#postmen

Mail carriers, May 1957.

On the morning of 1st February 1831 mail coach driver John Goodfellow and mail coach guard James McGeorge set out from Dumfries to Edinburgh.

This article on the Scottish Memories website relates tells the story;

Snow had begun to fall heavily as they boarded their mail coach bound for Moffat and they had occasionally to force the vehicle through deepening drifts to complete this stage of their journey: but both…were experienced middle-aged men with a strong sense of duty and “a bit of snow” was not going to stop them.

Having taken on two more horses and some extra passengers the coach continued through the intensifying snow until after a mile and a half Goodfellow and McGeorge were forced to abandon their efforts.

While two male passengers returned to Moffat on some of the horses to raise the alarm, and several female passengers sheltered inside the coach, Goodfellow and McGeorge decided to proceed on horseback with the mail. Tragically, both men succumbed to the snow after a few more miles, although their horses made it to a nearby farm.. It is understood they were hoping to reach Tweedshaws Inn in Tweedsmuir parish where ostlers were waiting for the routine horse change.

An account states:

"The following morning a man named Marchbank set out from Moffat to discover the state of the road and coach.

"AfterstrugglIng through the snow towards Tweedshaws, he was to find the mailbags hung on a post by the road.

"The post was adorned with bloody marks from frostbitten fingers."

A search party failed to find them and their bodies were only discovered four days later.

Both men are buried in Moffat Old Churchyard 

I'm expecting a package. I have been home all day. And these chucklecunts leave a paper in my mailbox so I have to go to town tomorrow to pick it up. On the paper it says delivery was attempted. Bitch when?!