Cover of the day 31 March 2020

[Michael Dobbs]

My cover(s) of the day are of the Krag continuous impression machine with two FPO numbers - 435 and 626.  Both are dated 3 JNE 47 and there is no senders details or indication as to the location of the Krag machine, other than that it was used in BAOR.

My book "British Forces Machine Postmarks 1940-1983" records it being used on 30 MAY 47, 3 JNE 47, 4 JNE 47 and 8 JNE 47 with a question mark for 9 JNE 47.

The 30 MAY 47 date only has the 435 number in one die head - the other being blank.  It also has 'Hannover' in manuscript on the front - could this be an indication as to the location?  The one for (?)9 JNE 47 was annotated "from someone who was using FPO 424 from 21.7.47 to 1.48' and at that time FPO 424 was located in Hannover.

However, the one dated 4 JNE 47 was from 32 Assault Engineer Regiment which was located at Hameln.

Does anyone out there have copies of the dual-numbered Krag - if so please do let me know!

Thanks, Mike  :)

[Nick Colley]

Ah, yes, the schizophrenic Krag. Mmm...... was that an oversight on the part of the REPS staff, or was someone having a laugh?

Anyway, here's mine for today. A fairly ordinary AMLC of naval origin, but it has a story to account for itself:

It's addressed to the UK from the Hunt class destroyer HMS Bicester dated 6th December 1943. She had been deployed to the Mediterranean and Adriatic in November 1943 following repair in the UK of action damage sustained in May while on operations in the Med.  On 2nd December, she was damaged during an air raid on Bari when an ammunition ship was hit and exploded. She was taken to Taranto for repair, and resumed duty in the second half of January 1944. The card is from the ship's engineer, Lt (E) H.W.Glover, MBE. It looks like he's signed the censor mark himself. Why he's endorsed it 'Free Christmas Mail' and then put affixed a 3d stamp is a mystery. Another oddity is the date on the CO's cachet, 24th November. Being the engineer, the writer would have been intimately involved with the repairs and remained with the ship with other essential crew. The postmark is FPO 531 (8th December), which Proud locates at Taranto, so that all ties up nicely.

chrs
N

[Chris Weddell]

My postcard of the day! This is one from dare I say it a hospital ship.

The card was posted aboard by a patient aboard the H.M.H.S. Agadir which was stationed with the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow dealing with only infectious cases i.e. the Spanish Flu. The card was posted to his sister in the Shetland Islands.

The cover is tied with a Gould 1A2 censor mark and a FPO A (Scapa Flow) Gould MA2 Krag Machine cancel.

[Michael Dobbs]

Chris

I hope it's been disinfected!!

A good postcard - nice clear well defind Krag cancel and censor mark.

I hope PH is impressed!!

Mike  ;)

[Peter Harvey]

Am I allowed two 'covers of the day'

I could do with some help here. Two covers addressed to The Deck Dept RFA Bayleaf, I assume to a Chinese Deck Hand, but who knows, they are very interesting though. I have no accurate dates, clearly 1960's with 1961 & 1964 stamps.

Any more detail appreciated.

[Howard Weinert]

Another cover of the day. Sent in July 1895 from Alexandrovsk De Kastri (on Russia's Pacific coast opposite Sakhalin) to Colne, Lancashire by RN engineer Roger Baron [1870-1939] serving on cruiser HMS Edgar, part of the China station squadron. Postmarked in Nagasaki, Yokohama, and Colne.

[Nick Colley]

Thanks for that, Howard, a quality item. Impressive. I wonder why the writer thought it necessary to put Colne and Lancashire in Cyrillic as well as 'England'.

Presumably the addressee was his father? Sorry, just idle curiosity. (There's a lot of it about at the moment in the UK.....)

chrs
N

[Howard Weinert]

His father was James Wilkie Baron 1838-1911+

The Colne and Lancaster in Cyrillic was totally pointless.

[Howard Weinert]

One more interesting fact:
On 13 November 1895, the Edgar sent some men ashore to drill at Chemulpo, Korea. While returning to the ship, the launch capsized and 48 men out of 71 were drowned.

[Nick Guy]

As is already seen even in current circumstances I'm being kept busy enough that a cover a day is more than I can achieve but I'll try and provide something from time to time.  Here's a cover that's rather different from the last one I showed. 
Northern Kenya, mainly desert or near-desert, is sparsely populated.  It saw active campaigning both to control and disarm the inhabitants and to protect them from raiding from Ethiopia after the First World War.  In 1919 there were 400 King's African Rifles in Northern Jubaland (the territory ceded by Britain to Italy in 1924 under the agreement under which Italy joined the allies in the First World War), 500 in the South and 340 in the Northern Frontier District.  The KAR consisted of Askaris with European officers and both European and African NCOs and little mail from the KAR at any time survives except from the Europeans
The cover is addressed to Garba Harre, Northern Jubaland but evidently did not reach Lt Aitken before a move to Wajir, the current spelling, in the Northern Frontier District.  In Jubaland, it was backstamped both at Gobwein, situated near the mouth of the Juba River, around 300 miles South of Garba Harre (which had no postal agency) and at Kismayu.  Wajir is around 300 miles to the North West but to catch up with him it had to be carried by sea South to Mombasa, inland to Nairobi by rail, through Fort Hall by rail and road and onward to Wajir - a round trip of nearly 1000 miles.  Wajir had no post office at this time - presumably mail came up with the supplies.

Nick Guy

[Michael Dobbs]

Wow - my cover (the first on this day) is famous !!!

The one addressed to the Royal Netherlands Steamboat Company is the exact one illustrated in Newsletter 68 (July/August 1964)  under Query No 26 and came from the collection of John Daynes.

Some 56 years later and we are still no nearer to solving the issue !!??!!

Mike  :( :(