Edward VIII pillar box

Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor was King for less than a year, from 20 January 1936 till his abdication on 11 December that same year. It should come as no surprise then that items that carry the Edward VIII name, insignia, portrait (like coinage) or emblem are few and far between. So, I was rather pleased to get a photo of this pillar box carrying the royal cipher of Edward VIII, one of only two known to exist in Wales.

According to a list I found online, there are around 170 known Edward VIII pillar boxes, most of which are in England. Apparently, more still exist that were manufactured and put in place during Edward VIII’s short reign but their doors were changed to display the cipher of George VI after Edward’s abdication. Images of some of the other extant Edward VIII pillar boxes can be found on Wikimedia here,  

I am not alone in having a fascination for such things: the Humbugshouse blog has a great post with lots of photo of many of the English boxes, and there is even a Letter Box Study Group, whose aims are ‘to encourage research, preservation, restoration and awareness of letter boxes and the definitive description and documentation of their types and locations.’  

For pillar box aficionados, I have blogged previously about some of the other pillar boxes I’ve found, and my local Edward VIII pillar box can be found in Heol Don, in the Cardiff suburb of Whitchurch. Its importance is obviously well recognised as the fence of the house behind it has been altered to accommodate it.