touched by the story of the team working in one of the most remote places on Earth, the Royal Household worked with Royal Mail to arrange this particularly special delivery.
Kirsten was recognised with the Fuchs Medal in 2022 for her contributions to the Antarctic community, particularly her work on the staff postal service.
She said:
“Getting post is really special for the team at Rothera. If you’re doing fieldwork for many months, the feeling of receiving a letter – an actual tangible, piece of paper with handwriting from friends and family – is such a lift. It’s a wonderful way to connect people that goes beyond what an email or text message can do.
Being in Antarctica is incredible, but it’s full of extremes. So I think it’s a special thing to send post back home, to communicate your experiences. It’s a moment of your life that you put down on paper and give to someone else.”
Sending post to and from a remote Antarctic research station is no mean feat. After Kirsten sorts staff correspondence intended for international delivery, she adds British Antarctic Territory stamps and packs it into bags. She forwards these bags on board the RRS Sir David Attenborough or on BAS aircraft to the Falkland Islands, where BAS maintains an office in Stanley. The final leg involves transport on the ‘air bridge’ route to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where letters enter the Royal Mail postal network for onward delivery.
The new post box has been delivered to Rothera Research Station by the UK’s polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough, along with the first major drop of supplies to the station following the long Antarctic winter. The post box will ultimately have pride of place in the Discovery Building: a new scientific support and operations hub which supports the station and polar science delivery.
