Early RAF mail from France

[Jim Etherington]

I have recently come into possession of a number of RAF censored covers from France in 1939 which have only RAF censors with no FPO cancels. When placed alongside those listed by Nic Colley a pattern emerges that is the basis of my query.

I am aware that the AASF initially made their own arrangements for sending mail to the UK via Abingdon rather than using APOs and the 3 earliest dated covers from 9 to 15 September are cancelled with Abingdon PAID dies. However those dating from 11 September through to 27 December are franked with various London PAID dies.

This raises two questions
1) Did the special arrangement for some RAF mail last longer than is usually stated?
2) Was this mail later being handled in London rather than Abingdon?

A third question is raised from these covers. I have three undated covers with only a RAF censor cachet and a small triangular cachet enclosing 'I.S.' I am assuming these were sent during this early period, but what is the IS cachet and why are they not cancelled with a PAID die?

Finally my fourth question relates to two covers that have no other marking except the RAF censor cachet, one addressed to London, the other to Sussex. One has an enclosure dated 25 September so I am again assuming these did not pass through an APO. Why should they pass through the postal system without any markings being applied?

Could anyone enlighten me or suggest sources that might provide answers.

[Michael Dobbs]

Jim

My only contribution to this is that "I.S." stands for London Inland Section, if that helps.

Mike  ;)

[Nick Colley]

Hi, Jim,

My own guess is that some mail was flown to the UK - by service aircraft, presumably - hence bypassing the Army post office system. Once in the UK, some, at least, of this mail passed into proper channels, hence the London Paid marks, and the I.S. mark.

It is only a guess, so it's not really satisfactory at all. It needs someone with time and energy to search the archives (wherever the appropriate archives now reside).
chrs
N

[Jim Etherington]

Hi Mike and Nick,
Many thanks for your responses. I appreciate the speculation. I spoke to someone over the weekend who suggested that the transfer of mail to London rather than Abingdon was that the 'irregular' service being provided by the RAF had come to the GPOs attention and the RAF at Abingdon had been instructed to send the mail bags to the London office rather than the local one at Abingdon.
If I have time I may follow this up if I can locate the relevant records.

[Michael Dobbs]

Jim

I would suggest either the post office archives at mount pleasant (but this due to close mid-November to facilitate the move to the new post office museum due to open around April next year) or else national archives at Kew possibly under the operational record book for raf Abingdon, or if you have a particular squadron then also the ORB for the squadron concerned.  These are only ideas, there could be other orders or files to look at.  Good luck in your searches.

Mike :)

[Jim Etherington]

Thanks Mike for the suggestions. This looks like a task for 2017. I'll keep you posted.