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* * * * *
The Postage Stamp in War.
_By the same Author._
A new work on the postage stamps of the new British Protectorate of
EGYPT
in the Melville Stamp Book series (_No._ 20) is now on the press and
will be published in January, 1915, by Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., 391
Strand, W.C. Price 6d. Post free. 7-1/2d.
... THE ...
POSTAGE STAMP
IN WAR
BY
FRED J. MELVILLE,
EDITOR OF "THE POSTAGE STAMP."
MDCCCCXV - PUBLISHED - BY - FRED.
J. - MELVILLE, - 14 - SUDBOURNE - RD.,
BRIXTON, - LONDON, - ENGLAND.
COPYRIGHT.
All rights of translation and reproduction reserved.
_ACKNOWLEDGED WITH THANKS._
_To many collectors and dealers we are indebted for the loan of
stamps, envelopes, etc., for illustration in this work, including
Messrs. E. Bentley Wood, H. H. Harland, W. J. Holmes, Nathan Heywood,
J. Ireland, R. Wedmore, Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., Hugo Griebert & Co.,
Alfred Smith & Son, W. T. Wilson, Whitfield King & Co., Charles Nissen
& Co., Lewis May & Co., W. S. Lincoln & Son, Bright & Son, R. Roberts,
Bridger & Kay, A. C. Roessler, C. Davies, and others._
_Captain Lionel Crouch has kindly assisted in revising the proofs._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE POSTAGE STAMP WITH THE FLAG.--British Posts in the Crimea--The
Abolition of the Capitulations--The British Fleet in the
Baltic--Abyssinian Expedition--The First Army Postal Corps--
Egypt--Dongola Expedition--South Africa--The British Army Post in
France, 1914--How to Address Soldier's Letters--The Postmarks from
France--The Navy's Postmarks. Page 7.
CHAPTER II.
INDIAN ARMY POSTAL SERVICE--China Expeditionary Force--British
Railway Administration in China--Somaliland--The Forbidden City of
Lhassa--Indian Expeditionary Force in France. Page 28.
CHAPTER III.
SOUTH AFRICAN WARS--Transvaal--Orange River Colony--Krugersdorp--
Kuruman--Lydenburg--Mafeking--Pietersburg--Rustenburg--Schweizer
Renecke--Volksrust--Vryburg--Wolmaranstad--The Union--South
African War of 1914. Page 37.
CHAPTER IV.
FRANCE--Napoleon's Minister of Posts--The Second Republic--The
Presidency--Empire--French Expeditions to China and Mexico--
Sedan--Metz--Strasburg--The Siege of Paris--Balloon Post--Pigeon
Post--Peace--Military Frank Stamps--The German Invasion, 1914--Red
Cross Stamps--War Postcards and Postmarks. Page 49.
CHAPTER V.
RUSSIA--War Charity Stamps--Portraits of the Tsars--War Stamps of
1914--Japan--War with China--The Empress Jingo--Triumphal
Military and Naval Reviews--Kiao-chow--Belgium--King Albert--
Bombardment of Malines--Private Postal Service--Germanised
Posts--Red Cross Stamps--Bogus Stamps--Postmarks--Serbia--"Death
Mask" Stamps--King Peter--Montenegro--King Nicholas. Page 59.
CHAPTER VI.
THE ENEMY'S STAMPS--Germany--Austria--Bosnia--Hungary--Turkey.
Page 75.
CHAPTER VII.
AMERICAN WARS.--United States--Civil War--Confederate
Stamps--Hispano-American War--Vera Cruz--Canada--Mexican
Revolution--South and Central America. Page 91.
CHAPTER VIII.
MISCELLANEOUS WARS AND COMMEMORATIONS--Patriotic Empire
Stamps--Victoria--New Zealand--Barbados' Nelson Stamp--A Dutch
Naval Commemoration--Balkan Wars--Greece--Albania--Epirus--
Bulgaria--Roumania--Italy--Portugal--Spain--Mysterious
Melillas--China. Page 100
CHAPTER IX.
THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1915. Check List of New War Stamps.
Page 113.
