Cats as Royal Mail mice catchers & the permitted payment
The HQ of the Royal Mail was in St Martins Le Grand (near St Pauls) from 1829 to 1912. In the authorised history of the postal service Matters of the Post (Penguin 2012) Duncan Campbell Smith records an issue with mice at the HQ building.
In 1868 Mr Jackson the Controller of the Money Order Department Mr Jackson had written that there was a problem with mice nibbling at paid money orders. Mousetraps had not worked so he asked for permission to acquire cats to do the job.
There was of course an official policy for this. Up to three cats could be acquired. They should be females (more likely to catch things than fight) and they should be on probation for performance purposes. The cats were not to be overfed and a shilling a week was allowed for this purpose. The remainder of their ‘emolument’ was to be mice. If the number of mice had not been reduced in six months then the amount paid for feeding should be reduced. It was also required that statistics were kept on the number of mice caught.
Campbell-Smith records that the instruction (known as a PI- Postal Instruction) remained in force for many years.
Whether or not the cat solution worked is not revealed. However for many years until 2020 (when it moved to another part of the City of London) I worked at the HQ of Post Office Telecommunications (since 1984 BT) which was immediately opposite the old Royal Mail HQ. There were certainly issues with mice from time to time. Cats however were not deployed. People were simply told not to leave edibles lying around…
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