Request for information - HMS Exeter - Falkland Islands

[Michael Dobbs]

We have received the following request for information:

[color=maroon]In John Daynes' excellent book, one that is now a standard reference book on "The Forces Postal History of the Falkland Islands & the Task Force" (FPHS, 1983), I refer to page 6 on which at the bottom is featured a scan of a OAS cover to Mrs G.A. Symons of Teignmouth with an HMS Exeter Passed by Censor marking, and a London Received from HM Ships arrival datestamp of 3 FEB 1940.  Towards the top of this page 6, the second paragraph of this page, and I quote ...

"Mail from Royal Navy ships in the Falkland Islands took about six weeks to reach London as the following list shows:

Ship date of letter date of London "Received from HM Ships" postmark

Ajax etc etc
Exeter 5th December 1939 17th January 1940
19th December 1939 3rd February 1940" [this is the illustrated cover]

I now have records of some five Symons covers but none with an enclosed letter.

The request to your membership is this – does any member have, or have knowledge of, a similar cover which contains the original letter?  If so a scan of the letter, and related cover, would be welcome.

Why the request?

We do not for certain know who wrote this series of similar covers – the Symons correspondence.  Many collectors, I believe, have assumed that the letter writer was a Symons, the husband of the cover addressee without doing any research to confirm this assumption.

On a number of HMS Exeter and Battle of the River Plate websites (when Exeter was seriously damaged just managing to limp into nearby Stanley harbour to be patched up for the sea voyage back to a RN Dockyard for a complete overhaul/refit) there are lists of the HMS Exeter crew at the time of the Battle.  There is no Symons listed.  In the crew list for Exeter for the time after her return to active service in the mid/far east where she was sunk and the surviving crew was taken to Japanese POW camps, there was a H.E. Symons, a Shipwright who survived both the battle, sinking and being held in a POW camp.

So, in conclusion, the request is a possible step that might lead to establishing the source, or writer, of this correspondence. Did Daynes have access, or a scan, of a Letter to Mrs Symons? [That is the question?][/color]

If you think you can help please let me know and I'll pass on your response or details to the person making the enquiry.

Thanks, Mike  :)

[Frank Schofield]

Mike

Many years ago (might be 20+) I got hold of 4 items from HMS Exeter in the Falklands, they went out of my stock at Stampex so fast they almost caught fire, the one star item was signed with the initials F.S.B. those of Captain F.S (Hooky) Bell, who was recovering after having shell splinters removed from his eye (In my humble opinion this man should have got the big one and not a CB) I note the other two Captains made Flag rank but not Bell, who later commanded the base at Trincomalee then commanded HMS Howe (Battleship)
Sorry, I cannot remember who they were addressed to

Frank Schofield