Help re. WWI British military postmarks

[aben-arieh]

Hello everyone,
I'm Alex, joining you from Jerusalem. I'm a collector and dealer, specializing in Holyland, wartime and related areas of philately and collectibles; knowledgeable but learning something new every day.

I wanted to ask if someone knows of a good source on WWI British military postmarks: I use Proud (Br. Army postal service vol 2, 2016 ed) & Firebrace (soon to be augmented by Kennedy & Crab) but I have a number of postmarks not covered by Proud and I don't know of another source that lists all the varieties as he does. Does anyone know of another source with such postmarks? And in general, is there any significance to there being postmarks not listed by him or is that part and parcel of the scope being so broad?

Thanks in advance.
Alex

[akennedy]

Are you able to describe, or preferably submit scans of, some of the WW1 British military postmarks which you have not been able to identify - I may be able to identify the reason why you have not found them.
Regards
Alistair Kennedy

[aben-arieh]

Hello Alistair,
I'm flattered that you replied! I was ill much of last week so am replying late.
Here are images of various postmarks I haven't been able to find documented. As I'm limited to 3 images per post, I'll make a series of posts now with the images:

1) an undocumented skeleton 2 line DS for APO SZ 16
2) an undocumented single dateline SC DS for SZ 9 (on front SZ 17 pmk)
3) Proud unlisted pmk on first day of SZ 20 operation

[aben-arieh]

4) Proud unlisted single dateline pmk for SZ 22 - outer-ring letter & index spacing different from Proud-D3
5) Proud unlisted single dateline pmk for SZ 24 - similar to D3 but wider legend spacing

[aben-arieh]

6) unrecorded 2-line SC DS for SZ 24 - similar to Proud-D2 which was in use 1 day (14-09-16)
7) 24 JY 1918 strike of FPO SZ 19 single dateline pmk: unlisted template in Proud & Firebrace, and none listed as being inverted 5 and Z at base

[aben-arieh]

8) 2 examples of unlisted 2-line skeleton DS for SZ 15 with thick lettering on outer ring & inverted "v" index letter

[aben-arieh]

9) GM 2 unlisted 2-line skeleton DS (if Proud-D5 then on 1st day of use - but FPO lettering here spaced differently)
10) 4 JU 1916 full strike of SC single dateline BAPO ZP LOD (local office delivery; ALEXANDRIA) pmk unlisted in Proud & Firebrace
11) FPO 162 DC Proud-D2 type pmk (this unlisted - w/thick lettering in outer ring)

[aben-arieh]

12) 2 examples of 12 JY [1]8 and 26 JY strikes of APO SZ 10 SC Proud-D11 pmk index B - missing digit "1" from year in dateline, this unrecorded
13) 5 NO 1915 unrecorded SC single dateline pmk for APO SZ 9 (similar to APO SZ 19 Proud-D1, but predates it by 5 months) 3 months before est. of this APO is recorded in Proud & Firebrace

[aben-arieh]

14)  24 JA 16 stampless OAS civilian stationary cv ex APO SZ3 (IMBROS Turkey) to SHEFFIELD, tied by unrecorded SC single dateline pmk; on back, mother wrote "from son in Royal Naval Reserve"; on front "Gallipoli": probably in 63rd Royal Naval Div., in Gallipoli until Jan. 1916, then elements sent to Aegean prior to France. The only APO SZ including "3" which could have been used in this time was SZ 3 prior to transfer to Egypt after 7 FE 1916.
15) 16 FE 1916 strike of APO SZ 15 unrecorded pmk - 6 weeks before known est. of this stationary PO + unusual template w/space between "ARM" & "YPOST" in legend

[aben-arieh]

Those are the odditites I've come across till now.
I wanted to ask, separately, if you know of a regulation regarding British military postmarks cancelling civilian frankings as I see many cases like this. This is of interest to me because with Israeli military mail, the regulation since the beginning was that it was forbidden for military postmarks to cancel civilian franks - and as Israeli postal services retained most of the Mandate's procedures, which I imagine were inspired by the Isles' procedures, I'm curious why there appear to be two distinctly opposing approaches used.

[akennedy]

Dear Alex,

I should have explained to you that I don't have internet/e-mail access at home - I rely on access in timed sessions at a local library.
Please excuse me for not replying straight away - I will do so when opportunity permits.

Alistair Kennedy