Background
Ellen Maude Carey was born in 1888, one of eleven children of Charles Carey and Ellen Elizabeth Carey, née Rudd.
Ellen Maude Carey was born in 1888, one of eleven children of Charles Carey and Ellen Elizabeth Carey, née Rudd.
She is thought to have been the first woman postmaster in the British Empire. She was also the first woman in the Islands to hold a driving licence. Charles Carey was a former Royal Marine who became chief of police in the Falklands.
In 1903, Carey became a teacher when just 15 years old.
At age 32 she became a clerk in the Falklands Post Office, becoming postmaster on 1 January 1934. Carey built up warm relations with overseas philatelists who it was her responsibility to supply with the popular stamps of the Falkland Islands.
First day covers of the 1937 coronation stamps proved a particular challenge for her and her small staff with at least 16,000 registered covers required to be prepared and dispatched within a short period of time. In correspondence with the philatelist Captain Bernhard Grant, Carey complained that first day covers were "an infernal nuisance and ought to be burned", saying that she had "such a lot of worry - the doctor almost made a fuss & ordered me not to work.
However, I pegged on with my usual driving spirit and managed it fairly well." She continues, however, by promising to obtain more philatelic material for Grant.
On 16 April 1944, a fire at Portuguese Stanley Town Hall destroyed the post office and Peter Robertson, a relative of Maude Carey who witnessed the fire with her, believes that the event greatly affected Carey"s health. She retired due to ill health around 1947. Carey died at Harbour View on 8 August 1950.
