A selection of official mail 1976-77 from British Forces in Cyprus, all postmarked FPO 61 and all showing unit cachets or datestamps.  The first sheet shows pieces of official mail whilst the second sheet has two complete covers.

FPO 61 was located at Dhekelia at FPO S.258.  The Forces postal address for Cyprus was BFPO 53 but on 1 July 1976 the country was split into several BFPO areas as follows:

Defence Council Instruction (General) Standing S31/76 dated 27 February 1976
[The National Archives DEFE73/32]

"1.  An additional two BFPO indicator numbers are to be taken into use by British Forces stationed in Cyprus.  The new numbers reflect the geographical dispersal of bases on the island, and will assist in the provision of a more efficient postal service.

2.  All official correspondence for units, and official private correspondence for personnel serving in Cyprus is to be addressed as follows as from 1st July 1976:

BFPO 53 - Episkopi (No change)
BFPO 57 - Akrotiri
BFPO 58 - Dhekelia
BFPO 567 - UNFICYP (No change)

3.  For an interim period after the introduction of the new BFPO numbers, correspondence destined for AKROTIRI and DHEKELIA and still addressed to BFPO 53 will be redirected automatically."


Mike  :)

A break from the norm - something a little more modern - three examples of "Meter Style" machine postmarks introduced from around mid-1994.  They were introduced at British Forces Post Offices world-wide, but mostly in Belgium, Germany and Northern Ireland with the only other locations being Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands.  They were referred to as "meter style" machine postmarks as they closely resembled meter marks in general, but were used to cancel postage stamps in the main.  They are, in any event, thought to be meter machines adapted for use as stamp cancelling machines.

The three examples I show are from Cateau, Belgium (BFPO 26), Dusseldorf (BFPO 34) and Osnabruck (BFPO 36) both in Germany, in 1995/96.  Two have just the postage value segment (which is blank) whilst the other also has a wavy lines segment. 

Mike  :)

Ross - I think you will find that Sudan came under the control of Middle East Command and its APO/FPOs operated under the control of that Command.

See also FPHS Newsletter (now Journal) 36, page 53 where it is reported that FPO E.603 was also used in the Sudan.

Mike

Chris - what a fool I am!!

I'm trying to catalogue the Home Depot / Home Postal Centre / Home Postal Depot / BFPO London, etc postmarks (in much the same way as I have done for FPO steel, Berlin and Hong Kong, etc postmarks in the post-war FPO book located in the draft publications category) and looking through my collection and notes I see that also have a similar leaflet - this time slightly earlier than yours (July 1946) also to the Infantry Records at Ashford.  I also have a cover addressed to the Infantry Records at Warwick (there were several Records Offices for infantry regiments which were groupedaccording to type of regiment).  This is a use of a Post Office "Returned Postal Packet" envelope although the Depot did not use that side - they used the reverse to place the address label!

Mike  :)

Hi Tony

I'm glad Colin responded to your question as it gave me a timely reminder.  With so much going on and so many covers to view and in some cases respond to, your question had slipped my mind.

I think that it is inevitable that in this day and age (and by that I mean gradually from the end of WW2 onwards) that philatelic forces material is much displayed and collected.  We have various collectors to thank for that: Smith, Kennedy, Crabb, Hare, Patka, Knott, Daynes, etc to name but a few.

In addition to which public relations (PR) and philatelic societies formed within military garrisons and RAF stations have taken advantage, in much the same way as Post Office FDCs have done in the civilian world.  They provide an income for forces charities or the local philatelic society concerned.  For those events that use genuine operational datestamps it is a way of obtaining such specimens for ones collection - for me they sit happily besides commercial uses of the same datestamp.

As we get more into the 21st century, obtaining genuine commercially used specimens gets harder and harder until it is almost impossible - email, mobile phones and other electronic media have dealt a devastating blow to commercial material (for both private correspondence and official mail).

For some modern conflicts world-wide the only material seen has been that contrived by collectors - or by units, ships, etc in creating their own illustrated cachets to be applied to collectors mail - it is the only way one can obtain material from many modern conflicts. 

Also I believe military organisations world-wide see such material as good publicity material.  There were philatelically contrived covers in both WW1 and WW2, but not to the extent we now have.  But the whole philatelic world has changed - How often do we deride modern British stamps and say that we never see them used on commercial mail - yet at Stampex there are queues a mile long in front of the Royal Mail counter!

