APO R.38 1919

[Michael Dobbs]

I have received the following enquiry:

[color=maroon]I am an Albanian collector, specialising in the postal history of Shkodër (Scutari), not a military mail collector as such.
At the end of WWI, an International Force comprising French, Italian and British troops was set up in Shkodër, after the Serbs were forced to leave the town.
Initially, between end November/December 1918 and 15/16 March 1919, the British force was represented by members of the 1st Garrison Battalion of the Essex Regiment.
They were subsequently replaced in mid March 1919 by the 1st-6th Battalions of the Gloucestershire Regiment.
I recently found an old Albanian picture postcard which was sent at the time of the Second International Occupation of Shodër and although dated 1919 was sent On Active Service and censored.
The postcard has been cancelled ARMY POST OFFICE — R.38 — on B 26 FE 19.
I would be grateful if you could identify where this British Field Post Office was situated and which units it served at that date. So far no item of mail has been identified as having being sent by a member of the Essex Regiment. I am hoping that this could possibly be one.[/color]

According to Kennedy & Crabb APO R.38 was the Divisional Railhead for 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division in France as part of the BEF; recorded used DE 15 to MR 19.

I have asked for a scan of the postcard and also details of the censor cachet which I will post here once received.  However, can anyone add any other information please ?

Thanks, Mike

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Mike

I'll await a scan of this item with interest.

Proud Second Edition,  Records APO R 38 as you correctly say 38th (Welsh) Division Railhead, 

Location for period 14.1.19 to June 19 is given as Amiens, a long way from Scutaria.

I have three PPC's from here all cancelled APO S 100 with censor 8 / 433 dated between 7th to 21st April 1919 and clearly are from members of the 1st 6th Battn Gloucestershire Regiment. Earliest recorded date for the 1/6th Gloc's is 28 March 1918 from Scutaria.

APO S 100 was located in Taranto.  I suppose its possible that some mail could have got 'lost' and somehow found its way to APO R 38

Lets await the scan.  I'm intrigued.

I have  a multi page article print out on this area passed on to me by Peter Harvey but unfortunately don't know who the author is.  :)

Chris

[Frank Schofield]

Gents
Re Albania.
In February 1919 the 1st/6th Gloucester Regt were in training in the Verona area, on 22nd of February they were notified of a move to Albania, the journey south took 3 days, I have an Italian postcard, bought on the way down? postmarked APO S.100 (Taranto) on 28th February 1919. The unit censor (CM8) No. 433 is present.
I have 6 postcards with views of Albania, 3 postmarked 19th March 1919, also one each postmarked, 28th March, 7th April and 16th April 1919. All postmarked APO S.100, each with the unit censor (CM8) No. 433.  One the 19th March items (view of the Royal Palace) got a mention in the FPHS Newsletter of July/August 1980, over 40 years ago.
Interestingly the 1st Garrison Btn, Essex Regt is not listed by James or Gould (R.W.) is being in Albania in 1919.
Do you think a soldier from the 1st Garrison Btn, Essex Regt, took a Albanian postcard home with him and after writing on it, dropped it off at APO R.38 during the journey.
Frank

[Chris Grimshaw]

Afternoon Team

John Slingsby recorded 1st Garrison Bttn, The Essex Regiment as follows

(1) Lines of Communication & Salonika Base  1.11.18 to 19.12.18

(2) Army Troops General List  C.20.12.18 to 30.1.19

Further on page 197

1st Garrison Battn The Essex Regiment

30.10.18  Landed at Salonika and marched to Lembet.
1.11.18    Joined Lines of Communication
c.20.12.18 Sailed for Scutaria, Albania. became Army Troops
23.12.18  Landed at Antivari, Montenogro.
3.1.19 / 16.1.19  Proceeded in Parties to Scutari.
31.1.19  Battalion transferred to Italian Expeditionary Force.

Chris

[Chris Grimshaw]

A little on the 1st/6th Battalion Gloucester Regiment

1/6th Gloucesters recrossed the frontier back into Italy on 11 November and went into camp at Taranto in southern Italy. Demobilization of 48th (SM) Division began in early 1919, but 1/6th Gloucesters was detached for further service. Leaving one company behind, it entrained for Brindisi on 23 February 1919, then sailed to Scutari in Albania. It carried out garrison duty in that country and Montenegro until May, when it was transported to Egypt and continued garrison duties. The company at Taranto never rejoined and was demobilized in September, but the rest of the battalion continued to grow as men with remaining service were transferred in from disbanded units. Finally it was demobilized in December 1919 and the remaining cadre with the Colours returned to Bristol on 25 March 1920.[9][10][59][60]
Chris

[Michael Dobbs]

Chris & Frank

Thank you for your responses so far.

