EAST AFRICAN CENSOR MARK NUMBER 240

[Ross Debenham]

Attached is the scan of an envelope, part of a lot I purchased in the last Society auction. Censored using censor marker 240 and posted from Nairobi civil P.O. on 16 December, 1941. According to the list of censor markers in Proud's book this very same post marker was observed used at P.O. 64 a Lines of Communications P.O. located at Yevello, Ethiopia. Have any members got any idea what might have happened here.

[Ross Debenham]

What I omitted from the original post is that the censor marker was observed at the Yevello on the same day.

[Michael Dobbs]

Ross

Have you carried out an internet search on the town name ?  I think the spelling of the town in Proud as "Yevello" may be an error for "Yavello".  Wikipedia comes up with:
Yabelo (also spelled Yabello, Yavello, Iavello) is a town in southern Ethiopia. 

I have carried out a search on "Yavello Ethiopia 1941" and found numerous references to fighting which took place there in 1941.  A search of these may provide a clue or even answer your query.

Regards, Mike  :)

[Ross Debenham]

Thanks Mike
I have noticed that some of the names in the military records, and subsequently the books on such at times leave a little bit to be desired.

[Alan Baker]

How would mail from the area be transported? As Yabello is close to the border with Kenya, would Nairobi be a transit point?

[Nick Colley]

Google Maps also shows a 'Yabello' on the Kenya side of the border - still 600-plus kms from Nairobi. It seems likely, don't you think, that Ross's example - if indeed it did originate at 'Yabello' - or its Ethiopian equivalent - started its journey some time before the date it received its postmark as it transited Nairobi.

chrs
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[Ross Debenham]

Thanks Nick
One also wonders as the military postal system had already started how the envelope found it's way into the civil system. May have been transported by hand by somebody returning to Nairobi, but one believes even then the military system would and should have been used.

[Nick Colley]

Yes, it did occur to me last night - after I'd hit the 'Post' button - that no matter how it travelled to Nairobi, that surely it should have entered the military postal system, at least initially, rather than the civil. However, I don't have sufficient knowledge to make a sound judgement on that.

chrs
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