[Illustration: Russia's New War Stamps. (_Figs. 189-192. See
Chapter V._)]
THE POSTAGE STAMP IN WAR.
CHAPTER I.
THE POSTAGE STAMP WITH THE FLAG.--British Posts in the
Crimea--The Abolition of the Capitulations--The British Fleet
in the Baltic--Abyssinian Expedition--The First Army Postal
Corps--Egypt--Dongola Expedition--South Africa--The
British Army Post in France, 1914--How to Address Soldier's
Letters--The Postmarks from France--The Navy's Postmarks.
The Postage Stamp follows the Flag. The same small talisman which
passes our letters across the seven seas to friends the world over
maintains the lines of personal communication with our soldiers and
sailors in time of war. Wherever the British Tommy goes he must have
his letters from home; like the lines of communication, which are the
life-line of the army, postal communication is the chief support of
the courage and spirit of the individual soldier. His folk at home
send him new vigour with every letter that tells of the persons,
places and things that are nearest and most cherished in his memory.
In these days letter-sending and letter-getting are so common-place
that few give any thought to the great organisation by which thousands
of millions of postal packets are posted and delivered in this country
every year. And now that most of us have friends at the Front, in
France, in Belgium, or on the high seas, we are perhaps inclined to
take it all just as a matter of course that letters pass and repass
much in the ordinary humdrum way. This is plain to the conductors of
our postal services when during war time they get numerous complaints
from individuals of delay or even non-delivery, or any one of a number
of other minor inconveniences which must often be unavoidable in the
stirring times of war.
To-day many thousands of letters and postal packets are being sent
to and received from the troops of the British Expeditionary Force in
France, yet it is a simple fact that but a small percentage of the
civilian population in this country knows anything of the existence,
far less of the workings, of the Army Postal Service as an organisation
separate and distinct from the postal department of the home Government.
The Army Postal Service is administered under a Director of Postal
Services, who is responsible to the Commander in Chief of the Army, and
whose system is established with the co-operation of the Inspector-General
of Communications.
The formation of a British Army Post Office Corps is of comparatively
recent date. It was first suggested by Colonel du Plat Taylor in the
seventies, as a means of using the services of the Post Office Rifle
Volunteers in war time, but it was not until the Egyptian campaign in
1882 that the corps was formed.
Prior to this, however, bodies of servants of the Post Office had done
duty with the army in organising and maintaining postal communication
with the armies in the field and with the links connecting up with the
home service. During the Crimean War extensive arrangements were made
by the Post Office to maintain postal communication with the forces in
Turkey, the Black Sea, and the Baltic. Prior to the war, the British
Government did not maintain any postal packets between Mediterranean
ports save some steam vessels for the transport of the Indian mails,
and some of these were taken up by the military and naval authorities.
Letters for Constantinople and the Levant ordinarily went through the
French and Austrian administrations and were chargeable at the then
high foreign rates of postage. With the assistance of the French
Government, letters were sent _vi[^a]_ Marseilles to Constantinople
(or _vice-vers[^a]_) at first at intervals of three times a month, but
afterwards six times a month, and during the latter period of the war,
twice a week.
But the French mail packets went no further than Constantinople, so
the British Postmaster-General sent out an experienced officer, Mr. E.
J. Smith, of the London General Post Office, to Turkey as Postmaster
of His Majesty's Forces; and three Assistant Postmasters, together
with seven Letter Sorters. As the facilities for land transport
accorded the Postmaster proved insufficient he was furnished with
eighteen horses and mules for the exclusive use of his office. The
Postmaster was supplied with the postage stamps of the home country,
then (so far as the penny and twopence denominations were concerned)
in the early and beautifully engraved design of William Wyon's "Queen's
Head." This was the first use of British postage stamps on foreign
territory, or indeed anywhere beyond the limits of the British Isles,
and stamp collectors take a considerable interest in the English stamps
which survive with the various Crimean postmarks specially supplied to
the Postmaster of His Majesty's Forces in the East. Stamps used on
letters from the forces may be recognised by either the Crown and Stars
or Cypher and Stars or the circular dated postmarks (_Figs._ 1-4). A
range of the early penny red stamps, from the imperforate red-brown
stamp of 1841 to the Die II. large Crown perforated 14 stamp may be
found, as well as the twopence blues of the same period, and the 4d.
rose (1857), 6d. violet (1854), and 1s. green (1847) (_see Figs. 5-10_).
