Frank Ives Scudamore was an English Post Office reformer and writer.
Life
The son of John Scudamore, a solicitor, by his wife Charlotte, daughter of Colonel Francis Downman, R.A. and niece of Sir Thomas Downman, he was born at Eltham in February 1823, and educated at Christ's Hospital; Sir Charles Scudamore, was his uncle. On leaving school he entered the General Post Office, and, on the amalgamation of the receiver-general's and the accountant-general's offices in 1852, was appointed chief examiner of the new department. In 1856 Scudamore became receiver and accountant general. He was, after George Chetwynd of the money-order office, heavily involved in the scheme for government savings banks. Scudamore explained to William Ewart Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer the proposed machinery, and had support and obtained authorisation from parliament in 1861. In 1865 Scudamore drew up a report on the advisability of the state acquiring the telegraphs, which were then in the hands of a few private companies, on lines suggested by Frederick Ebenezer Baines. In negotiations Scudamore was employed as chief agent, and the way was prepared for the Telegraph Act 1868 entitling the state to acquire all the telegraphic undertakings in the kingdom, and the Telegraph Act 1869 giving the Post Office the monopoly of telegraphic communication. In 1870 the Irish telegraphs were transferred to the Post Office. Sir John Tilley, Scudamore's superior, did not support the nationalisation, but allowed Scudamore to run the resulting state telegraph system. Scudamore had been promoted assistant secretary and soon afterwards second secretary, of the Post Office, and in 1871 he was made C.B. Clashes over his impatience of obstacles led to his resignation in 1875. Among other changes made by Scudamore was the introduction of female clerks into the postal service. He then accepted an offer of the Ottoman governmentto go to Constantinople to organise the Turkish international post office; the sultan conferred on him the order of the Medjidieh in 1877; he gave up his post on encountering delays. He continued to live at Therapia, and wrote. Scudamore died at Therapia on 8 February 1884, aged 61, and was buried in the English cemetery at Scutari.
Works
Scudamore wrote:
People whom we have never met, a lecture on fairies.
France in the East; a contribution towards the consideration of the Eastern Question, which is a plea for the good intentions of France in south-eastern Europe, and against the policy of preserving the integrity of the Ottoman empire.
Scudamore also contributed to Punch, and in The Standard, The Scotsman, the Comic Times, and other papers. He wrote for The World under Edmund Yates.
The distinguished British author Anthony Trollope, was employed in the Post Office from 1859 until 1867, when he resigned to devote all his energy to his writing. In his autobiography, he mentioned Scudamore: In one of his novels, Trollope made a humorous mention of Scudamore. In The Way We Live Now, the planned elopement of Marie Melmotte is frustrated when she is intercepted by detectives instructed by a telegram sent by her father:
Family
Scudamore married in 1851 Jane, daughter of James Sherwin, surgeon, of Greenwich, and left children. They had at least one son called Leonard George Scudamore who was a casualty during the First World War. He was buried in the Commonwealth war graves cemetery of St Leonard's Church at Sutton Veny.
