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Variously described as a study meeting for non-standard WW1 censor marks or non-standard WW1 Army censor marks - it mattered not! There was plenty of time and scope for everyone and anything. Again in some quarters it was meant to cover British and Empire only but we were entertained with material from other nations and the whole went to make a pleasant afternoon's series of displays. Alistair Kennedy, as one would expect, started off the session and displayed by far the greater amount of material. He started by showing items reminding us of the standard Army censor types in use during the period; all types except for the square series started off with No 1 (the square series started at 1301). There were specific type allocated to individual theatres such as the octagonal design for Salonica and the EEF and the shield type for Italy. He showed some variations on the standard types, such as the square type without a number (but thought just a mistake and not deliberate). He showed covers and cards with manuscript notes to the effect that the censor stamp was either not available or else was lost; some related to detachments away from the main body of a unit. Some officers who censored mail even had handstamps made up of their signature to save having to sign each time. Occasionally some standard designs were used in theatres where it was not issued; this was due to the transfer of units between theatres. He also showed mail which had the unit censor number had been crossed out for security reasons; mail from Forces to neutral countries which had a circular 'S' cachet applied (an 'S' in a boxed square was used in Italy) - possibly to indicate "special" treatment; covers showing supplementary handstamps used by the base censor, such as those indicating the envelope contained cash. A small number of covers were displayed which showed that when units first went across to France they were not immediately issued with censor stamps and used their own units datestamps instead. Another collection of covers showed that when 7th Division landed at Zeebrugge in October 1914 to support the Naval Division, the troops did not at that time form part of the BEF and did not have either censor stamps or FPOs. Mail was posted through civil channels and censorship took place in England with the circular PC mark applied. Information about further covers on display: some units also made up their own censor stamps, in the main they were medical units such as the Friends Ambulance Units, 1st Anglo-Belgian Ambulance Unit and 5th Reserve FAWU (Field Ambulance and Workshop Unit). Whilst mail from troopships had manuscript censor inscriptions or home made censor stamps, reading Ambulance Ship RAMC or Hospital Ship RAMC. The circular cachet Hospital Ship RAMC with a number (prefixed PC) was thought to have been supplied to those hospital ships based on Salonica (numbered 22-31). The various naval censor stamps applied to mail posted through FPOs were usually from RNAS units in France, including the Naval Transport Office in Dunkirk which had a small boxed censor stamp "PASSED BY CENSOR" applied to mail postmarked APO S10. The Kurdish revolt in Iraq 1920-21 saw censor stamps issued to units and applied to mail, but the mail was not normally examined. The stamps were circular with an M over a number - the M possibly standing for Mesopotamia. A further type of censor stamp simply reading PASSED CENSOR with a large M was used in Muscat during 1920 - in this case the M stood for Muscat. Peter High displayed his usual theme of hospital ships where the censoring officer was usually the Chaplain. Each of whom usually had their own unique and elaborate handstamp, very often incorporating their name and position. Covers, postcards and photographs depicted numerous Hospital Ships including the China, Soudan, Letitia, Drina, Delta, Aquitania, Devanha and Goorkha (the latter two from the Gallipoli campaign). Keith Tranmer showed a few Austrian covers and explained all provinces and towns were numbered for postal reasons and such marks were introduced before the war; these marks were used on troops mails. He also showed some unusual censored covers where the censor went to the trouble to deface the postmark and applied an elaborate cachet requesting addressees to send replies to the writer through the censor. On a completely different subject matter Keith showed censored mail from the Australian 3rd Infantry Brigade. The Brigade was in Lemnos before the Gallipoli landings and such mail had the PASSED BY CENSOR cachet in blue - which is rare and indicative of mail from the advanced troops of 12th Battalion AIF. The censor who used his initials - CHE - was Major C H Elliott. Peter O'Keeffe showed Army censors with missing numbers and provoked a debate as to whether or not these were mis-strikes or deliberate omissions! He also showed WW2 items which used WW1 censors, in many cases cut down to just the number and the word "censor". Amongst other items displayed were two large official envelopes from the War Office with boxed Postal Censor and oval War Office Postal Censor markings. He also showed a number of WW1 naval censors. Frank Schofield displayed items from his extensive and specialist subject British Army in Italy - this time from Artillery units sent to assist the Italians which were initially issued with Italian censor stamps. He also showed items datestamped FPO 1LL used by the artillery units in June/July 1917 in Italy for about two months only. |