Britain’s longest-serving Royal Mail postman began hand-delivering presents when he was just 16 – and has shared the most unique ones he’s handled over the years. Robert ‘Rocky’ Hudson, 76, has handled countless parcels after beginning his career in December 1964 in Leyton, east London.
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Rocky started as a messenger in the Whitechapel delivery office, delivering telegrams on a motorcycle. Then, in proper Father Christmas style, he changed to delivering parcels from a sack on his back in Poplar. This year, he will log his last shift on December 28 after working nights for the past 40 years – which made it easier to care for his three young children following the sudden death of his wife, Sheila, at age 26, in 1980.
Reflecting on his Christmas deliveries, he said: ‘At Christmas, you used to get turkeys coming through wrapped up in brown paper or a cloth with a leg sticking out the bottom and you had to take that round to someone’s house. ‘You used to get salmon which had to go out, cream from Cornwall, Norfolk kippers. They were marked up as perishable and they had to go – you had a commitment and it had to go that day.’.
Rocky also said he loved delivering last-minute Christmas gifts to those in the area he covered: ‘It was fun, all the presents wrapped up. It’s nice to knock on the door and see someone’s smiling face.’. He says retirement will be ‘strange’, but he’s ready to relax and spend more time with his family, including his granddaughter British Paralympic archer Jessica Stretton.
