I have two identical minature (100 by 75mm) field service post cards both used as cigarette acknowledgement cards addressed to the Sudbury Cigarette Club (Canada) dated July and November 1944.  Both have the same printers imprint Form /A2042/7 by S & W Ltd. with a print run of 45,000M (45,000,000 !!!) and a date of 7/41. 

I only collect Canada WW2 material but these look like the cards used in WW1.  I have never seen these used for their apparent intended purpose in WW2. 

Were they printed in the UK or Canada - there is a Crown Copyright note in the bottom left. If they were printed in the UK how did they get to Canada.  They would have been sent to a Canadian serviceman.

Normally the specially printed full size acknowledgment cards were put in the parcel of cigarettes or tobacco when they were sent from Canada and are quite common



[attach id=6766]Temp_0016.jpg[/attach]

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Sorry about the above I have just realised that the censor is [b][u]South African[/u][/b] not Dutch. 

John

These are scans of the front and back of a cover that was sent from Canada to the International Red Cross on the 25th of March 1944 it was censored in the UK but then also in the [b]Netherlands[/b].

I have never seen this before and have no idea how this cover went into the Netherlands and why it was censored there appaently not by the German Censors.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

John Cranmer

I have been sent this image from another forum.  It has the same sort of red number and date marking at the bottom.  It is from Gernmany directly to Switzerland. This apparently shows that the red marking was applied by the Red Cross as there is no other common link between the two covers.  The first cover I posted should not have passed throgh German held territory in May 1942.

Out of interest, it is well out of my collecting field, is the double SS a censor mark from the SS ?

[attach id=6729]20230530_red-cross-date.jpg[/attach] 

John

I have just got this 1942 cover from Canada to Switzerland.  It is unusal in that the POWs name is at the top left and that here is some info about him on the net. He was the only one of the four crew members of a Hudson which was shot down on the 30th of May 1942 to survive.  It is also interesting that the censor (C 7) had to use two different types of label to fully seal the opened side.  I guess he did not want to cover the stamp with the paper label.

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I have not seen this large bilingial hand stamp before and so far cannot find anything about it on line.

I am also puzzled by the red date stamp at the bottom which is five months after the Toronto post mark.

Any suggestions will be most welcome.

John Cranmer

I have been in touch with Mike Street re the above and its scarcity.  He points out that Peter somehow omitted the last line of his reply - see below.


Cecil Coutts, SLOGAN POSTMARKS OF CANADA, Third Edition 2007

In the catalogue it is number SSM-75:  ON SERVICE.  Dater reads POSTAGE FREE. 

A 1941 proof exists. Saw 9 Oct 1941, 13 Aug 1942 and 27 May 1944.  Others reported.

Used at Ottawa 1941-45. Machine is Pitney Bowes

[b][u]50.00 $  <<<Value in 2007. Not sure what it would be worth today, but the 2007 value suggests how rare it is.[/u][/b]

Download it from here

https://bnaps.org/hhl/TopicsCovers1994-Current.php

John

There is an article about the VGoC in British Guiana in BNAPS TOPICS Vol 71 No. 1 page 25 which may be of interest.

John

This is a scan of a cover from a Canadian Airman in Iceland.  Under the POSTAGE FREE with a slogan ON SERVICE machine cancellation is a date stamp RAF POST OFFICE 001 for the 6th of October 1943.  The machine cancellation is dated the 13th of October. 

I have not found any info regarding this machine cancellation  - mainly where was it used Iceland or Canada - I assume the later but some reference would be useful.

[attach id=6549]Iceland.jpg[/attach]

There is also an RAF censor cachet type R6 number 114 which is recorded used in Reykjavik.

John Cranmer

First I wish you all a happy Christmas and New Year

I have just come across this postage label from a package of cigarettes seent to Private F. S. Smith a soldier with the 36th First Canadian Army Troops Composite Company R.C.A.S.C.

The meter 24 cents impression is dated the 2nd of May 1945.  The weight of the parcel is given as 12 ounces and the value as $1.00  The 24 cents makes sence if the package was just under 12 ounces and sent at the letter rate of 4 cents + 10 x 2 cents for each extra ounce.

[b]So a question[/b]. How much would the sender have paid for the cigarettes when they were bought in Canada? Was it the $1.00 declared or was that just a nominal value for customs purposes?

[attach id=6490]Temp_0021.jpg[/attach]

The date would be helpful as well.  Out of curiosity what plane was this from?

The post Office guide for 1945 says that the Aden P.O. was under the control of the Indian P.O.

[b]Smith and Wawrukiewicz[/b] give the rate to Asia from 1935 to 46 as 25 cents per 1/2 ounce + 10 cents registration. They also show a US clipper rate vis San Francisco from Feb 42 to 1946 of 90 cents per half ounce.

John Cranmer

Chris

A couple more thoughts.  The self censored hand stamp is dated the 26th April 43 while the return address on the reverse is the 7th of June.  and the hand writing seems to be different although there are some similarities.

John

Looking around a bit more I came across this web page.  Perhaps interesting but not directly relevant to the censor mark on the cover.  Although this G. Hope was also in advertising and is from sale near Manchester so there may be a connection.

https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?67333

Part of the account reads

On board the Alcides were Mr. E. H. Godfrey Hope. of 3 Tan-yr-Unto, Deganwy Road, Llandudno, advertising director, of Manchester, and part owner of the boat, which was bought in May and moored at Conway; Mr. W. L. Birch, company director, of Portland Street, Manchester; Mr. R. H. Millington, company director, of Cheadle Hulme, Manchester, and Mr. G. A. Mangoletsi, engineer, of Bowdon. Cheshire. Mr. Hope, who was commissioned in the R.N.V.R. during the war, and Mr. Birch are well-known members of the North Wales Cruising Club, Conway.

John

Thanks for this extra info.  I have sent some scans to Chris so the new letter may get some more.

John

Censor front.jpg[/attach]As a followup to the above I have just come across this cover with one of the common types of Canadian PASSED BY CENSOR naval cachets but which has had the letter C removed from H.M.C.SHIP. 

It was sent to the UK by a Lieutenant Godfrey Hope of the R.N.V.R. on the 7th of June 1943 .  The cover has the return adderss of Barbizon Plaza, New York.

The listing for the cover said that this modified censor cachet was used by the British and only in New York.  Which seems to agree with the return address and the sender being in the Royal Navy. 

So far I have not been able to find anything more about this modified hand stamp or Lt. Hope.  If anyone has any commenat I will be most interested.

John Cranmer