Cover of the Day 30 March 2020

[Peter Harvey]

Well, given yesterdays news in the UK and the Chief Medical Officers Update, we should have about another 170 of these before things get back to normal..... I hope you all have covers and cards at hand ready to share with other members?

So today I have a WW1 card from Cairo. I have always had an interests the APO SZ date stamp. I purchased a collection of these on a trip to a stamp fair in Worthing when I was about 20 something years of age, in fact it might have been whilst at one of the FPHS meetings in Worthing. Apart from the interest in the SZ series, I also like WW1 items sent between military units. This card is cancelled Field Post Office SZ 15 dated 14 JY 19 used from Abassia with the senders details 18th San Section E.E.F. Egypt and posted to No.6 Observation Group British Army on the Rhine.

I assume 'San Section' stands for Sanitation Section? and that No6 Observation Group were part of the Field Survey Company with the Royal Engineers. The (first) BAOR was established in May 1919 and I understand served in Germany right through to 1929.

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Peter

Are you sure SZ 15 ,  looks like SZ 19.  A very nice item.

Chris

[Chris Weddell]

Carrying on from Peter's WWI Egypt card is my cover of the day. As it happens I have been sorting though my E.E.F covers and cards getting them ready to mount.

A cover posted from SZ 1O Army Base Post Office Cairo to Weymouth. The cover has been opened and resealed by the base censor. On the back of the cover tying the censor paper label is a very good strike of the large skeleton APO SZ 10 handstamp. 

[Michael Dobbs]

Peter - I think I'm going to have to agree with Chris, it does look like 19. 
I've blown it up, darkened and lightened it and feel sure it is a 19.

Mike

[Peter Harvey]

Okay, I got it wrong (should have gone to Specsavers) FPO SZ 19 still in Egypt but a location change used at Heliopolis, thanks for the note I was in rather a rush when I posted that.

[Peter Harvey]

Chris the large skeleton is indeed unusual, I think I have only ever seen a few examples, nice with the EEF censor cachet and label.

Pete

[quote author=Chris Weddell link=topic=1380.msg6145#msg6145 date=1585584745]
Carrying on from Peter's WWI Egypt card is my cover of the day. As it happens I have been sorting though my E.E.F covers and cards getting them ready to mount.

A cover posted from SZ 1O Army Base Post Office Cairo to Weymouth. The cover has been opened and resealed by the base censor. On the back of the cover tying the censor paper label is a very good strike of the large skeleton APO SZ 10 handstamp.
[/quote]

[Nick Colley]

Better late than never:

Attached is a p/c from a member of the Brieftauben Abteilung Ostende (BAO) in February 1915. This, I gather, translates as 'Carrier Pigeon Section (at) Ostend'. This was a special (clandestine?) German air force unit formed early in WW1 to carry out pioneer bombing operations. The Ostend connection may have arisen, perhaps, from the proximity to that town when it was formed in November 1914 at Ghistelles, a town about 6 kms south of Ostend. The 'carrier pigeon' epithet may be a function of the German sense of humour..... It moved to Metz in January 1915, and back to Ghistelles in February 1915, but I don't have the precise dates. This is dated on the reverse 3rd February 1915, so it seems more likely, maybe, that this came from Metz rather than Ghistelles.

The writer is Hauptmann Kurt Muller. He appears to have moved on from the BAO, and was killed while serving with Feld Flieger Abteilung 69 on 15th October 1915 when his plane crashed on the way back from a mission to Sofia.

chrs
N

[Michael Dobbs]

Thank you Nick, yes better late than never!

Now lets bring a bit of humour into the game - my cover is of FPO 9 postmarked on 14 July 1946 with a WW2 army shield type censor. 

An interesting "On Active Service" cover clearly bogus and manufactured as a stage prop for the classic early television medical drama "Dr Finlay's Case Book" which ran from 1962 to 1971.  Dr Alan Finlay was a young medical student working in a country practice under the tutelage of veteran Dr Cameron.  It was set in a pre-NHS medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae.

The "cover" is addressed to Dr Cameron at his famous address set in the Scottish Lowlands at "Arden House, Tannochbrae, Perthshire, Scotland, UK".  It has what appears to be a genuine strike of FPHS Type A6 censor 10019 - a type and within a numerical range used in North West Europe.  However, the date of 14 July 1946 for censorship is clearly wrong - the issue of British Military Censorship Regulations in July 1945 stated that mail was no longer to be stamped with unit censor stamps and such stamps were to be returned to the Base Censor.

It has been "cancelled" using FIELD POST OFFICE 9 datestamp of 14 JY 46.  The datestamp is clearly a rubber facsimile of a metal datestamp used in the period.  The genuine FIELD POST OFFICE 9 datestamp was issued to 30 Corps Postal Unit on 18 April 1944 and was with 8 Base Army Post Office on 24 August 1946.

Enjoy!  ;D

[Nick Colley]

Mike, that is outrageous!  ;D  How was that 'liberated' from the Beeb? Were YOU responsible??

Very good!

chrs
N

[Alan Baker]

Have you got the box set?