The previous “Postal History Corner” covered the post office buildings of Upper Hutt, with this one covering the various Postmasters that occupied the position.

This list has been compiled from Post Office records held at Archives NZ^[i], and put together by Lynley Yates

Postmaster	Start	Finish	Remarks
P A Wilkie	24 Oct 1859	30 Jun 1875	Records up to 1862 lost in wreck of “White Swan” during transfer of the Government of Auckland to Wellington.  Some records 1862 to 1887 lost in G.P.O. fire.
J Wylie	01 Jul 1875	30 Jun 1878
A A Winterburn	01 Jul 1878	31 Oct 1880
P L Payne	01 Nov 1880	31 Aug 1881
J Unsworth	01 Sep 1881	31 Oct 1890
T Lewis	01 Nov 1890	1894
M Maher	1894	23 Aug 1898
J Hanning	24 Aug 1898	31 Mar 1903
H A Wright	01 Apr 1903	30 Nov 1905
J Kemp	01 Dec 1905	02 Apr 1909
J Comesky	03 Apr 1909	29 Mar 1914	[Killed in “Benge & Pratt” explosion]
T H Ballantine	19 May 1914	31 Mar 1919
T Cole	01 Apr 1919	18 Jan 1924
R Cox	19 Jan 1924	21 Feb 1927
T E Youngman	17 Apr 1927	31 Mar 1931	Retired on Superannuation
H G Stainton	30 Apr 1931	07 Dec 1938	Retired on Superannuation
G W Mellor	08 Dec 1938	17 Dec 1938	Acted as Postmaster
C A Corder	19 Dec 1938	02 July 1941	Transferred to Postmaster Feilding
T G Wildermoth	03 July 1941	29 Aug 1941	Acted as Postmaster
L McPherson	30 Aug 1941	19 Nov 1945	Promoted to Postmaster Te Aro
A H Morgan	19 Nov 1945	26 May 1948	Transferred to Postmaster Eastbourne
H J Smith	13 May 1948	05 Mar 1951	Transferred to Postmaster Lower Hutt
H J Keenan	07 Mar 1951	16 May 1951	Acted as Postmaster
R C Satherley	15 May 1951	08 Jun 1953	Transferred to Postmaster Lower Hutt
H J Dunford	09 Jun 1953	02 Jul 1953	Acted as PM transferred to PM Lower Hutt
C G Gallen	03 Jul 1953	14 Dec 1954	Retired
G A Steel	31 Jan 1955	22 Mar 1956	Retired
G W Ward	06 Jun 1956	24 Sep 1956	Deceased
A C Downey	17 Jan 1957	05 Jan 1958	Transferred to Postmaster Levin
W C Higginson	27 May 1958	31 Mar 1959	Retired
F L Bonifacio	31 Aug 1959	11 Nov 1960	Transferred to Postmaster
J Broadbent	15 Dec 1960	31 Mar 1965	Retired
L V Smith	22 Apr 1965	29 Jun 1966	Transferred to Postmaster Ashburton
J C Macdonnell	13 Jan 1968	18 Jul 1969	Transferred to Postmaster Ashburton
T J Valentine	26 Sep 1969	03 Dec 1973	Transferred to Postmaster Hastings
A U J Rogers	18 Jan 1974	24 Mar 1975	Transferred to Postmaster Ashburton
F A Burcher	31 Mar 1975	13 Jan 1978	Transferred to Deputy CPM Wellington
M A Brady	05 Apr 1978	24 Dec 1979	Retired
C J Beazley	30 Jan 1980

[i] https://collections.archives.govt.nz/en/web/arena/search#/?q=R21726989

A “thank you” to Andrew for sending this article to The Upper Hutt Connection.

01/09/25