Why the UK Has a Secret Mail Service

Queen's Messenger (a.k.a Silver Greyhound) is a British service that has been carrying Britain's Top Secret mail around the world for more than 500 years. Queen's Messengers (or King's Messengers) hold diplomatic passports and are excluded from regular airport checks, mail is carried in seal proof diplomatic bags and must not be opened or checked at the airport or in another country. The service was started by King Richard III and it's been working since then.
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UK has near 84 Embassies and 49 Consulates according to this source - https://www.embassy-worldwide.com/country/united-kingdom/
But afterward, when I was editing this video, I came across a video by Foreign and commonwealth office which says - "the United Kingdom has 270 embassies, high commissions and consulates in 168 countries and territories"
So I suppose the stats being said is very likely wrong but what you read on the screen is correct. It doesn't have a big effect on the subject of the video though.

This video is narrated by Clundor. Check out his channel here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq0zANl2rZi7MK8UjTadw_Q

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Visuals and Music used in this video are copyright free, CC, CC2.0 or used with permission
Select footage courtesy of Pixabay and videvo (https://www.videvo.net/)
Select footage courtesy of Department Commonwealth of Nations
Select footage courtesy of British National Archive

MUSIC- Kevin Mcleod - Spy Glass

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For more than 5 centuries, UK has employed a group of loyal men called "King's or Queen's messengers" who have carried government’s top-secret mail and parcels around the world risking their lives and facing dangers that may sound stranger than fiction. These people wear plain clothes, travel in commercial planes sitting next to you and carry no gun, yet, this lesser-known service is dubbed as one of the most efficient and successful secretive services in the world.

The service goes back as far as the 15th century when King Richard III reputedly employed a messenger to hand deliver secret documents for his monarch. Later on, Charles II, exiled in Europe, appointed four trusted men to convey messages to Royalist forces in England. When asked how they were to be identified as His Majesty's messengers, Charles II broke off four greyhounds from a silver breakfast platter familiar to royal courtiers and presented each with this token. A silver greyhound thus became the symbol of the service which has remained so to this day.
This also gave the messengers a nickname of "Silver Greyhound".
On formal occasions, the Queen's Messengers wear this badge from a ribbon, and on less formal occasions many messengers wear ties with a discreet greyhound pattern while working. This distinctive tie with embroidered pattern works as a pass-key and proves the identity of the messenger in situations where it's difficult to show the Queen messenger's special passport.

Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 gave Queen's messengers even more widely acceptable recognition and guaranteed diplomatic baggage a safer passage without any hindrance.
Messengers carry a special "Queen's Messenger" passport that allows them to avoid regular airport checks and also provide them immunity from being detained.
Mails and curious are carried in a bag closed with a tamper-proof seal and has its own diplomatic passport. This bag does not go through normal airport baggage-checks and must not be opened, x-rayed, weighed, or otherwise investigated by customs, airline security staff, or anyone else for that matter.
In March 2000 Zimbabwe opened Britain's six-tonne diplomatic shipment which sparked diplomatic tensions between the two nations.

Confidential mail and documents aren't the only things Queen Messengers have carried in their bags. During the world war 2, Winston Churchill received shipments of Cuban cigars by this means. Each year the Queen's pre-recorded Christmas Day message is sent in the diplomatic bag to every corner of the world.

Queen's messengers, today, work under Foreign and Commonwealth Office of UK government. According to the official release of 2015, 18 messengers of age 40-70 are actively performing their duty for the government.

Видео Why the UK Has a Secret Mail Service канала SideNote