Cover of the day 19/4/2020 BFPS commemorative covers

[Michael Dobbs]

Hi all

For my "cover of the day" I thought I would let you know what I am currently working on - its not something that will interest the vast majority of you, being about modern British Forces Postal Service (BFPS) commemorative postmarks and covers!  A long way from WW1 or WW1/2 naval mail - or even Russian-related items!  Whatever your likes or dislikes about them, it is Forces-related postmarks and I do feel we ought to keep a record of these.

I used to collect these covers but gave up many years ago now (although I still have my collection).  I only collected them on official commemorative covers - I was not interested in the postmarks on plain covers. 

I still do collect those for the Royal Tournament and Royal School of Military Engineering (RSME) Open Days, although I suspect I have got them all now.  These two topics fit into my researches / collection on FPOs used in the UK in post-war times (Ex Surprise Packet, Coronation FPOs, RE Mobile Displays, TA Camps, and other one-off exhibitions, events or recruiting events, etc.

Anyway collating information on all the BFPS commemorative postmarks used is a very large task - I have attached three random pages to show what I am doing.  I am interested in knowing if the postmark has "Service" or "Services" in its title (e.g. British Forces Postal Service) as I've recently discovered that "Services" has been used a great deal.  Its surprising the number of such cover which can be found illustrated on the web - particularly those related to RAF museum and charities.  As part of the process I also started to collate a simplified listing of some of the series (e.g. Royal Air Force Museum SC series, Royal Marines Museum RM series, the National Army Museum series, etc) and I have attached a document showing a couple of these simplified listings. 

When you view the listing the last two columns on the right hand side relate to the British Postmark Society Special Event postmark reference (their handbooks on such postmarks can be downloaded free of charge from the BPS website) and then the last column is where I can establish that the postmark was issued along with a special series relate cover by a Museum or Forces related charity.  Still a long way to go to get to 2020!

Mike  :)

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Mike

I have  a pile of this material somewhere will send details when I get chance.

Chris

[Michael Dobbs]

Chris

Thanks for your offer - whenever you get round to it I'm only interested in those with "Services" as part of the British Forces Postal Service or Services designation.

I'm a member of the British Postmark Society and I'm gradually working my way through their Journals updating the listing from their regular special event postmark listing - a few years to catch up on yet!

Mike  :)