John

What a fool I am - having responded to your query and then looking at your response I have just realised that I have a copy of that mammoth tomb "The Encyclopaedia of Jamaican Philately - Volume 9 Military Censorship & Patriotic Mails by Paul Farrimond & Raymond Murphy (published by The British West Indies Study Circle, Revised 2015).  The Preface states that this was the third edition; the original edition was published in 2003 written by the late Derek Sutcliffe.  In their acknowledgements they name Alistair Kennedy, who provided comments and errata on the first edition.

Due to its size it a rather difficult book to get to grips with - Chapter 2 The British Army in Jamaica in a listing of Infantry Regiments 1899-1940 lists only one regiment in 1940 - The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (May 1939 - May 1940).

At Appendix 2.3 there is a listing of "British Regiments and other units of the British Army in Jamaica up to 1962".  When looking at the list under 1940-1946 it states "No infantry battalions, only various support units".  However, above that it lists five Canadian infantry units after "1939-1940 The King's Shropshire Light Infantry" this includes The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada in 1941 - this is again where I became confused as I thought your reference was to the (British) Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders !

According to Wikipedia the Canadian regiment served in Jamaica on garrison duty from 10 September 1941 to 20 May 1943 and embarked for Great Britain on 21 July 1943.  Also on the Canadian Department of National Defence website at:
[url=https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/official-military-history-lineages/lineages/infantry-regiments/argyll-and-sutherland-canada.html]https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/official-military-history-lineages/lineages/infantry-regiments/argyll-and-sutherland-canada.html[/url]

As to the A500 series censor stamps - they are referred to as Type AC3 in the Jamaica book - the following are listed:

3727: (no dates)
5643: 3 Feb 43 - 9 Apr 44
5667: 23 Mar 44 (seen on mail from the Irish Fusiliers of Canada)
5667: 5 Apr 43
5785: 14 Nov 42
5839: 22 Apr (42?) - 20 Oct 43 (possibly RAOC)
5870: 30 Sep (44?) (Letter from Gibraltar Camp)
5871: 10 Oct 42 (one cover has 'Hospital' as return address)
5956: 5 Jan 43 - 18 Nov 43
6039: (no dates)
6071: 2 Jun 42
8364: (no dates)

There is also a series of circular Jamaican military censor stamps - MILITARY CENSOR / JAMAICA No - numbers recorded between 1 and 16.  This is called Type AC4 in the Jamaica book (FPHS Type JA100).  No 16 has been recorded used 29 Jun 1942 to 19 Oct 1944 with the note "On mail from 1st Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada".

There are also four numbers recorded of the shield censor (FPHS Type A600; Jamaica book Type AC5) in 1944 (15162, 15167, 15174 & 15176)

Alistair Kennedy in his ledger states that the Type A500 censor was officially designated A.F. A 5707 and that the Type A600 censor was designated A.F. A 6679.  A.F. standing for Army Form.  This is confirmed in Annexure II to Appendix "J" of GHQ, Home Forces Operation Instruction No. 43 dated 15th February 1944 which stated: "The unit censor stamp (A.F.A 5707) is a secret document and must be protected accordingly."

In view of the security classification afforded to such censor stamps I do not think they would be simply left behind; nor do I think that the British departed in 1940 - yes, the main infantry battalion departed but I feel that various small units as support troops remained.  There was also the HQ Caribbean Area which was located in Jamaica.  One would need to research the various War Diaries of the Caribbean Area in The National Archives to establish what support units existed and where.

I find the issue and use of censor stamps by the Canadians in Jamaica a little confusing - we have Type A500 series being used in one case by a Canadian infantry unit; then there is the MILITARY CENSOR JAMAICA NO, series, with No 16 reportedly used the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada.  Then there is the MILITARY CENSOR Y FORCE series of censor stamps (FPHS Types CAN204 and CAN205).  The Jamaica Military Mails books has a whole chapter of 20 pages for "The Canadian Forces in Jamaica" which details the various infantry units based there and their many cachets, including those of 1st Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada.

Anyway, that is enough of my waffling - I don't know if I have answered the query or not but I hope I have give you a further reference which details Canadian involvement in Jamaica!

Mike  :)

Just to clarify, this is a British Army censor marking - FPHS Type A500 (formerly known as Type A5) series.

If I read it correctly the number is 5785 and Alistair Kennedy in his very large ledger records it as Jamaica on 14/11/42.
I'm not able to identify the date of your cover only that it is also 1942.

Mike

Peter

I have just checked Alistair Kennedy's very large ledger on Army censor marks and find that he has recorded the very same date nd censor number, so presumably got his information from John Hobbs.

I can only see one other date for September 1939 - 27 on 26 SE 39 possibly pmk'd E608
ALK records 27 as being at Mersa Matruh - it is extremely difficult to read and understand his recordings at times, very small handwriting!

