WW1 naval censor

[Tony Walker]

Attached is a scan of a naval censor mark  CEN / NM/TP /SOR, of the type associated with the Dover Command.  Michael Gould suggests Naval Motor Transport Pool, and I am wondering if there has been any substantiation of this suggestion meantime?

The PPC (romantic) is endorsed 23.1.19 in the message, so strictly did not need censoring I assume.  There is a very poor London machine cancel with RFHMS/NCTBR slogan.

However there is a good censors signature which may read :

                SN. Avery ?  (short for Auxiliary?)
                Cpl: mcelia?ie
But it might be self-censored - compare surname in address with first line of censor which looks like Avery

Any help appreciated

[Tony Walker]

Just had a thought, might the second line of the censors mark be :

Cpl: in charge ?

Tony

[Alan Baker]

I think the name might be H Avery. There was a Harold M Avery who was a Royal Marine in WWI.

In the 1901 Census, Harold Mark Avery was described as a schoolboy aged 7 and ten years later his occupation was "Motor Driver Domestic". In both cases, he was living in Cheltenham. He died aged 97 in Oxford in 1989

In the Gloucestershire Electoral Roll for 1930, Harold Avery's address was given as Northam House. His wife was Ida Margaret Avery. In the 1937 Roll, also listed is Beatrice Peggy Avery. From the message on the card, she would have been quite young in 1919. She does not appear in 1935 (1936 appears to be missing from the Ancestry listing). Given the age of majority was 21 this would tie in.

From Forces War Records, Harold Mark Avery was a motor mechanic in the Royal Marine Artillery in 1918. I think the second line of the censor actually reads Cpl Mechanic

[Alan Baker]

His occupation would tend to substantiate Gould's suggestion of Naval Motor Transport Pool

[Tony Walker]

Thanks Alan

I could find no reference to a Naval Motor Transport Pool anywhere, yet they had their own censor mark, so presumably it was an official set up.