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For those familiar with London meetings and our "members' displays" will realise that Alistair always manages to bring along something (or a great deal of "something" to be more accurate) and always manages to show the unusual or a little known aspects of the topic in question. He has managed over the years to fascinate us with covers from the smallest contingent, or little known war or campaign - covers that can easily be overlooked in dealers stock as a "forces" related item. So what better opportunity to bring together these many aspects into an afternoon devoted to the man and his collection ! Alistair and a tale of "small wars" over the centuries - he started off by trying to define exactly what could be classed as a "small war"- was it the number of people involved or the area covered. He then decided to include outside of the two World Wars as being eligible for his "small wars" tag ! It is disappointing that we had so few members to feast upon this wonderful collection of material and to hear of the many wars, small and no so small, that have taken place throughout the globe over the past five centuries. He started off in 1745 with the War of the Austrian Succession - the first occasion when a postmark identifying British mail was used (the AB mark) even though it was not a British postmark. He showed items from the French Revolutionary period and had two letters written by a solider in the Guards during the British Expeditionary Force to Flanders (written in 1793 and 1794). Also on display was a letter of the 1799 Expedition to Holland - written aboard ship and with the Army Bag mark applied. French mail of 1800 - the campaign in Italy (fighting against the Austrians), a letter from a press ganged sailor in 1803 and 1804 POW mail (from a British prisoner in France) were also amongst the early items displayed. There was also a letter written in 1806 from Lord Elgin whilst he was detained in France. He was writing to his bank in order to secure the release of funds to insure four cases of pictures he was taking home. A not often seen Prussian censor mark applied to Prussian mail addressed to France in 1815. A letter from a Marine in 1832 aboard ship off Oporto - Britain supported the young Queen at that time. An 1862 American Civil War cover - addressed to a Confederate solider defending Richmond. He also showed mail from the Union navy blockading Confederate ports. Next came items from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, including (front only) an item from 1870 from Crown Prince Frederick to his wife, Crown Princess Victoria (the daughter of our own Queen Victoria). Other items from this era included a printed cover postmarked Feldpost 43 of 1 December 1870 from the "National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War" which in 1905 became the British Red Cross Society. In 1879 we were at war against Afghanistan and Alistair displayed an item from the period mis-sent to Banbury instead of Banchory. 1878-80 was the period of the Second Afghan War which was represented by a cover addressed to Major General Roberts VC, CB, Commanding the Koorum Field Force. In 1893 the frontier between India and Afghanistan was agreed. The first half went up until the start of WW1. The second half started with the civil war in Russia, including postcards from the White Russian Army in Siberia; British Forces in North Russia and the British Mission in Vladivostok; in South Russia civil mail sent through the British Post Office in Constantinople. An interesting page concerned the British submarine L55 which was in the Baltic. The L55 had been sunk by the Russians and the display included a card addressed to the L55 which could not be delivered before the sinking and it was returned to sender. In 1928 the Russians salvaged the L55 and returned the bodies to the UK and the display included a photograph of HMS Champion which returned the bodies to UK at Portsmouth on 5 September 1928 on its return journey. In Central Europe various states in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire made claims on the territory of others; Poland also entered into war with neighbouring states. Items of mail from many such states represented this era. Also displayed was a postcard with the postmark of Japanese FPO 50 from the Japanese occupation of Northern Sakhalin. Between the wars there were further conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq (does this sound familiar ?) against British rule. There were French FPOs from the conflicts in Morocco and Syria against French rule. Next came a cover from the US Marines in Nicaragua; 1930 censorship in Brazil - a revolution by the outgoing President aided by the Army; the 1932-36 Chaco war between Bolivia and Paraguay. Then came the Italian invasion and occupation of Abyssinia. Alistair showed items from the Spanish Civil War, from both the Republican and Nationalist armies. There was also mail from various conflicts that are considered to be precursors to WW2: Russian war against Finland, including items from Swedish volunteers; Italian occupation of Albania and the German occupation of the Sudetenland. Post-WW2 conflicts included the civil war in Greece with Greek military mail; the civil war in China between the Communists and Nationalists showing returned mail from the UK. The 1948 troubles in Malaya was represented by an airmail letter written by the wife of a planter describing the conditions and also mail from British and Commonwealth forces. The Korean War had British Forces mail and mail from the Turkish and Columbian contingents which used the US APO service. The Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya from the 1950's and lastly French military mail from Indo-China and North Africa. |