There are possibly others not yet known to collectors.
[Illustration: 1 2 3 4 _Figs. 1-4. Crimean Postmarks._]
[Illustration: 5 6 7 8 9 10 _Figs. 5-10. British stamps found with
Crimean postmarks._]
The correspondence dealt with by this small staff was considerable,
averaging 45,250 letters despatched to and 43,125 received from the
seat of war in each month. In one year 543,000 letters were despatched
to and 517,500 received from the forces in the Crimea.
The chief officer in charge at the British post offices in Turkey and
the Crimea during the war, Mr. E. J. Smith, is specially mentioned
in the Postmaster-General's report for 1857 as having discharged his
duties in a very creditable manner. In that year his services were
offered to and accepted by the Turkish Government with a view to
establishing an improved postal service in the Sultan's dominions.
Since this date British post offices have been maintained (in common
with post offices of other Powers) in various parts of the Turkish
dominions, using British stamps with or without a special overprint.
These offices were closed in October, 1914, as a result of Turkey's
declaration of the "abolition of the Capitulations," just prior to
Turkey's open acts of war against the allied forces of Great Britain,
France, and Russia in the present war.
Ordinary British stamps used at the British post-offices in the
Ottoman Empire may be distinguished by postmarks (_Figs._ 11-17).
[Illustration: 11 12 13 (Constantinople)]
[Illustration: 14 15 (Smyrna) 16 17 (Beyrout)
_Postmarks of British Post Offices in Turkish Empire._]
The first three are from Constantinople, the fourth and fifth from
Smyrna, and the last two Beyrout. There are also "S" Stamboul, "B01"
Alexandria, "B02" Suez, as well as ordinary date stamps of all these
places.
The following are illustrations of samples of the stamps which were in
use at the British post-offices in Turkey at the time of the abolition
of the Capitulations. (_Figs._ 18, 19).
[Illustration: 18 19 20]
Special arrangements were also made for maintaining postal
communications with the British Fleet in the Baltic, the stamps
used being distinguishable by postmarks of diamond-shaped internal
configuration (_Fig._ 20). It is possible that date marks of Dantzig
may also be found on British stamps of this period; they appear on
the covers of letters bearing British stamps with the diamond
cancellations. In the early part of the naval campaign letters were
transmitted exclusively by war vessels or transports, but in the
beginning of May, 1854, when the greater part of the Fleet had reached
its destination the Admiral commanding in chief was directed to
establish regular weekly communication by steamer between the ships
under his command and the port of Dantzig. Mails for the Fleet were
despatched from London every Tuesday to Dantzig, under cover of a bag
addressed to Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at that port, who handed
the bag over to the commander of the steamer which was timed to arrive
at Dantzig each Friday. This arrangement, while satisfactory in respect
of speed and regularity, involved the charging of the high foreign
rates of postage, as the route was through Belgium and Prussia, but,
as often as facilities offered, mails were made up for transmission by
Government transports passing to and from England and the Baltic, by
which soldiers and sailors were able to send and receive letters at
their privilege rate of one penny each.
ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION. The following is the type of date stamp used
by the British post-office corps accompanying Sir Robert Napier's
successful expedition to Abyssinia in 1867-1868 (_Fig._ 21).
[Illustration: 21]
The Indian Government sent an army postal corps to Abyssinia, the
mails to and from the United Kingdom connecting up with the vessels
carrying the Indian mails off Jubbel Teer in the Red Sea. The late
Mr. J. G. Hendy of the G.P.O. Muniment Room records[1] that, in April
1868, a direct weekly mail service was established between Suez and
Zoulla. The rates for letters under half an ounce were the same as to
India, _viz._:
_Vi[^a]_ Southampton. _Vi[^a]_ Marseilles.
Officers of Army or Navy, 6d. 10d.
