WWI cancels on wreck mail

[Tony Walker]

I recently acquired a group of covers salvaged from the SS Kingstonian when she was torpedoed by UB-68 on 11 April 1918 in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sardinia.  They are all from the same correspondence, addressed to Mrs George Young in Edinburgh but re-directed to 13 Sheffield Road in Chesterfield.  The sender was Mr George Young, presumably husband of Mrs Young.

I attach tracings of the cancellations from those covers  where they are readable.  I have checked in Kennedy and Crabb and have more or less identified the cancels, although they are not specifically listed/illustrated as far as I can make out.  It's not a publication I am familiar with as I seldom use it.  One cover (no. 2 on my tracings) has a PBC octagonal army censor no. 906.

The ship was sailing from Alexandria to Marseilles with around 40 troops on board, plus stores and equipment from the 60th Div. London Regiment who returned to France a month later.  The Kingstonian appears to have carried a substantial amount of mail as there are many salvaged covers in circulation and many different cachets.  Only one life was lost on the Kingstonian and nine from the tug Dalkeith which had come to her rescue when the captain beached her at the nearby Carloforte Bay.  These lives were lost when UB-48 torpedoed both ships on 29 April 1918 in the bay.

I would appreciate any further details about the cancellations and their minor variations and their place of origin.  Also somewhat optimistically perhaps, anything about George Young.

Hoggarth and Quinn in their book Maritime Disaster mail do not fully agree between themselves as to some details of mails lost, but do reckon this wreck is probably the most controversial of all the First World War casualties.  Both ships were a total write off.

Cheers
Tony

[Alan Baker]

According to Proud - BAPO Z was in Alexandria, BAPO K Kantara (Egypt), APO S11 Alexandria.

Checking AK's records, CM7 906 has no unit allocation, but he records its use in Feb 1918 with APO S17 - Kantara. This APO No was replaced by BAPO K in March 1918 (Proud)

Unfortunately, there are over 2000 George Youngs on FWR for WWI! Do you have an address in Edinburgh for his wife?

[Tony Walker]

Thanks Alan

The address in Edinburgh to which the envelopes were originally sent was :

12 Eyre Crescent
Edinburgh

One envelope is addressed to a Miss Dori.... (rest lost), but to same address, a daughter perhaps.

BAPO Z Alexandria, is the earliest date at 21.3.18, this ties in neatly with your note that this was replaced by BAPO K, Kantara, in March, 23 and 28 March 18 in two of my covers.  That leaves the APO SZII of 23 March 18 - is this cancel essentially the same as the simple Z cancel of Alexandria of 21 March?, presumably a day or so before it was replaced by BAPO K?

I was wondering if George Young was in the 60th Division London Regiment  whose equipment was on board the Kingstonian, being sent back home in advance of the Regiment who sailed a month later.  Seems likely.  I should have mentioned I also have two other covers from the Kingstonian wreck, cancelled APO SZ10 dated 30 March and 2 April 18 about which you kindly provided some excellent details some time ago, together with Graham Mark and Chris Grimshaw, concluding that one of these covers (the latter one)was indeed sent by a Frank Gyles of the 2/13th Bttn London regiment

Yes! Alright Chris, I'll think about a piece for the Journal...!!

I don't expect you to trawl through all those G Youngs!  Thanks for your help.

Tony

[Graham Mark]

Hello Tony
I put an article in the Wreck & Crash Mail Soc journal "La Catastrophe" some years ago, after examining a good number of covers ex Kingstonian.  I cannot find it on my current PC but I expect it will be on one of a large number of old discs from a previous machine.  I will have a search.
The point of my article was to identify where the different "damaged" or "salved" cachets were applied.
Best regards
Graham