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Our President, Peter O'Keeffe, put on an entertaining afternoon of one particular aspect of his collecting interests. It was British forces mail in WW1 - however, it was with a difference. Not for him telling us about the battles on the Western Front, or the campaigns in other parts of the world, and showing material from these areas. He looked at the subject of postal history from another perspective - he presented his display based upon the material itself and what it showed, irrespective from which theatre of war. In presenting his material Peter said that he had been collecting British military mails for some 12 years and tended to go for decent postmarks, but by no means was he an expert on the subject. Peter began with some background information - Britain, as part of the triple alliance (with France and Russia) declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. An advance party of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) arrived in France between 8-12 August with the main deployment beginning 17 August onwards. Postage to the UK was 1d until 28 August when Parliament passed a bill granting free postage from that date. Registered mail was also free of postage from that date, but soldiers had to pay the 2d registration fee. He started off showing 1d paid mail from soldiers in the BEF and also surcharged mail. There were also mail annotated with "no stamps available" and official mail. He showed a postcard depicting King George and Queen Mary which was produced especially for the troops at Christmas 1914; it was not sent through the post as it has a Royal Christmas greetings message on the reverse. At this time there was produced cards with 1d stamp printed on them - because so many were produced these were used after the granting of free postage. Troops for the BEF embarked at Southampton and they were allowed to send a postcard home for free. He also showed a selection of honour envelopes with various printings (known as "greenies") and also a selection of mail from medical and Red Cross units and hospitals with various unit handstamps. Then came a selection of tobacco fund and charity acknowledgement cards sent home by the troops thanking the givers for the parcels of comforts sent. He had on display two cards from a German internee, used in India then came a selection of British censor stamps found on mail during the war followed by various cards showing censorship in action ! These either had the town name cut out, crossed out with dark crayon or rubbed out (but in one case the name of the town could be seen on one of the shop fronts !). There were items from personnel with the Royal Flying Corps and the RAF. Also a few items with Army Telegraphs handstamps. This was followed by a selection of registered mail both on plain and registered envelopes. The Army Postal Service brought out special registered envelopes with the registration fee only, as postage was free. Another small selection was official OHMS registered mail, mainly from RE(PS) sources. Other selections included patriotic postcards showing troops at the front, French ppc showing war damage on the Western Front and sent home by troops and a selection of French 'flag cards used by British troops. He showed BEF cross-post mails and a selection of machine cancels. There were also specially printed cards "Advice of Admission to Hospital" and "For use of HOSPITAL PATIENTS only". He has mail with various "unable to trace" cachets and a selection of Field Service Cards. Peter also showed a selection of mail with Home Defence (HD) postmarks and from British forces outside of the UK and BEF. This included Egypt, Salonica and Italy (including a bookmark card) and a selection of material based on the letter designation in the FPO datestamp: A = Army HQ; C = Cavalry Brigade; D = Division; DC = Cavalry Division; H = Corps HQ; R = Railhead; T = Train and S = Stationary. He also displayed a selection of skeleton postmarks, including unnumbered, A, A2 and A2A as well as S50, SX8, SZ25 and Base Army Post Office T. On display on the table were ephemera items - ration books, ration papers and national registration papers. Also on view were released prisoner of war cards and an Indian Field Service Postcard printed in the Hindi language. In closing Peter gave some more statistics: the fighting stopped with the Armistice on 11 November 1918; the British Empire had 997,000 killed; France had 1,390,000; America had 116,000; Russia 1,700,000, Germany 1,850,000 and Austro-Hungary 1,200,000. Peter had omitted his POW and naval mails as members had seen much of these earlier in the season. Peter High gave a vote of thanks and congratulated our President on the wide range of subject matter covered and on the quality of the material on display. |