Soldiers and Seamen, 1d. 5d.
For persons serving on board transports or
other persons not belonging to the naval
or military forces, 9d. 1s. 1d.
He also states that naval and military officers, when serving on
colonial or foreign stations, were permitted, under Treasury Warrant
of May 16, 1857, to send or receive letters at the reduced British
postage of 6d. per ounce, in all cases where the postage of ordinary
letters to or from the same place was higher than 6d. The privilege
was withdrawn on January 1, 1870, and then letters became liable to
the general rates of postage.
[Footnote 1: "The Postmarks of the British Isles from 1840." By J. G.
Hendy. London, 1909; p. 13.]
EGYPT. The organisation of an Army Postal Corps was authorised on July
18, 1882, for service in Egypt, and it was promptly completed. Colonel
du Plat Taylor was instructed to form the corps of two officers and
one hundred men from the Post-Office Volunteers (24th Middlesex)
for enrolment in the first-class Army Reserve. The men combined the
advantages of experience in postal work, as sorters and postmen, with
army training. The officers selected were Major Sturgeon (of the Money
Order Office) and Captain Viall (Receiver and Accountant General's
Department), the former taking command with the army rank of Captain,
and the latter seconding him, with the army rank of Lieutenant. The
men received their post-office pay, and, while on active service, in
addition to free kit and rations, the privates drew army pay of 1s.,
corporals 1s. 8d., and sergeants 2s. 4d. per day.
[Illustration: 22]
The famous blind Postmaster-General, Henry Fawcett, inspected the
corps at the General Post Office on July 26, and the officers with 50
men sailed on August 8, disembarking at Alexandria on August 21. Their
first postal duties were undertaken at Alexandria and Ramleh, but
two days after disembarkation they re-embarked, joining up with Lord
Wolseley's main forces at Ismailia on August 26. The base was at
Ismailia, whence the post office corps sent out its branches, planting
advanced base and field post offices connecting the base with the
changing front, between which and the base a daily service was
maintained. In September, shortly after the battle of Tel-el-Kebir,
the Army and the Army Post Office reached Cairo, and re-embarked for
home on October 7. The despatches gave high praise to the efficiency
and useful service of the corps.
Three years later, Major Sturgeon (promoted in recognition of his
services in Egypt, 1882) again commanded a corps of twenty N.C.O.'s
and men, in Sir Gerald Graham's Suakim expedition of 1885. The
corps left England on March 3, and returned on July 28, after a more
difficult experience with the Suakim garrison than they had met with
in the first Egyptian campaign.
DONGOLA EXPEDITION. Of the Dongola Expeditionary Force under General
Kitchener in 1896 we have no record of the use of English stamps,
but Mr. H. H. Harland has shown us an interesting envelope with the
postmark of Wadi-Halfa camp, the letter not being prepaid as no stamps
were available (_Fig._ 23).
[Illustration: _Fig. 23. Dongola Expeditionary Force._]
SOUTH AFRICA, 1899-1902. Major Sturgeon was succeeded in the command
of the Army Postal Corps by his second in command, Captain Viall. On
the death of the latter (1890), Captain G. W. Treble of the London
Postal Service took the command, which he held at the outbreak of the
South African War in 1899, aided by Captain W. Price (now Colonel W.
Price, C.M.G., in command of the Army Post Office with the British
Expeditionary Force in France) and Lieutenant H. M'Clintock, these
latter officers belonging to the Secretary's Office of the G.P.O.,
London. A first portion of the company, with Captain Treble, left
England with General Buller and his staff, and the rest followed on
October 21, and several further detachments went out with later
contingents. In South Africa they had a very wide area to cover. At
the outset Captain Treble established himself with the headquarters
of the Inspector General of Communications in Cape Colony, and moved
about keeping close touch with the movements of the forces, an
important part of his duties being to forward to the various offices
the information necessary to ensure the correct circulation of the
mails. Captain Price was at Cape Town, and Lieutenant M'Clintock at
Pietermaritzburg.
