Article

Walter James Turnbull

Published Online September 17, 2007

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Walter James Turnbull, public servant (b at Toronto 16 Sept 1896). As deputy postmaster general Turnbull directed the Post Office Dept with exceptional efficiency from 1945 to 1957 during a period of traumatic change in the transportation, volume and makeup of mail in Canada.

Turnbull, Walter James

Walter James Turnbull, public servant (b at Toronto 16 Sept 1896). As deputy postmaster general Turnbull directed the Post Office Dept with exceptional efficiency from 1945 to 1957 during a period of traumatic change in the transportation, volume and makeup of mail in Canada. He introduced "all-up" airmail service in 1948, making Canada the first country in the world to transport mail efficiently by air at regular postal rates. He computerized the money-order system and pioneered the development of mechanized mail sorting at Canada Post. He was the first public relations director of CANADA POST and from 1946 he led Canada Post's participation in the Universal Postal Union, culminating in his being, in 1957, the host and chairman of the only congress of that union to be held in Canada. Turnbull was also active in the Postal Union of the Americas and Spain in the late 1940s.