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First class How a Royal Mail postbox ended up in Antarctica
The Guardian Weekly
|December 19, 2025
It might be traditional to write to Father Christmas with a gift list, but when Kirsten Shaw wanted a new postbox for staff at the UK's Rothera research station in Antarctica, she wrote to the king.
The request has resulted in a special delivery for Shaw - a station support assistant who, among myriad other tasks, runs the British Antarctic Territory post office at the station.
"I love post, I love postboxes and stamps, so I just really wanted to get a proper Royal Mail one for the station," said Shaw, who was awarded the Fuchs Medal in 2022 for her contributions to the Antarctic community.
Known as a "lamp" postbox, the smallest type of postbox, the bright red receptacle with its King Charles III cipher is an upgrade on its predecessor.
"It was something you could probably buy off Amazon - something you might put outside your own front door - and then somebody at some point had painted quite badly the Elizabeth II royal cipher," said Shaw.
This story is from the December 19, 2025 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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