The British military mails were made up in the London G.P.O. in
special bags addressed to the Army Post Office, and sent to the G.P.O.
at Cape Town, in which building the detachment of the Army Postal
Corps under Captain Price had established its base office. The bags
containing military mails were handed over to the Army Base Post
Office at Cape Town whence they were distributed to the various
military post offices established at the centres of the troops, and to
field post offices with each Brigade or Division in the field. In the
return direction the soldiers' letters were handed in at field post
offices and forwarded through various channels, sometimes ordinary
and ofttimes military to the base at Cape Town, whence they were
despatched to England in the ordinary way.
Early in 1900 the average weekly mail from London to the Field Forces
was 150 bags of letters, postcards, etc., and 60 boxes of parcels; the
incoming mail from the Field Forces was 11 bags of letters per week.
In a letter dated from Cape Town, February 27, from Lieutenant Preece,
who went out with reinforcements for the Army Post Office Corps in
February, are some interesting glimpses of the difficulties of the
work of this service[2]:
"Price, of the Post Office Corps, met us and told us (Captain)
Palmer was to leave at once for Kimberley with 17 men
(Captain) Labouchere and (Lieut.) Curtis to proceed on to
Natal with 50 men, and I was to take the remainder ashore here
(Cape Town) and stop to help at the base. At 9.30 on Monday
morning I marched off with my 57 men to the main barracks and
bid good-bye to the good ship 'Canada' and her merry cargo.
After lodging the men in barracks I went off to the G.P.O.,
where I found Price and his 40 men ensconced in one huge wing,
overwhelmed with work, and at breaking-down point. The mails
every week increase now, and we have 250,000 pieces of mail
matter to sort and distribute every week, over a country
larger than France, among a shifting population of soldiers,
each of whom expects to get his letters as easily as he gets
his rations. It is a vast job, and we have done wonderfully
so far with a totally inadequate staff. We have come in
the nick of time. The recent movements (the advance of Lord
Roberts from Modder River, relief of Ladysmith, etc.) have
caused chaos among our mails. We receive and send telegrams
every hour either to a field post office or to headquarter
staffs. The latter order immediate reinforcement at Modder
River, and Price has decided to send me up with more men to
proceed to Paardeberg, or wherever the troops are, to get
things straight."
[Footnote 2: St. Martins le Grand, vol. x., page 201.]
The preliminary arrangements necessitated by the vast area of the
operations provided for two base offices, the one in Cape Colony and
the other in Natal, and 43 field post offices, and by June, 1900, the
Army Postal Corps was composed of ten officers and 400 N.C.O.'s and
men, exclusive of post office telegraphists, etc., serving with the
Royal Engineers. Many interesting statistics of the mails at different
periods of the war have been given in various records, but it
will suffice to quote some general ones on the authority of the
Postmaster-General. His forty-sixth report, 1900, states:
During eight months of the Crimean War, 362,000 letters were
sent out, and 345,000 were sent home. During a similar period
of the war in South Africa 5,629,938 letters were sent out,
and 2,731,559 were sent home.
The work of the corps was not undisturbed by the depredations of the
enemy, and not infrequently the members of the corps had to defend the
mails in their charge along with the guards provided by the military.
On June 7, 1900, General De Wet, who has lately extinguished the
admiration in which Britons held him for his brilliant and elusive
tactics, by his treachery in the present war, swooped down with 1200
men and 5 guns on Roodewal Station where Lieutenant Preece had 2000
bags, a several weeks' accumulation of mails for Lord Roberts' main
army. There were 17 men of the Army Postal Corps, and these, with
about 160 men in charge of supplies, etc., had to defend the station.
Two of the seventeen were killed, and Lieutenant Preece and the
remainder of his gallant little corps were taken prisoners. The 2000
mail bags were used as a barricade. It is recorded that when the
gallant little band surrendered, and De Wet, riding an English cavalry
horse, came up, the Boer general was most polite and even kind in many
ways, and expressed himself as "very sorry to do it," when asked not
to destroy the letters and registered parcels. He said if he did not
do so, his young Boers would open and read them and turn the letters
of the soldiers into ridicule. The bags were opened, the contents
strewed about, and the Boers possessed themselves of the valuables,
while tobacco, cigarettes, cakes, chocolates were so plentifully
strewed about that the young Boers even invited their prisoners to
help themselves, as the General was going to burn everything. And he
did burn the entire station.