Returning to Forces mail - I used to collect the Forces special event postmarks but gave up a number of years ago.  Such datestamps were sponsored by Forces museums or charities as a means of raising money.  In much the same way as day-to-day datestamps are also used on covers.  Such is the interest that both the Depot and the Directorate in BAOR each had their own philatelic bureau to attend military events to flog covers to the general public - in many cases using datestamps that the next time might be used on an exercise or operation.

As far as I am concerned philatelic material is respectable - so long as it is recognised as such and no attempt is made to pass it off as genuine mail.  I do not believe it calls into question the genuiness of the cancels - in many cases they are genuine, one minute they can be used to cancel a genuine item of postal material and the next a cover that has been philatelically contrived to obtain the genuine postal marking.  In some cases genuine cancels are used purely on philatelic covers for a particular PR event (RE Mobile Display, Aldershot Army Display, a military open day that features a FPO, a Forces Post Office in a war zone cancelling philatelic covers publicising a particular international organisation, etc).

Mike  :)

Alan - yes indeed and its going to take me some time to finish!  I managed to place four pices of whiteness this evening!

Mike

Sorry for my long absence, but I have had society matters to attend to as well as other philatelic matters connected with my Kent Federation role, also garden, shopping and mounting up material - last but not least a complicated 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of the London tube system/DRL/Overground to try and complete (the various lines were relatively easy, its all the white spaces inbetween and surrounding it that is giving me a headache to try and complete!!).

Anyhow, my cover continues with the 70th anniversary of the Korean War - this time with New Zealand APO 444, which was in Korea for a short period but spent most of its time in Japan.

I should add that the addressee - Harold Hare - was a well known collector and former member of the Society.

Mike  :)

Chris

Two very nice items of Depot postal history - I'm envious!  I would like to know what HD/G/RLB of 2 May 1945 stated - I wonder if this has survived in any archive (Postal Museum, National Archives and RE Museum will need to be researched in due course).

I presume from the wording that mail would be received at the Home Postal Centre (at that time located in Nottingham) addressed to soldiers whose location was not known / given on the envelope and therefore could not be sorted and delivered.  So such mail was sent to the appropriate Records Office for them to identify where the unit was located and then return such mail to HPC Nottingham.  If the appropriate Records Office could not identify the location of the addressee such mail was still to be returned to the HPC who would presumably return it to sender - except for BAOR mail.

At the time of your leaflet (postmarked 2 September 1946) BAOR mail was dealt with as below - Post Offices in the UK sent it direct to BAOR, not via the HPC. But what was the wording of HD/G/RLB in May 1945 - the address BAOR had not been introduced then so it related to BLA mail.

All mail for Army and RAF personnel overseas was sorted at the Home Postal Centre (HPC) in Nottingham.  However, with effect from 2 April 1946 mail previously sorted to APO No 6 Division at the Army Post Office Nottingham (i.e. all mail for closed address British Army of the Rhine (BAOR)) was forwarded direct to 101 Zone Postal Depot RE at Herford, Germany.  Such mails were then sorted and distributed to BAOR units.  The change came about due to the close proximity of the theatre to the United Kingdom.

Consequently, civil offices despatching correspondence to BAOR made up mails and despatched them labelled as follows:

• for letter mails which were forwarded by air to 101 Zone Postal Depot RE:
"Army Post Office (ZPD) London"

• for packet and parcel mails which were forwarded by surface route to 101 Zone Postal Depot RE:
"Army Post Office (ZPD) London (Gravel Lane)"
or
"Army Post Office (ZPD) Folkestone"

Mike  :)

I have to thank you Peter - your item got me to re-mount and write up seven FPO covers from three different FPO datestamps used at the Antwerp complex (including the Canadian letter & cover shown below), acquired many years ago from the late John Daynes collection and left sitting in his A4 paper sheets under the bland heading "British Forces Post Offices in Belgium"  in a pile of "must do" covers!

Mike  :)

Frank - Many thanks for that - no change from K&C other than days quoted rather than just months; does he state the location - is it the same as K&C, i.e. Berlin?

Alan - now you mention it, yes it is interesting.  As a member he could have raised the issue as a query for our Jounral or on this Forum.

