UK's longest serving postman calls time on career

Britain's longest-serving Royal Mail postman has recalled hand-delivering turkeys, kippers and last-minute gifts for Christmas arsenic his grounds 60 years comes to an end.

Robert Hudson, from Leyton, eastbound London, started his vocation successful December 1964 - aged 16 – arsenic a messenger successful the Whitechapel Delivery Office distributing telegrams.

The 76-year-old, known arsenic Rocky, volition transportation retired his last displacement overnight connected 28 December astatine the Docklands Delivery Office - wherever helium has spent the past 4 decades working.

Looking up to retirement, Rocky said it volition beryllium unusual to beryllium turning disconnected his aboriginal alarms, but helium is acceptable to "relax" and to walk clip gardening and seeing his family

Christmas parcels backmost successful the 60s were besides a unusual matter arsenic Rocky recalls hand-delivering perishable festive goods done the station specified arsenic turkeys "wrapped up successful brownish insubstantial oregon a cloth with a limb sticking out".

Salmon, kippers and pick were besides portion of his deliveries and Rocky remembers seeing the joyousness connected someone's look arsenic helium handed them a last-minute acquisition from a loved one.

"We often deterioration Santa hats and spell astir astatine Christmas, seeing the look connected the kids' faces erstwhile you're astatine the doorway is truthful nice," helium told the PA Media quality agency.

"People utilized to say, 'here comes Father Christmas'.

"The magnitude of enactment we get astir Christmas is incredible, it's truthful busy, but you propulsion done and get it done – there's thing near behind."

After spending 10 years going door-to-door, Rocky transferred to nighttime shifts astatine the London Docklands Delivery Office.

This came aft the abrupt decease of his wife, Sheila, astatine property 26, successful 1980 and helium needed to instrumentality attraction of their 3 children, who were astir the property of 10 astatine the time.

"I had small kids to bring up connected my ain and the nighttime displacement was the lone mode I could benignant of get circular it," Rocky said.

"I didn't commencement until midnight truthful I could beryllium determination with them close up until then, get them successful bed, tuck them in, sprout disconnected to work, travel location again astatine 07:00 successful the greeting and get them up to spell to school.

"It worked retired perfectly perfect."

Rocky has since spent the past 40 years from 23:00 to 07:00 emptying and organising the transportation trucks to spell retired each morning.

"It's very, precise engaged astatine Christmas and immoderate offices conflict – I managed to support my 1 running."

To people 60 years and the extremity of his service, Rocky and his colleagues celebrated his status enactment astatine the Docklands transportation bureau connected 7 December – the day helium archetypal started successful 1964.

"The archetypal happening I'm going to bash is crook each my alarms off," Rocky said looking up to his retirement.

"I'll decorativeness gathering my shed down the plot and bash immoderate attraction things."