Royal Mail is the national postal service of the United Kingdom. Historically, the General Post Office was a government department, but it became The Post Office, a state-owned corporation, in 1969 and then a Public Limited Company wholly owned by HM Government in 2000. Despite other other former state monopolies such as British Gas and British Telecom, Royal Mail was not privatised in the 1980s and 1990s, but remains a limited company wholly owned by the UK government.
A wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail is Post Office LImited, which operates the national network of post offices. As the activities of Royal Mail have been reduced, so the network of post offices has controversially contracted.
The history of Royal Mail goes back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a “Master of the Posts”, which became the office of the Postmaster General. The Royal Mail service was first made available to the public by Charles I on July 31, 1635, with postage being paid by the recipient, and the General Post Office (GPO) was officially established by Charles II in 1660.
