PostOffice.gov.ac - Homepage of the Ascension Island Post Office
Title
Ascension Island Post Office and Philatelic Bureau - Ascension Island, Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha stamps, philatelic items and currency
Description
Ascension Island Post Office & Philatelic Bureau
Ascension Island was known as the Sailor's Post Office as early as the seventeenth century. Ships passing Ascension would call at the island and leave letters for others going in the right direction to deliver. The eastern head of the Island is called Letterbox, although no trace of the spot used to deposit letters remains today.
March 1867, when the UK Postmaster General sent a supply of stamps to the Island for the Island's postmaster, H.A. Haswell, to sell. Since 1863, the Union Castle Steamship Company had been calling at Ascension to deliver and collect mail. With the withdrawal of the Royal Navy in 1922, new arrangements had to be made.
To celebrate the conversion of Ascension to a dependency of St Helena, sets of St Helena stamps overprinted with Ascension were produced. At once the Island's Post office was inundated with requests for stamps from all over the world. On 20
