Mail intercepted by the Royal Navy, WW1

[Nick Colley]

Following on from Tony's report and question about his intercepted Swedish item, here's the first of mine.

As you can see, it carries a Gibraltar 1d, and British 1d and 1/2d stamps, all cancelled with four strikes of a thick 8-bar mark. I suppose this may be a form of DA4, which Dr.Gould reports as used at Invergordon.

Overlying the (Gibraltar) stamp, there are two censor labels. The top one seems likely to be British, no.1035, but I'm not familiar with WW1 (civilian) labels. The obscured label may have been applied in Gibraltar – printed with large red script, part of which is OPENED BY. I can't see under the top label to make out the rest of the printing. I do not wish to lift the top label, obviously.

The censor mark is Gould's 2A13. It appears to be written by a Scandinavian – presumably Danish – to a family member. Sadly, there is no date available. If anyone has sufficient interest, the examining officer's name – or initials - are available, as you can see.

I don't have any questions, really. I've just put this up for interest, but if you have any (polite  :)) comments, feel free to make them.

I've another item from this correspondence which I'll add later.

chrs
N

[Nick Colley]

As promised, the second item. This carries a label equivalent to the 2A13 mark. The postmark this time is Gould's MA13, location unknown. Same writer, same address, same examining officer. Sadly, most of the date in the backstamp is indecipherable, but with the eye of faith (and maybe a soupcon of experience ?), the year may be 1917.

chrs
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[Alan Baker]

I've tried all kinds of variations (even Colley) but cannot find anything on FWR or Ancestry. Over to Frank

[Nick Colley]

What are you thinking, Alan? The initials I can make out are FCU. What do you reckon?

chrs
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[Frank Schofield]

Nick

No FCU in WWI Navy LIst
I will try FCG tomorrow

Frank

[Frank Schofield]

Nick

Found three FCG's in May 1917  Navy List

Two Lt. RNVR  commanded Motor Launches
the other no ship against his name

Will have one more try


Frank

[Nick Colley]

Thanks, Frank. It occurs to me that the personnel in the Examination Service may be part of Contraband Control? Might they be on the books of HMS President, do you think?

Just a thought.

chrs
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[Frank Schofield]

Nick

I think we agree that initials are F.C.
I read the date on the Danish back stamp as 1917
I went through all the Lieut's RNVR listed in the May 1917 Navy List (all 1917 of them)
Found 13 F.C's, 3 already accounted for. 2 RNAS, 1 no ship, the rest on small ships, other 2 listed under HMS President. 1 Frederick C Lidstone. 2. Frank C Taylor, neither fit the unknown last initial.
Sorry best I can come up with.
Frank

[Nick Colley]

OK, Frank. A nice try, and thanks for that. If anyone else has a 2A13 mark, perhaps they can show it off? Maybe it has a more easily decipherable signature?

chrs
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[Graham Mark]

I have looked at my database of WWI civil censors.  I hoped 1035 was a censor in Gibraltar but that number has not so far turned up on covers definitely censored at Gib.  So I would opine that 1035 and 237 were  both operating in UK.  Censor numbers 1 -1500 were London staff, but they kept their numbers if they were transferred to other stations (which were spread in UK from Falmouth and Folkestone to Lerwick and overseas to Gib, Egypt and somewhere in the Far East).
Examination Centres were set up to check cargo and passengers on ships escorted into, or voluntarily calling at British ports.
They were authorised to examine mail carried by passengers, crew or in the ship's box.  It looks like these two were checked by the Examining Officer and then passed to the Postal Censorship.  I will look into the Report on Postal Censorship to see if I can find any info on this topic, but doubt there will be anything useful.
Graham