Photo Willie Lyle
Mauchline Post Office, 17th April 1905, taken by John Taylor Gibb. An old faded photo with the details below on the back is part of the collection in The Burns House Museum, Mauchline. Willie Lyle still owns the original negative!! The sign above the door says parcel post office. (One critic was convinced it said Darvel!!)

Mauchline Post Office on the site of the present day cafe, New Road/ Kilmarnock Road.
Left to Right: Bobby Pollock (postman), Wm Erskine(postman), Joe Lambie (messenger), Tom Mitchell (town postman), Willie Dickson (postman), George McCurdie (messenger with hands clasped), Tom McMeekan (postman), Andrew Brown (postman), George McAll (clerk), Miss M.M.Miller (head post mistress), John Alexander (sr clerk), W MacFarlane (paid learner, behind horses head), George Mitchell (mounted postman). The dog was Douglas Miller, and the horses name was Mick(!!!). The only survivor in 1965 was W MacFarlane, aged 75. ER in the recruitment poster stands for Edward 7th, successor to the throne after Queen Victoria.

NB: This text was on the back of the faded photo in the Burns House Museum, Mauchline. An e mail from his grandson tells us that Joe Lambie died in 1978.