Did the 8th Australian Infantry go to Corfu 1916

[Peter Harvey]

The attached card is cancelled FPO A.N.8 within its known date range March to June 1916 (May 18 16) on a Corfu card.

Bob Emery does not give a location of use. However the 8th part of the 2nd Division embarked from Egypt to France in the March, clearly this datestamp was not in France, so elements were clearly left behind. Although it is marked Egypt, I wonder if elements could have gone to Corfu?

Any thoughts?

Peter

[Alan Baker]

I have a record (taken from one of your listings!) of CM3/3213 being used with APOSZ4 on 2nd May 1916. Proud gives this as Ismailia

[Graham Mark]

Hello Peter
May I suggest that there was an enormous demand for postcards in Egypt in the first half of 1916 and I am sure that any and all available were sold or issued to soldiers.  With Divisions withdrawn from Gallipoli plus fresh Divisions sent from UK and from F&F there was a very large population of Tommys, Jocks, Taffys, Diggers etc. Just as in the Edwardian period in Britain you can find cards showing European and Asian scenes used domestically, I am certain I could find in my collections other "foreign" postcards used from Egypt.  If a transport ship had called at Corfu and then gone on to Egypt it would not surprise me if some enterprising purser had bought up a stock of picture postcards with a view to making a turn on his investment at Alex or Port Said.
Regards
Graham

[Frank Schofield]

Gents

Field Post Office A.N. 8 allocated to the 32nd Australian Battalion
Having another look at the datestamp, the 'A' & '8' are reasonably clear
BUT
It looks to me as if there has been a crude effort to remove the letter 'N. for what reason I have no idea
The date is within the range quoted by Proud for this datestamp
What do's anybody else think?

Frank Schofield

[Michael Dobbs]

Frank / Peter

Having looked at it close up, it does appear that the N has been crudely removed. 
Does anyone else have copies to compare against or to verify the removal?

Mike