In his forty-seventh report (1901) the Postmaster-General states:
The Army Post Office is still in operation in South Africa.
The staff now consists of 7 officers and about 540 men. The
weekly mail for the Army Post Office contains on an average
204,000 letters and 115,300 packets of printed matter; and
it is estimated that during the year ended 31st March, 1901,
11,551,300 letters were sent to the troops and 9,250,000 were
received from them. During the same period the parcels sent
out to the forces in South Africa by post amounted to 534,245,
the largest number despatched on any one occasion, namely,
on the 1st of December, 1900, being 19,672. About 8745 such
parcels are now sent each week.
As to the magnitude and difficulties of the work of the Army
Post Office, I cannot do better than quote the following
paragraph from Earl Roberts' despatch of the 16th August
last:--
"The magnitude of the task set the Military Postal Service may
be appreciated when it is realised that the Army Mails from
England have exceeded in bulk the whole of the mails arriving
for the inhabitants of Cape Colony and Natal, and contained
each week little short of 750,000 letters, newspapers, and
parcels for the troops. No little credit is therefore due to
the department under Major Treble in the first few months,
and for the greater part of the time under Lieut.-Colonel J.
Greer, Director of Military Postal Services, for the way in
which it has endeavoured to cope with the vast quantity of
correspondence, bearing in mind the incessant manner in which
the troops have been moved about the country, the transport
difficulties which had to be encountered, the want of postal
experience in the bulk of the personnel of the corps, and the
inadequacy of the establishments laid down for the several
organisations."
His Majesty has been pleased to confer the honour of C.M.G. on
Messrs. Greer and Treble in acknowledgment of their services.
The forty-eighth report (1902) mentions no change of any importance in
the Army Postal Service in South Africa, and gives the weekly average
mail from England as 184,000 letters and 143,600 packets of printed
matter: the total number of letters for the year ended March 31, 1902,
was 10,774,000 outward, and 8,372,000 homeward, showing a decrease
compared with previous returns. During the same period 528,000 parcels
were sent out.
The last official reference to the Army Postal Service in South
Africa is contained in the forty-ninth (1903) report, announcing its
withdrawal, postal communications with the troops still on service
in the old colonies and the new ones being carried on through the
Colonial Post Offices under the ordinary regulations. The Peace was
declared May 31, 1902.
The war in South Africa left its impress on many pages of the stamp
collector's album, but at this juncture we are chiefly concerned with
the immediate work of the British military postal service. Collectors
have followed the use of the stamps of the home country into the
distant fields of operations by means of the various postmarks which
are summarised as follows from the collection of Captain Guy R.
Crouch, of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry[3]:
[Footnote 3: _The Postage Stamp_, vol. XIV., pp. 234-237.]
[Illustration: 24 25 26 27]
Type 1 (_Fig._ 24). Office Numbers from 1 to 56, and 100. Used also
at Cape Town base with initials BO (Base Office) and an asterisk
(sometimes omitted) in lieu of the office number. Also at sub-base
offices with larger office numerals 1 to 9.
Type 2 (_Figs._ 25, 26). Commonly without the year being noted, as in
the first illustration but also found with the year as in the second
illustration of this mark. It has been largely supposed, but without
much, if any, foundation that these year-less marks originated in
Ladysmith during the siege, but little correspondence can have been
passed out of the town during that period, and the origin of many of
these marks is known _not_ to have been Ladysmith.
[Illustration: 28 29 30 31 32]
Type 3 (_Fig._ 27). Used in sub-offices supplementary to type 1, found
stamped in blue-green as well as in black. Office numbers 41-60.
Type 4 (_Fig._ 28). Used in Base Office at Cape Town.
Type 5 (_Fig._ 29). A locally made rubber-stamp cancellation found in
several sub-varieties.
Type 6 (_Fig._ 30). Used in the field post offices attached to the
Natal Field Force with name of place or number.
