WWII T.P.R., Kenya

[Nick Guy]

A cover addressed only to Sgt L L de Verteuil, 12 Division, GPO, East African Forces in 1941 (12th African Division being one of the Divisions opposing Italian forces in Kenya in 1940 - 1941) has amongst the annotations to the address the three lines:

[u]T.P.R.[/u]
O.C.T.U.
Njoro

with the underlining of T.P.R. and the punctuation as shown.  The two acronyms may be in a different hand, however.  I have grasped that OCTU is Officer Cadet Training Unit but there is a reference in Malcolm Page's [i]A History of the King's African Rifles[/i] (published by Leo Cooper in 1998; p 59) to the OCTU at Nakuru - Njoro is some 25 km from Nakuru.  I have not been able to find what T.P.R. stands for - I have found Tpr is Trooper but that presumably should not have full stops inserted between the letters.  Could it be a department of the OCTU at a separate location?

Thank you

Nick

[akennedy]

T.P.R. is definitely in a different hand from O.C.T.U.
However I can not suggest a meaning - not trooper in this case.
Presumably "Nairobi" relates to the original address - location of HQ 12 Div HQ.
The circular mark is A.V.2, which relates to airmail routing.

Alistair

[Ross Debenham]

All incoming mails to forces in East Africa in WW2 were directed to Nairobi where they were passed on to the Army Postal Service where it was distributed to the various units. The envelope should have been directed to the Army Postal Service, Nairobi, and not the GPO. This was done as a security measure.