It might have been tradition to write to Father Christmas with a list of gifts, but when Kirsten Shaw wanted a new mailbox for the staff of the UK's Rother Research Station in Antarctica“,” she wrote to the king.
The request resulted in a special delivery for Shaw, a station support assistant who, among many other tasks, manages the British Antarctic Territory post office at the station.
“I love mail, I love mailboxes and stamps, so I just really wanted to get the right one. Royal Mail one for the station,” said Shaw, who was awarded the Fuchs Medal in 2022 for her contributions to the Antarctic community.
The bright red rosette with the cypher of King Charles III, known as the “lamp” letterbox, is the smallest letterbox and is something of a modernization of its predecessor.
“It was something you could probably buy on Amazon—something you could put by your front door—and then someone at some point drew Elizabeth II's royal cypher pretty poorly,” Shaw said.
From a stoic and determined note to a researcher Ernest Shackleton wrote to his wife as he prepared for winter on the continent. in 1908 Captain Scott's last messages – never sent – when he faced death in a tent on the Ross Ice Shelf in 1912, the letters are part of a rich history of human discovery and survival in Antarctica.
The new box will serve as a collection point for cards and letters sent north to family and friends by research station employees and will eventually be housed in the Discovery Building, a new scientific support and operations center.
“Sending and receiving mail is a vital connection for employees working in some of the most remote places on Earth, especially at Christmas when messages from loved ones mean so much,” said David Gold, director of external affairs and policy at Royal Mail. “This new mailbox will help keep that tradition alive and ensure that the magic of mail reaches as far as Antarctica.”
However, as Shaw notes, postal service in Antarctica and beyond is “slightly limited,” with only three or four parcels sent north per year.
“Essentially any post going north from here has to go through the Falkland Islands,” she said. This means he is either taken on board the RSS Sir David Attenborough or by a British Antarctic Survey aircraft.
“We had a ship call a couple of weeks ago so we had mail going north and then the next one is on January 22nd with a flight leaving and heading to the Falkland Islands,” Shaw said, adding that because the last ship didn't go through the Falkland Islands it didn't bring any mail.
But although it happens slowly and infrequently, it has its benefits. “Stamps are cheaper,” Shaw said, noting that it costs just 87 pence to post a letter to the UK from Antarctica.
Shaw added that there is also an informal system of sending messages to the field.
“Even though our internet communications are much better now, even with deeper field teams, it's still very nice to be able to get an actual handwritten tangible piece of paper from someone, and that takes all kinds of forms,” Shaw said.
“I managed to attach a letter to a barrel of fuel that was dropped from the air in the middle of Antarctica.”
Shaw is among the staff who will be at Rothera Research Station over the festive period.
“We often host special Christmas movie nights and on Christmas Eve this year I am organizing the eighth annual Quidditch match in Rother,” she said.
But with no postal deliveries yet this season, Shaw had to think ahead.
“My partner sent me down [to Antarctica] with gifts and things. So, I got to open some presents for Christmas, which is really nice.”