All other 1939 dates for this type of censor being October, November and December - so still looks like it is the earliest date recorded!

Mike

Neil

I have found the following information on The National Archives website:

13 Wireless Intelligence Screen, later 13 Wireless Observer Unit (WIS WOU). Based at White Waltham (UK) until September 1940, then moved to the Middle East. Photographs of vehicles included. With appendices
AIR 29/164/2  (July 1940 - December 1943) (Operations Record Book)

You will see that the later title is Observer Unit, not Observation Unit.

The ORB may provide some answers to your queries.

Mike

In response to the meeting report in the Spring Newsletter I have received the following information from member Lynton Wright:

[color=maroon]I have four copies of the Northern Patrol Censored marks
The larger mark Goulds 2A16 are both cancelled with M12 of Inverness and are both 32mm in diameter one is dated  6.10 16

The smaller mark Gould's 2A17  is on one item  also with the M12 cancel of Inverness, and the other is cancelled with the usual London m/c dated 2 5 15 both addressed to the same address in Padstow and the censored marks are the same diameter 24mm

In my humble opinion they are two different marks

I hope this info helps in your Discussion Forum[/color]

Mike

Tony

The only response I can give is that on first looking and trying to enhance the image I feel that the "signature" in the bottom left has the initials NCO.  I don't think the initials before it are Pte but P and something else (only two letters).
How that fits in I don't know.

Mike

Thank you all for your comments and apologies for the delay in dealing with this.  I passed relevant comments on to the person making the enquiry - in my recent email I stated:

[color=blue]I placed your query on our Forum and there were responses from three members, some responding more than once.  However, the unfortunate result is that we cannot attribute the card to a member of 1st Garrison Battalion, The Essex Regiment.  It is clearly postmarked APO R.38 and this was allocated to the Divisional Railhead for 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force.  The date of the postmark fits in with this allocation.

We cannot explain how or why an Albanian picture postcard found its way into the BEF in France.

Whilst we do have some records on the many different types of censor marking used by the British Army during WW1 we do not have anything on censor 7002

However, one of our members, our Journal Editor Chris Grimshaw, has asked that I pass your contact details to him as he "has a couple of names in mind" – quite what that is I don't know, so you may get an email from Chris.

I have attached a summary of the responses as they relate to your postcard and the Essex Regiment.  I'm sorry that we cannot be more helpful.[/color]

He has now responded with:

[color=maroon]Many thanks for coming back to me with the information about my postcard. I bought it originally as part of a collection of Scutari from a Dutch collector eight years ago. He collected Albania in general but was very interested in Military mail used from there. His name was 'Dick' Knaap. There is a possibility that he was a member of your philatelic society as he used to come to London regularly when the Albanian Study Group used to meet at 'The Services Club' at Waterloo.
There were two cards together with strips cut out from an auction catalogue. One of the strips claimed that the card was sent by a member of the British contingent in Scutari. I was hopeful but not convinced and that is why I contacted you. He paid a very large sum for them believing that the catalogue description was correct. In fact he paid 119 Euros each in June 2001.[/color]

Mike

Frank / Peter

Having looked at it close up, it does appear that the N has been crudely removed. 
Does anyone else have copies to compare against or to verify the removal?

Mike

A new discovery ?

Mike  :)

I was not aware of Furfie's books but a quick look online reveals three:

[u]Michael FURFIE[/u]

British Postage Due Mail, 1914-71: A Study of Uses of the Pre-decimal Postage Due Stamps (1st Edition), published 1993, Paperback, 76 pages
ISBN-10: 0-9522208-0-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-9522208-0-0

British Civilian Postage Rates of the 20th Century, published 2000, 62 pages
ISBN-10: 0952220814
ISBN-13: 978-0952220817

International Postage Rates 1890s-1957, published 2010, 90 pages
ISBN-10: 0952220822
ISBN-13: 9780952220824

Mike

Chris

1964 REMDT details attached.

Mike  :)

Sozont

As I understand it, in the British forces during both WW1 and WW2 officers were allowed to self-censor their own mail - as officers they were trusted persons.

Others more involved with censored mail may wish to comment!

Mike

John

I am not aware of any process amongst the British Postal Units in Germany, or even the BAPO / ZPD from my searches in the various unit war diaries.  I wonder if it was dealt with by the Home Postal Centre in London?

Mike

Chris

I don't have a copy of the cover - it was before my time as a member.

I am not aware of any other cover produced by the Society.

I have attached extracts from various Society News Supplements on our 21st Anniversary Convention (13 October 1973) and the commemorative cover.

Mike

I would agree - US Navy

It has a HM Ship tombstone censor and "On Active Service" cachet - both of which I would presume to be British.  But the other large cachet I believe to be US Navy, as it states "Navy", if it stated "Naval" I might have suggested British!

By the way, why has it a tombstone censor, when the postage stamp and cancellation are US?

Not my strongest point, so I could be completely wrong!

Mike  :)