Why 2 censors and where?

[Colin Tabeart]

Here is a cover franked 1½d to Scotland, with Daynes N451, and another straight line censor I cannot pin down in Nick C's excellent tome. N451 is supposedly Egypt. Censor's initials seem to be HRB - if correct must be Pay Lt HR Butchers. The Nov 1939 NL has him appointed to HMS Cochrane in Sep 1939, a long way from Egypt, but also has a note "Lent to NZ Squadron". Butchers had earlier served in Achilles from 6 Mar 1936, so maybe he was lent back to her for a bit? If so, from what I can discover she was nowhere near Egypt at this time, being somewhat busy around the River Plate area. Questions:

1. has N451 now been definitely allocated to Egypt?

2. Why two censors?

3. Is HR Butchers the correct allocation? If so, could the straight line PASSED BY CENSOR be for Achilles?


Colin

[Michael Dobbs]

Colin

A bit of a long shot - in the Army it is possible to see mail censored twice, once by the unit censor and then again by the base censor (presumably to ensure censorship rules were being followed locally).

Could there have been an equivalent process in the Navy?

Mike

[Tony Walker]

WW2 is not my province, but Colin's comment of whether the navy ever censored twice prompted me to respond.  The Navy did censor twice in WW1, to check whether the unit or squadron (RNAS) had done it correctly, and I have a number of covers showing this - often the second censor being applied at the Dover Command.

So the practice may well have continued in WW2?

Tony

[Nick Colley]

Folks, I've found five examples of N451 in my collection/accumulation. Four of them are on covers bearing Egyptian stamps (and postmarks). One of these four is used within Egypt. The remaining item bears no stamps, and the only postmark it carries was applied on re-direction within the UK.

I'll not attach scans here, because that would breach the attachment size limit, but I'll e-mail the scans to you three - and anyone else who asks.

chrs
N

[Colin Tabeart]

Many thanks to Tony and Nick. Nick's collection clearly nails N451 to Egypt, but that then asks: are the censoring initials HRB those of Lt HR Butchers? If so, what was he doing in Egypt given the NL entries I originally mentioned? Or could mail from [i]Achilles [/i]be routed via Egypt? Also can you allocate the straight line PASSED BY CENSOR Nick? It measures 50 x 4 mm overall.
Unusually for the RN there was both a shore base named Cochrane (at Rosyth) and a depot ship - the latter was ex HMS Ambrose, renamed Cochrane in 1938. She survived the war - I cannot discover where she was in Nov 1939, but I guess Alexandria is a distinct possibility. Any further thoughts chaps>
Colin

[Nick Colley]

Your s/l PASSED BY CENSOR is N604, I think? My perception is that was a widely-used mark before the infamous tombstone was adopted, so I doubt that a unique allocation is possible, CT.

chrs
N