Possible WW1 dumb canceller

[Michael Dobbs]

I have been sent the following enquiry by a member of the British Postmark Society:

[color=maroon]You will see that the Postage Due stamp on the attached 1931 cover has been cancelled with a killer.  I presume that Liverpool would have used dumb naval cancellations during WW1. Is it possible that this killer was originally used at Liverpool for that purpose?[/color]

I have looked at Gould's "British Naval Postal & Censor Marks of the First World War" (Revised Edition 1998) and also his Volume 2 (2016) and cannot find a similar marking.  However, I would appreciate comments, confirmation or otherwise from our Naval specialists who have a far better eye for these markings than I!

Thanks, Mike

[Tony Walker]

Hello Mike

I have seen this, or something very similar, but not in my collection so cannot do a direct comparison.  Maybe I have seen it in an auction catalogue, didn't go for it, but your correspondent did!

it would not be unreasonable for something like this mute cancel to be used when only a cancel is required i.e. no date, town die etc.  Several of the mute cancels of WWI appeared for several years after the end of the war on naval mail.

Not much help I'm afraid

Tony