Thread by @WeirdScotland

Here goes with the next instalment of the Pillar Box War of 1953. If you missed it, part one is quote tweeted here.

Another #OldWeirdScotland mega-🧵

We left off in March '53, where displaying "EIIR" was taboo on pain of having your windows smashed in, Scotland's only "EIIR" pillar box is no more, and there is only one "official" cipher left--in Bellshill...

In the same week Edinburgh's pillar box was unveiled, Bellshill's new Labour Exchange building opened on Hattonrigg Road. (I think it had a short life as I think it was where these shops are now)...

Opened without ceremony the Ministry of Labour's new buroo was a perfectly non-descript municipal building save for its high wrought iron front gate, crowned with the year and "EIIR" in gilded lettering...

At the same time the pillar box was being attacked someone had a go at the Labour Exchange's gate with a sledgehammer but were caught. The Daily Record and Bellshill Speaker papers fielded regular threats about the gate, which was under almost constant police guard...

The weekend of 20-22 March 1953 was very foggy in West Scotland. At 2.30am, Saturday morning, a van reversed right up to the Labour Exchange gate.

Standing on the van's roof and hidden by the fog, someone burnt the numerals off the cipher using an oxyacetylene torch...

The fog was used to good effect in Glasgow too. At 3am the next morning, McGavigan's stationary shop at 24 Royal Exchange Sq. (now @RainbowRoomInt) was blown up after an explosive was thrown through the window. Police failed to catch the men in the fog...

"It was like the blitz!" said one neighbour.

McGavigan's was an old business in Glasgow, and well respected. They'd been warned the day before by "S.R.A." to stop printing "EIIR" stationary. Non-compliance meant Mr. Jack McGavigan's shop was now splinters on the pavement...

While Scotland was smashing itself to bits, the issue began to be debated in Parliament. Championing Scotland's regnal rights was Welshman, and Labour MP for South Ayrshire, Emrys Hughes...

Hughes opposed a bill ratifying the Queen's titles as it was historically inaccurate where Scotland was concerned. He was also angered that other "realms" like Ceylon, S. Africa, and Pakistan had concessions made for them, but Scotland hadn't. ...
(Hughes was a unionist)

Hughes pointed out that insurance companies in Scotland were now refusing to underwrite any businesses that displayed "EIIR"!

So if not to appease the Scottish people, allowing "Elizabeth I of Scotland" at least meant good business sense. The opposition lost 39 votes to 328...

John Rankin (Lab, Tradeston) who seconded Hughes motion, later asked Churchill if he'd "arrange that the Royal Cypher is not placed on new pillar boxes [in Scotland]", and if the government had put up sarcastic posters about "Elizabeth I" to support keeping the extra numeral...

Churchill said nope and scoffed in Rankin's face. Why should there be any restrictions put on the use of the cipher?! Churchill made it clear what he thought about current events in Scotland:

(Churchill would later ask Emrys Hughes to put any future comments about the Queen's status in Scotland "in the pillar-box", i.e. so they'd be blown up...)

Anyway, Churchill's "silliest people" jibe did not go down well north of the border...[...]

Having thoroughly pissed off more Scots, acts of vandalism/civil disobedience remained frequent. Here's a illustrative selection:

A BBC scriptwriter was jailed for sending anti-ER2 threats to Glasgow businesses, signed "The Scottish-Irish N*zi Parties"...

Two Auchtermuchty men were fined for painting out the EIIR cipher on a post van and painting EIR on the windscreen.

Both staunch unionists and "loyal to the Crown". One was even on the local Coronation committee.

Scottish schoolchildren were given coronation souvenirs like mugs, chocolates and mechanical pencils. Kids started refusing to take them. Senior pupils at Wick High School wouldn't take "EIIR" stamped New Testaments.

A fancy dress charity football match at Gorebridge had a halftime show where a massive pillar box effigy marked "E(??)R" was blown up in front of a cheering crowd. You don't get that at the Superbowl...

Responses from local authorities differed. Aberdeen City council decided that any seats or benches installed for the coronation would not have the cipher, but Edinburgh had EIIR hung from every lamppost, and stubbornly replaced every stolen or defaced numeral.

With June and the coronation approaching, the GPO (General Post Office) silently backtracked and decided the royal cipher would not feature on any pillar boxes or postal van in Scotland. This was covertly arranged by Stuart and future PM Alec Douglas-Home.

And so it remains today. Post boxes and vans in Scotland have the Scottish Crown rather than Queen Elizabeth's cipher. The agreement also extended to any government publications in Scotland. Teachers demanded an WM apology when the cipher appeared on leaving certificates in 1960.

The Post Office have messed up a few times since. They had to quickly remove a box installed in Dunoon and there are at least some boxes in Edinburgh that currently have the cipher, and I found one in Dundee last month.

Thanks all for reading this far. There's more to say but I think I'll write it up for the website instead. Cheers!
--J

Och I promised yous folksongs!

Here is Jimmie MacGregor's "Sky-high Joe" about the Inch Pillar Box. It's a combo of Thurso Berwick's "Sky High Joe", and "The Ballad of the Inch" (supposedly by Hamish Henderson), two songs popular in the 50s and 60s

Thanks to @overlandertheb1 @cocteautriplets @byrnesong for their research help, and @Monkeytail2002 for the idea!