One of the oldest post boxes in Port Elizabeth stands on the Donkin Reserve next to the old lighthouse keeper's cottage, now occupied by the NMBT visitor information centre. The post box has the Royal Cipher "GR" on it, indicating that it was erected during the reign of King George V somewhere between 1910-1936. The first roadside post boxes appeared in 1852 on the Channel Islands. Since then all post boxes in the UK has been painted red and bear a Royal Cipher that consists of two letters to signify the monarch under whose reign they were manufactured. As South Africa was a British Colony our early post boxes also bore the Royal Ciphers.