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Our March meeting was a members' display that commemorated the 300th Anniversary of Gibraltar: it was in 1704 that Great Britain took Gibraltar from Spain and the Colony was ceded to Britain in 1713. It is now a self-governing (except in foreign policy) British dependent territory (not in the European Union). Whilst the items displayed did not cover the full 300 years they very nearly did so. We had a variety of material from the follow members: Derek Brook, Nick Colley, Bill Collingwood, Michael Dobbs and Eddie Weekes; although neither John Daynes nor Alistair Kennedy could be with us, they did manage to provide displays which were put up by your President. Nick Colley showed the earliest item from the Colony which was an Order dated 1798 from Earl St Vincent, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean, aboard HMS Le Souverain at Gibraltar. However, the earliest item displayed came from Derek Brook who had travelled up from Weston-super-Mare to join us: it was a letter of 1626 from the King of Spain signed simply "I, The King" - it was a warrant empowering Luis Bravo to carry out works on the fortifications of Gibraltar. He also showed a Bill of Exchange to the US Navy in 1819 and various letters of 1864 with the 'S' in circle mark that was applied to mail that arrived from Spain and France between 1857-1875. Censored items from Spain in 1915 (with cachets and resealing labels) - only 50% of incoming mail was censored. 1918 US Navy censored mail posted in Gibraltar. Between the wars was represented by a military permit for a visit to a Jewish cemetery by a Hebrew Minister. WW2 items included 1940 intercepted mail from Australia to Morocco, PW mail and a variety of censored mail. Also examples of the FPO 498 datestamp mutilated to read FPO 475. US Forces were in Gibraltar towards the end of 1942 in preparation for Operation TORCH. Bill Collingwood is attempting to find definitive details of US Forces in Gibraltar at this time (dates, US APOs, etc). Eddie Weekes showed his Gibraltar Camp in Jamaica collection: set up in October 1940 for evacuees from Gibraltar and also used as an internment camp for German PWs. John Daynes provided an excellent display of modern Forces mail connected with Gibraltar, including a round up of the various FPOs and the British Fleet Mail 15. |