Temporary Post Offices in the Blitz

[Nick Colley]

Folks, I attach scans of the front and reverse of a very ordinary WW2 naval censored cover.  Or at least it WAS ordinary until it was re-directed to Cambridge. As you can see it was re-posted through Temporary Office No.2 on 17th December 1940.

I have two reasons for putting this on the Forum. One is that I've not encountered the combination of a naval censored item with a Temporary Office postmark before (even though it's only on re-direction, here), so I thought it may tickle your interest. The second reason is that I know nothing about these Temporary Offices. Presumably they were brought into operation to replace post offices/sorting centres that were rendered inoperable by bomb damage in the Blitz? Do we know where they were? The initial address here is to SW17 – the Tooting area of London, so presumably Temporary Office No.2 wasn't far away. Where was No. 1, and were there more?

Thanks a lot!
Nick

[Jim Mackay]

Nick
Seems that you've attached the wrong image here.

Jim

[Nick Colley]

Damn, so I have. Sorry. :-[

Try these.

Nick

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Nick,

Can not say that I have seen these postmarks before, but Google found me two 1937 varieties as shown. Also brought up FPHS Newsletter 195 1988 https://www.forcespostalhistorysociety.org.uk/journal_archive/journals-227---1/fphs-newsletter-1988-no-195.pdf with a query on a similar 1944 datestamp.

You need to ask a postal historian....

Pte

[Michael Dobbs]

Nick / Peter

Not seen these before.  However, under Collect British Postmarks (8th Edition) (Stanley Gibbons, 2011) such machines are listed under the brief reference 'London Temp Office' (19)35-49 (p186).  No further details.

Nick - your postmark is LONDON ?ATT. / TEMPY.OFFICE No 2 - which I feel sure is BATT (i.e. Battersea).

I know someone in the British Postmark Society who is writing a book on Universal machine cancellations, so I'll make some enquiries to see if he has got round to London yet and see if he knows anything about these temporary postmarks.

Mike  :)

[Nick Colley]

Many thanks, chaps,

Food for thought. Pete, I see the two you found on the interweb are both dated 22nd December 1937. Nothing to do with bomb damage, then. I wonder what was occurring at that time which merited the installation and operation of a temporary post office - apparently somewhere in the south western quadrant of London. Is the red cross significant, or is it, in fact, a red herring?

BTW, I can't see anything in Journal 195 which relates to a query about temporary post offices in 1944?

Mike, your offer to ask your contact at the BPS is most kind. My fingers are crossed that he can share some knowledge.

Until Thursday, then.

chrs
N

[Michael Dobbs]

I've received the following response from Paul Carter of the British Postmark Society:

[color=maroon]Yes, I can help with this.  The temporary office dies first appeared in 1935, deployed during the Christmas pressure period, and seen each year until 1940.  Four of London's main district offices had these dies available and it is thought they were used at temporary premises similar to those pressed into service in the Birmingham and Sheffield areas in the 1970s (i.e. drill halls, church halls, scout huts, etc).

S.E. had just one die and it has been seen only from 1935.  S.W. had two dies while Battersea (a district office in its own right, I believe controlling SW12-SW20 sub-districts) had at least five dies - possibly as many as seven!  Finally, Paddington (which controlled W3-W14
sub-districts) had two dies.  We do not know the exact locations of the temporary premises within each district.

Although the dies were intended for Christmas use, there is a wartime angle... one of the S.W. dies subsequently saw use at a Brixton temporary location in 1941/42 and again at an Earl's Court temporary location in 1944, on both occasions as a result of bomb damage to the normal sorting offices in those sub-districts.

Attached is a summary of the various dies and earliest/latest dates reported for each of them.

Best wishes, Paul[/color]

From the BPS website:

BPS member Paul Carter is undertaking the mammoth task of listing all known Universal-pattern dies used in UK Stamp Cancelling Machines and their dates of use. Having completed his initial listing of the 'black' dies used with slogans or wavy lines for cancelling stamps, he has now also listed the 'red' dies - mostly inscribed 'Great Britain' - used with 'Paid' indicators on mail prepaid in cash. We plan to publish his magnum opus soon, and details will appear here when available.

I hope this helps answer your query, Mike  :)

[Nick Colley]

Mike, that's outstanding  8) - many thanks. I've sent a Powerpoint slide of the item to Pete for the Zoom mtg of the 27th, so that's something we (I) can chat about if we have the time.

If you haven't already sent the image(s) to Mr.Carter, feel free to do so, if he's interested. Also, do convey my thanks for, and appreciation of his sharing his knowledge.

chrs
N

[Michael Dobbs]

Hi Nick

Many thanks for your kind words which I have passed on to Paul Carter.
In asking him for any details he had, I had attached scans of all three covers mentioned here.

Mike  :)