The censor marks at this time were issued on a scatter gun system, so the only way of tracing a location and unit is to identify the officer's signature.
Then if he was a temporary officer "for the duration" his career details and units in which he served are not easy to find - he will not be in the quarterly Army List.
Graham

per Tennent A J: "British Merchant Ships sunk by U-Boats in the 1914-1918 War", pub 1990, author, Chipstead, Kent, ISBN 0951631403 :p135
Hermione, ex Yarrawonga, 4011 tons, built 1891, sunk 14Apr17, struck a mine and sunk in St George's Channel, 1½ miles S from Coningbeg Light Vessel, laid by UC-33, while on a voyage from Buenos Aires to Liverpool with general cargo and a consignment of horses.
She was owned at this time by R P Houston & Co, of Liverpool.
I hope this is a useful addition to your write up.
Graham

Navy List, July 1916, p390m, lists a Machine Gun Company at Blandford Camp.
I expect there may have been something similar at Crystal Palace, (but where they could practice shooting?) but on the Crystal Palace pages the list is merely of officers by rank - no job titles.
As a guess M G U = Machine Gun Unit
What do the experts say ???
Good hunting everyone
Graham

Another angle is that the River Deben is also called Woodbridge Haven at its mouth, as are other rivers in the district.  [eg Orford Haven and Orwell Haven]. Woodbridge is west of the river and on the opposite bank is quite a large area of heathland, including Bromeswell Heath.  Regret I cannot see any Heath called Haven Heath on contemporary or older inch to the mile maps.

Can anyone tell me a bit more about this ship please?
 
The card is addressed to Ulceby (spelled wrongly by the writer).
The pmk is APO 47 (Rouen) 8Jan15.  CM2/2000 not allocated by FWD.
The LtCol who signed the card in pencil was Percy Umfreville (1868-1922), Major Ryl W Kent, temp LtCol.  Governor 1st class 5Aug14-14Aug16.
Brev LtCol 3Jun17. Temp BrigGen 15Aug16.  Director of Military Prisons in the Field (graded AAG) 15Aug16.  Commdt 1st Class, Detention Barracks 22Aug17.
4 mentions, CMG 1915, CBE 1919.
Forgive me if you have seen this question before but I could not find an earlier entry by me on this subject on the forum.
Graham

Hello Edmund
I believe the practice was to return the letter to the Army PO in UK and they made sure the family knew of the casualty/mia before the letter was returned to the writer.
The Army Post Office label is so close to similar labels used by the Post Office (civil) that I would be 99.9% sure the labels were used in UK rather than an overseas location.  Similarly the barred circle Army Post Office canceller is I am sure a UK item.
Best regards
Graham

In FPHS Newsletter #77, p65 (1966) John Daynes wrote:
"Up to 1951 several FPOs can be found cancelling Egyptian stamps, usually on covers to Egypt and other non-UK addresses.  It is assumed that this was because the mail was handed over to the Egyptian civil Post Office where a quicker delivery would result, rather than send the mail to England."
He listed FPO 451 at Port Said or Port Fuad, but only from March 1952
and FPO 266 at Fayid (west of the Bitter Lakes) from May48 to March52.

Hello Ray
From FM French's despatch dated 8 Oct 14:
[20 Sept 14] "As the troops of the First Army Corps were much exhausted by this continual fighting, I reinforced Sir D Haig with a brigade from the reserve, and called upon the 1st Cavalry Division to assist them".

This is towards the end of the Battle of the Aisne.
So an officer of 9 Lancers could well have handed in his letter at Haig's I Corps HQ.

It certainly appears that your letter was brought to London by an official messenger.  I have seen a number of covers and references in letters from 2CavDiv and 29Div to letters going to and fro by official messenger - sometimes referred to as "King's Messengers" but I believe that few of them were real "Greyhounds", most would be officers on the War Office strength.
I hope this helps.
Graham

Hello Mike
The encircled 5 is an Indian censorship marking, recorded used on civil mails at Karachi between May 41 and Feb 42.  A paper in DEFE1/144A from Army HQ Simla 25Apr40 to the censorship HQ in UK and copies to other territories described the marks used in India and this one has a number range 1-120.  I have not seen this paper so cannot say whether it gives any clue as the use of this or other handstamps.

Indian censor stations had alphabet codes - V was Meerut, but that makes a very unlikely journey from Sialkot to Karachi.  Moreover the letter codes were usually prefixed DH and Meerut was only operative from late 1944. So some other explanation is needed for that one, but I cannot offer one.
Graham

Hello Ingo
I am sorry that I cannot answer you question, but I hope I can give you a reference.
The FPHS library has two books by O R J Lee, the first edition of 1983 and a revised edition of 1988:
"British Forces Air Mail Letter Cards and Air Letters"
This could be worth a direct question to our librarian, Nick Martin.
I hope you can find the answer.
Graham

This cover was marked "Consignee Mail", that means it was correspondence or documents connected to some item(s) of freight on the manifest of the ship.
This letter could have been inspected and censored at Apapa or some other Nigerian Port, or upon reaching a UK port.
The Paquebot marking applied in UK is no help as it is a generic type.
I would expect the word at the bottom of the circle to be a place but I cannot think of a Nigerian port beginning with H, no a likely port in Britain.  The usual shipping line was Elder Dempster and its subsidiaries and their home port was Liverpool.  If it is a port it is a short name.  But could it be simply H.Q.?
The Civil Censorship Group have recorded a number of handstamps which might be found on consignee mail but none have anything like "Intelligence" in their wording.
You will have to ask the original enquirer to find a cover with a more complete handstamp!
Graham

Coming back to this one, I have looked at the signature.
Could be FR Whitworth, or JR or TR.  Neither of first two in Oct 1918 Army List
but TR Whitworth is there - Supplementary Officer, 2nd Lt RGA 27 May 17.
As expected he is not in 1925 Army List.
Chris you can look him up in the medal rolls, I expect, for a full name
Graham

In 1914 Willbraham TR Ford, born 1880,  was LtCdr (N) HMS Swiftsure, appointment dated 25Apr13.
He was promoted to Cdr 31Dec14
July 1916 Navy List has him under HMS President for "Miscellaneous or Special services"
July 1918 Navy List has him still as Commander but there was no ships list in that edition.
Who's Who 1938 summarises his later career up to V-Adm.
He was the son of the late Maj C W Randle Ford of Bath, but born at St Hellier, Jersey.
Graham

Hello Kathryn
Square censor 2852 - this comes from a column of censor numbers for which we have no allocations, BUT the 54 Division comes immediately before this column, and that Division included four Essex Regt Battalions in 161 Brigade.  The listing, by the late Frank Daniel, is not based on any official records but from evidence of covers where the postmark, officer's signature and addressee combined give clues reinforced by "Army logic".  All the units of 54 Div which went to Gallipoli are accounted for in the list and for the blank column, from 2850-upwards, Frank wrote "confusion of units from 10, 11, 13 Divisions.
Remember a soldier did not always have his own officer stamp the censor mark,  His officer signed as censoring the letter then that officer had the duty to take the letters he had censored to the holder of the censor stamp (only one per Battalion or other unit).  So when two formations were close together there is sometimes a signature and censor stamp which belong to different units.
I hope I have not added confusion to this topic.
Graham

How about "Army Printing and Stationery Depot"  (or Department).  We know there was an Army Printing unit is Salonika during the war and AP&SD appears as the imprint on eg Censor labels.
Regards to all
Graham