Type 7 is similar to type 2 but lettered NATAL FIELD FORCE, found in
black and in violet.
Type 8, a newspaper cancellation, with NFF (Natal Field Force) in
white letters on a black ground, circular shape.
[Illustration: 30A 32A.]
Type 9 (_Fig._ 30A). A thick lined circle, 20 mm. in diameter,
lettered F.P.O. (Field Post Office) and a number, also used for
newspapers.
Type 10. An almost circular obliteration lettered P.O.A. (Post Office,
Africa) with the number 43, a bracket at each side and two thick bars
at top and at bottom.
Type 11 (_Fig._ 31). Used in travelling post offices (T.P.O.), struck
in black or violet. The travelling post offices are "EAST NO. 1,"
"MIDLAND," "WESTERN," and "NORTHERN."
Type 12 (_Fig._ 32). For fixed army post offices in Orange River
Colony and Transvaal, used from about the end of 1901 and for a short
time after the declaration of peace.
A fancy type of town postmark is shown in _Fig._ 32A.
Another interesting postmark relic of the war in South Africa is
one struck in red "RECOVERED FROM WRECK OF MEXICAN" a ship which was
returning from South Africa with mails from the troops, and which
foundered after collision with the ss. _Winkfield._ The bulk of the
mail was recovered.
THE GREAT WAR, 1914. The Army Postal Service with the British
Expeditionary Force on the Continent in the present war is under the
command of Colonel W. Price, C.M.G., who as Captain Price had the long
experience of service with the Army Post Office in South Africa. It is
scarcely necessary to say that the volume of correspondence now being
dealt with by the service is unprecedented in the history of the
British Army. In the early months of the war the outgoing mail to the
Army Base Post Office in France averaged 12,000 parcels and 250,000
to 300,000 letters a day. It is impossible to give statistics of the
number of branch offices of all grades established, but already there
are many interesting postmarks originating with the British Army in
France.
The various types of marks so far recorded are:--
Army Base Post Office (_Fig._ 33).
Advance Base Post Office (_Fig._ 34).
[Illustration: 33 34]
Army Post Offices with the Troops (_Figs._ 35-37).
[Illustration: 35 36 37]
There are also a number of types of Censor marks, not all necessarily
military, and printed labels used in re-sealing opened letters
(_Figs._ 38-40):
[Illustration: 38 38A 39 40. 40A. 40B. 40C. 40D.]
In this connection may also be mentioned the various marks used on
letters sent by prisoners of war in charge of the British military
authorities at home and abroad. An old type of prisoner-of-war mark
dated 1800 is illustrated in _Fig._ 41, from "Pre-Victorian Postage
Stamps and Franks" by Mr. G. A. Foster.[4]
[Footnote 4: London. 1910: Charles Nissen & Co.]
[Illustration: 41]
The following are examples of the marks now being used (_Figs._ 42,
43):
[Illustration: 42 43 42A. 43A.]
It may be well to give a brief outline of the methods of the Army
Postal Service, that its work may be better known and understood.
In addressing letters to the troops it is important to give the full
military particulars of the addressee, _viz_:--Regimental number,
rank, name, squadron, battery or company, battalion, regiment (or
other unit), staff appointment or department, and title of the
Expeditionary Force. With these details set out clearly on the
envelope, the work of the Army Postal Service is facilitated and the
letter stands every chance of going through without delay.
In France, as the postmarks already illustrated denote, the British
Army Postal Service has several grades of post offices. The chief is
the Base Post Office, the principal sorting establishment for all mail
matter passing between our British Post Office and the Army Postal
Service. The Base Office is quite a large concern and has a vast
amount of clerical work to perform. In it letters are sorted,
letters taking precedence over all other mail matter, after which the
newspapers, and lastly the parcels are dealt with. Accounts of all the
branch post offices are filed and the general routines and formulae of
the Post Office at home are adhered to in detail. Letters, etc., for
services, departments and units at the base are put into callers'
boxes for delivery to the post orderlies. Those for more distant
services and units are forwarded to the various grades of branch
offices.