Mike  :)

I have received the following query from a colleague in the Britih Postmark Society, who in turn has received it via their website:

[color=maroon]Yet another query via the BPS website!  This one concerns the Army Courier Office datestamp shown on the attached scan, sent by a Brian Quist.  A Google search brought up few references, but one was a report on a FPHS meeting in October 2007, which mentioned the use of this cds S5 on correspondence sent during the 1920-21 post-WW1 plebiscites in areas like Saar and Schleswig-Holstein.  A Delcampe auction illustration showed the same cds on at least one of three 1920-21 covers from the Inter-Allied Aeronautical Commission of Control.

So it seems pretty clear when and roughly where Mr Quist's cover originated, but his (and my) question would be about what the ACO actually was, and how did it differ from the FPO (later REPS/DLO) system?  The name implies that it was a network inside the Army organisation, for official correspondence, but Mr Quist's cover was to a civilian address in the UK. Do FHPS sources have any other information on the ACO?[/color]

I have made an initial response as follows:

[color=blue]However, I can say from looking through "The Postal History of the British Army in World War I 1903-1929", by Alistair Kennedy and George Crabb, published FPHS 1977 it is listed under GERMANY  - the ARMY COURIER OFFICE / S.5 datestamp is listed as K&C Type C9 used between May 1920 and May 1921 as being in Berlin, with a note "Reported to have opened 22/12/19, may have used APO S5 (Type D1) at first"

In the index there is an entry for ARMY POST OFFICE S5 (Type C1) issued 12 March 1920 in Germany but no period of use and it is not shown under Germany
Still in the index under "Miscellaneous Postmarks" there is listed ARMY COURIER OFFICE / S5 (Type C9) issued 13 April 1920 and used in Berlin as listed above.

Type C datestamps are circular (single ring) and Type D datestamps are double ring.[/color]

[color=blue]There is no explanation as to why it is inscribed ARMY COURIER SERVICE.  I have looked at the meeting report you mention and I feel you may have min-interpreted the note - it states "Mike Goodman showed a small number of covers and cards from the British Army on the Rhine, including a number of Army Courier Office S5 marks" with no specific mention of Plebiscite areas -
that comes further on when noting S64, S120 and H20.

By placing it on our Forum I am hoping that one of our members will have a copy of the limited edition Proud revised edition which was, I think, published shortly before his death, to see if it contains any further information.  Alistair Kennedy did provide updates for that publication.[/color]

So two questions please:

1. Does anyone know why ARMY COURIER OFFICE S5 and not ARMY POST OFFICE?

2. Does anyoine have a copy of Proud revised edition and what does that say about ARMY COURIER OFFICE S5

Thanks, Mike  :)

I have now found the letter to John Daynes - it was connected to his facination for official unit Christmas cards and was written in 1967.  I had thought it was from a Canadian FPO, but now realise that the Canadian unit (1 Canadian Base Ordnance Unit) must have used the British FPO facilites.  The letter uses the BFPO 21 address for what was then Advanced Base (British Forces) and the envelope has Belgian stamps to pay for postage - it appears to have been passed initially to the British FPO where it was cancelled on 14 April 1967 who then passed it over to the Belgian PTT who cancelled the stamps with the Grobbendonk datestamp of 15.4.67.

Mike  :)

Peter

An excellent cover - I don't think I have one from that stamp club.  We must be grateful for the various stamps clubs within BAOR that provide us with examples of datestamps used at their locations!

I have attached some information I have on the BFPO 21 address and also text and Order of Battle history for what became British Forces Antwerp.  I have more notes which I need to check against and incorporate into the text document.

I will need to look through my collection - I also recall I also have a letter to the late John Daynes from the Canadian FPO at Antwerp.

June 2020 marks the 70th Anniverrsary of the start of the Korea war so what better than to have as my covers of the day material from that conflict - my first offering is two covers postmarked AUST UNIT POSTAL STN / 388 dated -2 OC 52 and 12 FE 54.

The latter cover has the return address of a Staff Sergeant with 'A' Company, 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, BAPO 3, Korea.  It is from an Australian to the UK and has the Australian Forces rate of 3d air mail.  It also has on the front a "Hubba Hubba" cachet.

2nd Battalion, RAR served with 28th (British Commonwealth) Infantry Brigade between March 1953 and April 1954, whereupon it returned to Australia aboard the ss Australia.  It was relieved in the Brigade by 1st Battalion, RAR.

Mike  :)

Chris

Wow - logging every item you purchase, better than I and I can see some advantages!  How many times I have thought - where did I get that item from!

Back to the photos - glad there was a "?" after the date!  Had me worried that I did not have the full picture for 1964!
So we are settled on 1963.

How did I miss those photos!

Mike  :)