[transcription and footnotes have been provided by the collection donor]
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA,
Ottawa, 4 September 1919[303]
Sir,
I have the honour to inform you that the Board of Civil Service Commissioners have appointed you to the Postmasterhip of Theodore in the Electoral District of MacKenzie in the Province of Saskatchewan and Dominion of Canada, and that instructions have been given to the Post Office Inspector of the Saskatoon Division[304] to transfer the Office in question to your charge[305] at the earliest convenient date.
The Department, I am to state, will arrange for taking security on your behalf, the amount of such security at the rate of fifteen cents per annum per $100 of insurance being charged against your salary as Postmaster.
It will be further required that you and any person whom you desire to employ as an assistant shall, before entering any Post Office duty, subscribe to the Oath (or Declaration) of Office, in accordance with the Post Office Act.
I am, Sir,
Your very obedient servant,
W. Cononeber
Deputy Postmaster General
Footnotes
[303] Richard William Mercer, now a private citizen after being demobilized from Military District 10 in Winnipeg, undertook the duties of the Theodore Post Master from September 1919 until his retirement forty-seven year later in 1965 at the age of 68 years of age. His wife Salbjörd Mercer often worked as the Assistant Postmaster, especially after the children were all grown.
[304] There is a panoramic photograph of most of the Saskatchewan Postmasters in front of the Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The hotel is still under construction in circa 1926 (?) with a portion of the "castle" roof still being shingled. The photograph is in the Mercer family collection.
[305] The new Theodore Post Office building is purchased in 1919 from the town doctor, Dr. Eakins, and just before he left to return back East. The role of Post Master was assumed from the parents of Richard Mercer's late best friend Pte. Tom Tracy. The "circle" from the Great War is now complete.
