WWII Canadian DB/N Censor Number Project

[Michael Dobbs]

Canadian member Mike Street, who is also Chairman of the Canadian Military Mail Study Group, who with some colleagues, are looking into the allocation of DB/N censor numbers to actual RCN ships or shore establishments.  The starting point is a listing compiled in the 1990s by the late John Frith with help from several prominent collectors at the time. One of the problems with the Frith list, however, is that in many cases he has assigned the post office where a letter was postmarked as being the physical location of the DB/N device. For instance, in many cases Avalon or Stadacona is given as the location of the device because a cover carries an Avalon triangle or a Halifax postmark. Another example is that six devices were assigned by Frith to HMCS Fort Ramsay, a stone frigate located in Gaspe, Quebec. Although it was an active base during WWI, there is just no way six censors would have been stationed at Gaspe, a very small town at the tip of the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec.

Mike writes that: we believe that the DB/N devices were assigned to the actual ship, including stone frigates and shore bases where appropriate.  HMCS Stadacona in Halifax, for example, would have had several DB/N censors working there, complete with their own devices, handling mail from personnel stationed at the base and putting in the mail stream censored letters from ships calling into the port. Our goal is to confirm or correct assignments in the Frith list by finding covers that because of contents, names, etc. are identifiable as to the ship on which a particular DB/N device was used. The ultimate goal is to create an online database of covers. 

An example of such a cover is one sent to me by Nick Colley which carries three handstamps: "EXAMINED BY DB/N 164", "FROM H.M.C. SHIP" and "HMC.SHIP". The letter, addressed to Mr & Mrs J Dillon in Montreal, was sent by G.B. Dillon O/D, V76904, HMCS 1081, c/o FMO Shelburne, N.S.". The R.C.N. crest is on the flap. There are no postmarks on the cover (see illustrations attached).  Courtesy of a list of "Addresses and Fleet Mail Numbers of H.M.C. Ships and Establishments" contained in The Royal Canadian Naval Postal History, 1939-1945, Volume 1, by Maurice Hampson and Percy Colbeck, we know that FMO 1081 was assigned to HMCS Kootenay, thus identifying DB/N 164.  As it happens, there is no entry for DB/N 164 in the Frith list, so this is completely new information, 75+ years later.

If you think you can help please contact Mike Street at [url=http://mikestreet1@gmail.com]mikestreet1@gmail.com[/url]