1914-15 British Army Unit Censorship of messages enclosed in long Red Envelopes

[Gavin Fryer]

Where can I find information about the Army rules of use of Red Envelopes a number of which came back from France to Britain by post. Was this a type of express service to expedite censorship checking?
Did this service provide any other advantages? Dates for Start and End that I believe were 1914 to 1915, but what dates?
I understand that Unit censor did the check so that no further censorship was needed. Once this service ended, servicemen were instructed to use the available Honour envelopes.
Gavin

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Gavin,

I hope you get some further response, but I thought I would start this.

John Daynes records these in the FPHS publication Wartime Postal Stationary, in two versions SP1 (British) and SP2 (Indian), I have certainly seen both on several occasions, both from the Western Front an Mesopotamia, I have attached a picture of one I have now, from Mesopotamia.

John did not give any further details of these and I would suggest the person to talk to about these would be Peter Burrows, sadly he does not use the forum. If you would like his email address I can message you privately.

Regards

Peter Harvey

[Michael Dobbs]

Michael Lockton FRPSL gave a display to the Society on 12 January 2013 and the report of that meeting gave the following information on red envelopes:

[color=maroon]He started off by explaining that some have the view that the forerunner of the green envelope was a special red envelope (Army Form W 2043).  The red envelope had its origins in the Crimea War when journalists complained of lengthy delays in getting their reports back to England for publication.  They were introduced as press envelopes to expedite delivery, but Michael had not seen any and didn't know if any exist now.  The British Army issued red envelopes (AF W 2043) for matters of a personal nature only and these had to be signed by the Commanding Officer and were not subject to any delay by censorship.  The writer had to sign an 'I certify ..." declaration.  They were thought to have been mainly used by officers and Michael showed examples from the collections of the late Martin Wilcox, Alan Brown and George Crabb.  Few such letters occurred and their use was discontinued quite early in the war.  The Indian Army produced their own envelopes, but there was no imprint which showed the printer, but they did have a printing date and there are three known printing dates recorded. [/color]

Mike  :)

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Mike,

That is interesting, thank you for sharing. That is along the lines that JD stated in the FPHS Postal Stationary book.

The example I attached has the printers detail: G.S & Sons, Cal - No 21 A. A. 18.8.14 4 00,000

I take this to mean 

G.S. & Sons - Printers
Cal - Calcutta
No 21 A. A. ?
18.8.14 - Printing run date
4 00, 000 - number printed

If the Indian Army Postal service printed 400, 000 I wonder what happened to them?
G.S. & Sons were also printers for several of the WW1 Indian Field Service Cards

[Michael Dobbs]

I put the question to Peter Burrows and he has responded with the attached.

Mike  :)

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hello All

A good topic Gavin which I can not recollect seeing much written on. 

The document from Peter Burrows shows clearly the requirements for use.  The display by Michael Lockton is probably the most comprehensive we'll see on these items.

Usage apart from the Western Front is known bu very scarce,  I have one example used from Gallipoli and am aware of one example used from Egypt.

A topic which would warrant a Journal Article.

Chris

[Peter Harvey]

Mike,

Thank you for asking Peter Burrows, this is great information and actually would indicate these were available and used 1914 - 1919, however it would be great to get some further copies if members have examples so we can add 'known' use date.

Does any other than Chris and I have a copy of this used?

Peter