Cover of the Day 20 April - WW2 Returned

[Peter Harvey]

Cover of the day, before you all switch off and say 'Civilian Censorship' not Forces Postal History, please read the story behind the cover:

8 November 1939 Air Mail cover from WELSHPOOL opened and resealed PC 90 Censor 1631 and returned with the PC23 label and the pink P.C.9 enclosure. The label has the underlined [u]photographs[/u], clearly against censorship rules.

I struggled to read the destination on the cover (under the PC 23 label) so looked at the addressee 'B. Hale Puckle Esq' this helped with the address, the cover was sent to B. Hale Puckle Esq, Jardine Engineering, Shaghai, China. So a little research told me he was born 1891 in Bishops Castle Shropshire and went onto study engineering at Edinburgh......now the military link:

In 1915 Bruce Hale Puckle went to France as a Brigade Machine Gun Officer, with 37th Bde 19th Div, he served in the Battle for Loos and was promoted to Captain in the Field, returning to the UK.

In Feb 1916 he went back to France as with 121 Coy MG Corps with the 37th Division, promoted to Major, seeing action on the Somme, prior to returning to Machine Gun Corps HQ as a training officer at Grantham.

He returned to the Somme in 1917 was mentioned in despatches, awarded the DSO and invalided home with a knee injury. However he returned again in 1918 in command of 16 Coy, 57th Battery the MGC, he stayed in France to the end of the war.

Following WW1 he worked for Jardine Engineering in Tienstin, Mukden, Shanghai and Peking.

At the outbreak of WW2 he was in Hong Kong and joined the HK Volunteers, as Deputy Director Air Raid Precautions, then Director ARP Division. He became a POW of the Japanese at Stanley Camp, surviving the war and was liberated then repatriated on HMS Indomitable in November 1945.

A truly amazing individual.

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Peter

An excellent item with a great story around him.  Nice One.

Chris

[Nick Colley]

Crikey, Pete, your Mr.Puckle had quite a life.......

N