My Cover of the Day 30th April. Sir Charles des Gray Corfu

[Chris Grimshaw]

Morning Team,

Good to see you back Tony,  was worried about you. :)

Front only, To Sir Charles des Gray, British Legation to Serbia, Corfu.  Cancel unclear dated 20 8 1618  (1918)

Two Serbian Censor marks,  (Currently awaiting a copy of the LP which has a good article on these)  Boxed PASSED BY NAVAL CENSOR in Blue with a signature.  Clues anyone please.

Chris

[Alan Baker]

FWR - Commander James O Hatcher, DSO, was awarded the Order of Kara George (4th Class) for his involvement in the evacuation of the Serbian Army, also the Order of St Maurice & St Lazarus, which notes his ship as "net drifters in Adriatic (?) evacuation of Dorazzo", plus Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy. Must have been smothered in decorations!

Ancestry has many entries for him, including a private tree

[Chris Grimshaw]

Thanks Alan

Anyone any info on the Boxed Censor Mark please.

Chris

[Tony Walker]

Your censor mark looks very similar to Gould 5D30 (p 140 in first book), but no ship identified.

In the second edition Michael refers to a suggestion from Frank that it might be the AMC Ebro, but not confirmed.  My only example of 5D30 is dated December 1915 addressed to Dyson Brothers

My cover from Ebro has Gould's censor 5C63 which is a simple rectangular boxed PASSED BY CENSOR in one line.  Ebro could have had more than one censor mark

[Alan Baker]

According to a googly search, HMS Ebro was part of the Northern Patrol and did not get as far as the Adriatic

Sir Charles des Graz was British Minister to Serbia and escaped with the Serbian Army via Scutari and Vallona. The British steam trawlers played a bid part in this evacuation