Query - WW ONE Censor Tape used in Aden

[Neil Williams]

Folks

actually two questions...

used on a cover with marks of 16 July 1917.

1. Does anybody have other dates of usage?

2. Is this pattern/design known for anywhere other than Aden - if so, where and when? 

regards
Neil W

[Peter Harvey]

Well I have never seen this?

Do you have any other recordings of this label, I would be interested to know.

Can we also see the other side of this cover?

Peter

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hello Neil,

A very interesting item, something I've not seen before.  With the 'crossed swords' I wonder if its been produced at Battalion or Regimental level.

Chris

[Peter Harvey]

Neil,

I found another cover in a google search for this.

Peter

[Neil Williams]

Peter, Chris

Thanks for your reactions. These are the only two covers I know of. Interesting there are apparently only these two known, and the design is not met elsewhere.

Peter, where did you find that Russian cover? I Googled without success. I only have a black and white photocopy of it. It seems to have made an extraordinary journey from the Russian 'settlement' at Harbin (China) to South West Africa via Aden and then London..... 8 weeks Harbin to Aden, 7 weeks Aden to London, 9 DAYS London to Keetmanshoop, and 3 weeks on redirection to Karibib.

To precise the one I posted - local mail within Aden to Sheikh Othman, FPO 324 dated 16 JL 17 on the front and Base Office A and Aden GPO marks tying to the label dated 16 JL 17. Why it's On Active Service with an FPO 324 (Sheikh Othman) and then has Base Office A (Aden Camp) and Aden GPO (Steamer Point) to an Army Sergeant at Sheikh Othman is a puzzle to me. Seems to have gone round the houses, when it needn't.

Unfortunately, I have never physically seen either - the images of the two covers I have came from a late member of the Aden and Somaliland Study Group, and surfaced whilst I was researching the Aden in WW1 review I've promised for the FPHS Journal. I've been temporarily put off my stride doing that review as we (A&S) have recently found clear evidence of some Aden WW1 covers being forged by one of our past members in one way or another......

Interestingly, this type of tape/label is not among those provided by Captain Halford-Watkins, the Aden Postal Censor, when he provided in January 1919 an apparently comprehensive listing of military and civil censor marks and tapes/labels used at Aden throughout the war. Which is why I asked. Of course, that omission doesn't mean these labels didn't exist.

Neil W

[Chris Grimshaw]

Neil / Peter,

Two fantastic covers, One thinks I've found the Front page illustration for the Spring Journal.

Neil, Do you have the scan of the front of the cover you show?

Chris

[Neil Williams]

Chris

[attach id=6437]1917 07 16 FPO 324 Censor label  used 10-3 bw.jpg[/attach] here's the original as sent to me, front and back. I now see an additional Aden Censor mark on the front. A lot of marks for a local mail.

Be aware that the bloke who sent me the images of these two covers is the forger I mentioned. I've become perhaps overly nervous ...

regards
Neil

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Neil,

First may I ask what reference publications you have for Aden WW1 & WW2.

The item I illustrate you can see at https://harlos-auktion.de/de/content/los-700-china-auslandspostämter this was sold in auction in 2021 for 3400 Euro's (plus commission), it looks fine to me as does yours, with the labels tied 'routinely' to the covers. It is however a pity that the Aden cachet does not tie the label.

But why would the label state 'On Field Service" clearly your example has the Indian FPO. My understanding is that postal censorship in Aden was organised by both the Cable Censor and also a separate censor appointed by the Deputy Chief Censor India, with these arrangements from 1915 - 1919.

Regards Peter

[Chris Grimshaw]

For clarity

I've looked at the link, using translate this is the English description.

'Russian Post in Manchuria, oval postmark Charbin Voksal 31.5.17 on rare postal stationery cover with imprint 10 copies on 7 copies (issue 1917, format 145 x 120 mm) and on the back Romanov 7 copies with imprint 10 copies as registered mail to South West Africa, R-list Harbine. Gare., transit postmark Aden 22.7.17, violet censor postmark Passed Censor Aden / No. AB-105 and reverse label GR / On Field Service-Aden / Opened By Censor with blue crown and two red crossed swords, transit postmark London 10.9.17, arrival postmark Keetmanshoop and Karibib 6.10.17, left vertical crease, required keywords: Aden, registered letters , Russia / USSR, censored mail'

Chris

[Neil Williams]

Peter, Chris

thanks for the recent mails.

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I have been working on a 'review article' concerning Aden in WW1, combining into a coherent whole the many short and not so short articles that have been in the Aden and Somaliland Study Group's journal (The Dhow) over the years. I was about to start inserting illustrations when the 'Pandora's box' of forgeries was opened, which together with needing to prepare the December issue of The Dhow, put me temporarily off my stroke.

A number of WWI censorship reports have made it into The Dhow over the years. Overall, these are too 'heavy' to be attachments in this Discussion Forum, so I will include a link below from which they may be downloaded. In the download is also the current draft of my very incomplete Review Article, but it does include in its Annex the complete Murray Graham monograph mentioned in the references.

My bibliography for the Review is (so far) - The Graham monograph is key.

Bibliography:

van der Bijl, N, British Military Operations in Aden & Radfan, 100 Years of British Colonial Rule
(2014), Pen & Sword Books, ISBN 9781783032914
Gavin, RJ, Aden under British Rule, 1839-1967 (1996 edn), C Hurst & Co, ISBN 9780903983143
Graham, MAM, Aden Censor Marks, 1914-19, (1965) Robson Lowe Ltd, reprinted from articles in
The Philatelist and Postal Historian.
Haythornthwaite, PJ, The World War One Source Book (1999 edn), Arms & Armour Press,
ISBN 1854093517
Lord, C & Birtles D, The Armed Forces of Aden 1839-1967, (2000), Helion & Co, ISBN 187462240X
Proud (1), E B, History of the Indian Army Postal Service, Volume II, 1914-1931, (1894)
Proud (2), E B, The Postal History of Aden & Somaliland Protectorate, (2004), Proud Bailey,
ISBN 1872465412
Robertshaw, MH, The Postmarks of Aden 1839-1939 (1946)



Concerning these two covers, I have mentioned a few things which strike me as unusual, and I now see more. Apart from the fact this type of label is not included by Halford-Watkins, which is why I asked the questions at the start of this thread. :

The Russian cover - why offload it at a backwater such as Aden for censorship? The AB-105 Aden mark is that of the Chief Postal Censor, normally met on civil mails - why does it have a Field Force label on a civil mail? - and not a Field Force censor mark? I am uneasy about the 9 days transit between London and Keetmanshoop, unless that latter datestamp is incorrectly set. I would also have expected two Aden postal marks - one on the way in and one on the way out - it is a pity the one on the cover is partly obscured.

The Sheikh Othman cover - for a mail from and to Sheikh Othman, the range of marks is most unusual. Other local covers I have seen have just the local FPO, and maybe an Aden Field Force censor, or maybe no censor at all...

THE LINK:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhLkyiENMNj1jUSggUAB1DEbvxal?e=SKb9uc

if this doesn't work let me know by personal message and I'll think of another way!

regards
Neil