LONELIEST POSTMAN.

Shannon News, 6 February 1925, Page 1

LONELIEST POSTMAN.

CHANNEL BEACH CONTROL. MEETINGS WITH SMUGGLERS. In that lonely corner of England in the vicinity of Dungeness—lonely despite the fact that it is no further from London than the fashionable seaside town of Folkestone—there lives a man who, until a few years ago, was the loneliest postman in England. His name is William Ramsey, and he has just retired after 44J years' service. During ‘that time he has walked more than a quarter of a million miles-r-258,310, to be precise—delivering letters. His round has been from New Romney to Dungeness lighthouse, the greater part of the route being over, the lonely Channel beaches, where he met not a soul for miles. Sea birds were his only company, and thes#> grow so used to him that they continued to sit- on their eggs though he passed within a foot of them. Mr. Ramsey’s cottage stands amid the sand-dunes between Littlestone and Dungeness, and hard by the beach. “The worst experience' that ever I had,” said Mr. Ramsey, “was one winter, years ago, when the beach was covered with blocks of ice as big as the cottage, and I had to pick my way among them. All the time, too, there was a bitter wind blowing. It was the worst storm I remember, and I got a bad touch of frostbite. “Wrecks? I have seen- dozens of them. I have found several dead bodies, too, in the course of my rounds. I found one not long ago, lying on the sands. It was that of a particularly handsome young man, tattooed all over and quite naked. He was never identified

“When I first came here, there was a bit of smuggling still going on. I was stopped one day by a man who, with some other men, was unloading a small boat. ‘Do you want any smoke?’ he asked me. But I knew the coastguards could see the spot, so I told him to be careful’.’