PERHAPS no postal personality is better known than Mr Johnny McGillivray, 53 Belville Street, who has just retired after 45 years' service.
Still youthful looking, and always with a smile, Mr McGillivray does not look his age and few would imagine that he played his part well in the First World War and has also a record of service in the Post Office which is almost unique.
He joined the P.O. as a boy messenger and when the 1914 war broke out served with the Royal Field Artillery in Mesopotamia coming through much of the stress and struggle which that part oi the country suffered while hostilities were at their height.
On his return to the Post Office, he took an active part in the trade union movement.
He was appointed Branch Secretary of Union of Post Office Workers and was also secretary of the staff side of the local Whitley Committee for several years.
For the past 29 years he has held the post of district organiser of the UPW, a duty which entailed keeping in constant touch with a very wide area, including Campbeltown, Dumbarton, Dunoon, Islay, Gourock, Helensburgh, Lochgilphead, Port Glasgow and Rothesay.
During Mr McGillivray’s long connection with the Post Office he has seen many changes, notably the fact that in his earlier years a postman had six deliveries a day while now he has only two.
But he thinks there is still great need for improvement in the service, as postal workers, he says, have still got a 48-hour, six-day week with no half holiday.
Johnny will be missed in the west-end, where he delivered the mail day in and day out, and was always a popular figure.
He is held in high esteem by his fellow postmen, whose interests he has served ungrudgingly for so long and also by the head Post Office officials.
This story was first published in the Greenock Telegraph on July 7, 1950.