Date: May 28th
Category: Hidden Histories | Resistance Networks | Wartime Communication
Think all great rebels carried swords or shouted in squares?
Some rode bicycles.
Some hid leaflets in loaves of bread.
Some simply knocked on a door and said, “A letter for you — from the resistance.”
Today, The Time Traveller’s Guild celebrates the unsung heroes of historical resistance: the rebel couriers, underground postwomen, and radical messengers who defied borders, armies, and death itself to keep the lines of hope open.
Because in times of darkness, the most revolutionary act may be to send a message and make sure it arrives.
🚴♀️ 1. The Red Cap Couriers – French Resistance, WWII
Teenage girls on bicycles, dressed like bakery assistants, were among the most effective couriers for the French Resistance. With notes hidden in baguettes, coat linings, or even inside hollow bicycle handlebars, they delivered:
- False ID papers
- Maps of enemy positions
- Coded messages for Allied agents
🚲 Nicknamed “Les Petites Postières”, many were under 18 — and trained to smile sweetly while outsmarting Gestapo patrols.
📮 2. The Polish Underground Mail System
During the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, an entire secret postal system operated beneath the surface. Underground resistance members:
- Forged Nazi stamps and envelopes
- Created courier routes through sewers and safe houses
- Delivered underground newspapers like Biuletyn Informacyjny
🕳️ At its height, the Secret State’s post was faster and more reliable than the official mail.
✊ 3. The Suffragette Chain Mail
Long before digital newsletters, suffragettes used:
- “Votes for Women” leaflets slipped through letterboxes
- Covert messages hidden in sewing kits, corset seams, or parcels
- A London-based relay system to warn of raids or share hunger strike updates
💌 “Deeds not words” sometimes meant postcards not speeches.
🕊️ 4. WWI Carrier Pigeons & Trench Runners
Yes, even animals joined the resistance postal ranks. In WWI:
- Cher Ami, a homing pigeon, famously saved a battalion by delivering a message while injured
- Human couriers in the trenches often ran under fire — risking their lives for hand-written orders or last words home
✍️ Their messages are archived today in museums and war poetry anthologies alike.
📪 Where to Learn More
- 📍 Imperial War Museum, London – Exhibits on wartime communication
- 📍 Musée de la Résistance, Lyon – Interactive courier stories
- 📍 Polin Museum, Warsaw – Documents from the secret Polish post
- 📍 Postal Museum, London – Including mail rail and censorship exhibits
🛍️ “Postcards of Defiance” Collection
Celebrating brave couriers and mail-based mischief:
- Replica WWII resistance postcard posters
- “Post Like a Rebel” notebook sets
- Tote: ✉️ “Sealed with Defiance”
📚 Want to Know More?
- A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell (includes resistance courier networks)
- Letters from the Underground (French Resistance archive collection)
- Pigeon Heroes of War by Damien Lewis
- British Postal Museum & Archive
💬 Deliver Your Tribute: #GuildCourierTrail
Know a story of a messenger who made history? Or want to make a modern version of a rebel postcard?
Tag your art, mail, or reenactments with #GuildCourierTrail and tag @TimeTravellersGuild — we’ll feature your deliveries in our May 31 round-up!