At the Base Office one of the most complicated and difficult tasks
is the re-direction of letters. Here are kept hospital lists, giving
names of men away from their units in hospital, and these hospital
rolls are revised weekly. Here also records have to be kept of the
movements of the units, and these records are constantly in process of
revision, and frequent communication is maintained with every branch
office in the field.
From the Base Office mails for field units are forwarded to the
Advanced Base Post Office, which in its turn distributes them to
the Field Post Offices serving the units to which the letters are
addressed. There are several kinds of field post offices; those "with
train" are attached to the headquarters of each train, and handle the
letters of the units served by the train. Branch field post offices
are attached to the general headquarters, and to the headquarters of
armies, divisions, and brigades. Then there are stationary field post
offices at various points on the line of communication, and in some
cases travelling post offices on railway lines.
It devolves upon the Director of Army Postal Services, who is
represented at general headquarters, and at the headquarters of each
Army by an Assistant Director, to organise the service, and to supply
to the various offices the information necessary to ensure the proper
circulation of the mails. This, especially in a campaign like the
present, is a delicate task, often complicated by the restrictions
necessary in military policy to preserve secrecy as to the movements
of the troops.
* * * * *
NAVAL POSTMARKS. Of the naval postal arrangements, reference has
already been made to the cancellations used on letters originating
with the British Fleet in the Baltic during the Crimean War (_Fig._
20). Special navy post offices were in the early days established by
local postmasters at various ports as a link between the land service
and the Fleet in home waters. The letters were marked with _Fig._ 44,
and the local postmaster collected an extra penny charge upon such
letters for delivery to ships lying in the harbour or roadstead.
[Illustration: 44]
The late Mr. W. G. Hendy, of the Muniment Room, records that with the
introduction of Uniform Penny Postage (1840) it was decided so far as
Portsmouth was concerned, that such letters should be delivered free
in the harbour as far as Spithead; but it was not until May, 1852,
that the practice of charging the extra penny for delivery was
abolished at Devonport and Plymouth, and free delivery extended to all
vessels lying in the harbour (Hamoaze), although not to vessels lying
in Plymouth Sound. The following are types of postmarks used after
free delivery was granted. (_Figs._ 45, 46.)
[Illustration: 45 46]
The same authority states that a privilege was accorded to
non-commissioned officers, seamen, and soldiers of sending and
receiving within any part of the British dominions, under certain
regulations, letters on their own concerns only, not exceeding half
an ounce, at the rate of one penny each. Such letters had to be
superscribed with the name of the seaman or soldier, his class and
description, the name of the ship or regiment to which he belonged;
and if they were the writers of the letters, they had to be
countersigned by the officer commanding. When this regulation was not
complied with letters were charged as ordinary, and postmarked with
_Fig._ 47.
[Illustration: 47]
No doubt there are many more postmarks with a naval interest,
including those valued by collectors as indicating stamps on letters
originating in the various naval stations abroad from 1858 to 1870,
recognised by the following letters and numbers:--
A79 to A89. Pacific Naval Stations.
A90 to A99. Atlantic Naval Stations.
B03, B12, B56. African Naval Stations.
B53 (Mauritius), B62 and C79 (Hong Kong), B64 (Seychelles).
Also "B", "H", and the date stamp in the case of "Ascension".
In the present war the naval postmarks promise to be of exceptional
interest. The postmarks for both Army and Navy give no clue to the
locality in which the correspondence originates; this, of course,
applies to mails coming from the field or area of operations; there
is no occasion to disguise place of origin of letters going out to
sailors or soldiers. Most of the naval marks at present in use bear no
inscriptions of any kind, though there is a type inscribed Fleet Post
Office (_Fig._ 48).
[Illustration: 48]
Even the machine cancellation, doubtless used in some large centre
of naval concentration, has had bars (or type turned base upwards) in
lieu of the lettering and date (_Fig._ 49).
[Illustration: 49. _Machine Cancellation_ (_Navy_).]
Other naval marks introduced in the present campaign, in accordance no
doubt with a secret code, are in various devices, such as a propeller,
a target, and various arrangements of rings, etc. (_Figs._ 50-57).
[Illustration: 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 54A. 57A.]