Newport postman retires after 50 years of service

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A DEDICATED Newport postman is retiring after half a century of service which has seen him take only two weeks’ sick leave.

Alan Walls, 65, of Colston Court, started as a telegram boy on September 23, 1963, when he was 15.

He is to retire on Saturday, and said he has thoroughly enjoyed his work as he has got to know the people on his rural route.

“I’m like Postman Pat in my delivery van, doing my rural rounds at Goldcliff and Bishton for 30 years,” he said.

When Mr Walls left school, his uncle, who worked at the post office, got him the job as a telegram boy in Dock Street.


“Alongside that I was learning how to be a postman, learning tasks such as the sorting of the mail, so when I turned 18 I moved up to be a full-time postman,” he said.

“In those days it was nice and easy but eventually the housing estates were built, making it more difficult.

“The uniform has also changed. I used to wear navy blue with a red stripe down the trousers, and a peak hat, with a pouch for the letters,” he said.

Mr Walls started his career with eight other young lads, and is the last one to retire from that group.

In his retirement he plans to tour Australia for six weeks, following the British and Irish Lions.


Mr Walls’ manager, Richard Cooke, of Newport, has worked with him for 34 years. He said: “Alan, or the Brick, as we call him, has been in the business for 50 years and in that time he has had only two weeks off sick, when he had a detached retina.

“Not even being bitten by a dog in 2008 stopped him finishing his rounds – he went to hospital after he had finished.

“He said that when he returned home he must have had a delayed shock, as he collapsed in the kitchen, but he never had a day off and he returned to work the following day.

“Alan is a fantastic worker, he is the epitome of what the Royal Service is all about, as he always puts the customer first.

“The Brick is the best at delivering ‘rogue letters’, these are letters that have no specific address, but he knows every single one of them as he knows all the people living in the area on the rural deliveries he does.

I would like to thank him for his commitment to the service.”