I have now received copies of the postcard - unfortunately he sent them inserted into the email rather than as attachments and they are small.
I have copied them to a word file and tried to enlarge them before they became blurred.

Censor is Type CM6/7002 - does anyone have any info on this please?

Based on what you both say in your replies, I don't think that this card was posted in Albania due to the APO cancel and the censor type - you both mention Type CM8 censors in your responses.  Also there is no indication as to the unit the writer is from so we cannot even presume it is from someone who is returning from Albania and simply posted the card in France on his way home.

Mike  :)

[Alan Baker]

I have nothing recorded from AK's records

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Mike et all,

I hav a copy of an article The First International Occupation of Shkoder, no authors name, but I assume this could be the same prison asking this question? If not the article states:

The exact date that the British force arrived in Shkodër is uncertain. It was initially represented by the 1st Garrison Battalion of the Essex Regiment. To my knowledge no mail has yet been recorded from a member of that Regiment. They were replaced by the 1st - 6th Battalions of the Gloucestershire Regiment on or about 15th or 16th March 1919. The Gloucesters remained in Shkodër until the end of May/beginning of June 1919. They had returned to Italy by the 6th June 1919 and formed part of the 'British Mission to Bari'. The British was the first contingent of the international occupying forces to leave Shkodër.
Mail from the British force was probably routed back to the U.K. in a similar way to that used during the first international occupation. It was handed into the office of the British commanding officer in Shkodër, and sent in mail bags to the coast at San Giovanni di Medua. It was then carried by motor torpedo boat to Taranto in Italy, where it was censored and handled by army post office S.100 which was based there. It was then forwarded by train through Italy and France, and then by channel ferry to Great Britain. It seems that mail was transferred every 10-14 days in March, and then every week in late April-May.

I managed to cut and paste the picture Mike had as attached

Peter

[Chris Grimshaw]

Afternoon Team

Card looks to be datelined 26 2 19, the same as the cancel.  There is no indication that this item is connected to the 1st Garrison Battn Essex Regiment. Further information  on the Type 6 censor may give  a clue to the user. 

Mike, Can you email me any details of the enquirer.  Have  a couple of names in mind.

Peter,  The article you quote is the same as the one I referred to, something I'd like to publish if we can attribute it.

Chris

[Michael Dobbs]

Thank you all for your comments and apologies for the delay in dealing with this.  I passed relevant comments on to the person making the enquiry - in my recent email I stated:

[color=blue]I placed your query on our Forum and there were responses from three members, some responding more than once.  However, the unfortunate result is that we cannot attribute the card to a member of 1st Garrison Battalion, The Essex Regiment.  It is clearly postmarked APO R.38 and this was allocated to the Divisional Railhead for 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force.  The date of the postmark fits in with this allocation.

We cannot explain how or why an Albanian picture postcard found its way into the BEF in France.

Whilst we do have some records on the many different types of censor marking used by the British Army during WW1 we do not have anything on censor 7002

However, one of our members, our Journal Editor Chris Grimshaw, has asked that I pass your contact details to him as he "has a couple of names in mind" – quite what that is I don't know, so you may get an email from Chris.

I have attached a summary of the responses as they relate to your postcard and the Essex Regiment.  I'm sorry that we cannot be more helpful.[/color]

He has now responded with:

[color=maroon]Many thanks for coming back to me with the information about my postcard. I bought it originally as part of a collection of Scutari from a Dutch collector eight years ago. He collected Albania in general but was very interested in Military mail used from there. His name was 'Dick' Knaap. There is a possibility that he was a member of your philatelic society as he used to come to London regularly when the Albanian Study Group used to meet at 'The Services Club' at Waterloo.
There were two cards together with strips cut out from an auction catalogue. One of the strips claimed that the card was sent by a member of the British contingent in Scutari. I was hopeful but not convinced and that is why I contacted you. He paid a very large sum for them believing that the catalogue description was correct. In fact he paid 119 Euros each in June 2001.[/color]

Mike