Report of the meeting of 19 May 2007 Joint Meeting with Ceylon Study Circle This was billed as an all-day meeting starting at 10.30 am with colleagues from the Ceylon Study Circle. However, we found that maintenance workers were "doing things" to machinery accessible through a door in the wall against which we have our display boards ! Our start was delayed whilst the maintenance work was completed and the room tidied - it also gave additional time for Steve Dunderdale to arrive from Scarborough. In the meantime we chatted about this and that and I reminded members of Midpex at the end of the month and forthcoming meetings. We got under way soon after 11am. Although billed as a joint meeting the Ceylon Study Circle were only able to field two members - Rodney Frost (Secretary and Editor of the Ceylon Study Circle) and Steve Dunderdale, who of course is also a member of our Society. Nevertheless, we were in for a real treat and several of us were completely surprised and astonished at the extent and variety of material relating to "forces" that there was from this small island ! Rodney Frost started the showings with covers and ephemera associated with war, not necessarily military mail itself. He started with a letter of 1796 - the year in which the island was taken back from the Dutch. He commented that it was a six month trip to get from England to Ceylon and was thus a lengthy business to get together a force and then despatch it to the island. The letter was from an officer with 16th Regiment of Foot writing "we've just taken Colombo". Illness took its toll amongst the troops and there was a regular rotation of units. He displayed details of a Courts Martial of an Ensign in the 19th Regiment of Foot in 1818 and also mentioned that mail from officers in the East India Company regiments were allowed free post. He also displayed a number of German Schffspost marks - at the turn of the century nearly all German ships to/from the Far East called at Ceylon and quite often offloaded mail. He then jumped to WW1 with a selection of items - POW and internee mail and telegrams; the POWs were eventually cleared out to Australia. Also on show was mail from the Ceylon contingent sent to Egypt: a prayer card and a few covers from 1914, together with Field Service postcards and tobacco cards going back to Ceylon. Australian and New Zealand troops going to/from the Middle East, etc would stop at Colombo and the display included mails with various censors from around the world. Click thumbnail to see full size images from Robert Frost covers The Boer War 1900-02 warranted a complete display on its own: camps were established in Ceylon for Boer prisoners. The British government had decided that it did not want prisoners kept on the mainland and so sought locations elsewhere in the Empire. In Ceylon the main camp was established at Diyatalawa in 1900 and which at one time held over 5,000 persons. Shown was a cover from a camp guard; a savings book from a sergeant, Christmas messages and postcards of camp scenes. The main display was a series of picture postcards that depicted life on the camp as well as showing censorship. Many businesses were set up to sell inside the camp but outside as well. Visitors were freely allowed into the camp and a flourishing trade was established selling newspapers, carvings and guns ! Printed camp notepaper and cards were displayed; the camp set up its own post office and permits for all sorts of activities were issued - such as English / Dutch / Arithmetic as well as sports programmes, rules for POWs, boxing meeting and music concerts - all on display. The camp also had its own currency. There were a number of smaller camps on the island - the camp at Ragama was used to incarcerate the more troublesome prisoners. Also shown were items from the Ceylon Contingent Imperial Yeomanry and Ceylon Mounted Infantry, sent to South Africa. Peter High showed four items on hospital ships used for Boer prisoners in Ceylon - covers either addressed to or forwarded to hospital ships. These ships were used to transport troops to South Africa and used as convalescent ships on the return voyage. He also had photographs of one of the ships - the Atlantian. In moving to WW1 Alistair Kennedy showed items from the Ceylon Mounted Rifles and the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps - the latter was a Field Service postcard from Galllipoli. Steve Dunderdale in dealing with WW2 period showed both incoming and outgoing internment mail. The first troops to arrive on the island were Australian and he showed a number of items associated with these. He brought along a lid from a tea box sent back to the UK (a popular item of the time) and also RAF booklets on Ceylon, SEA Forces Radio Times, WU News, AA Brigade "Parish" Magazine and a variety of other unit magazines. The also displayed a small study of the various postal markings used by Indian Base PO No 9, including changes of designation, use of forms, etc. However, your Secretary was most interested in the ARMY SIGNALS datestamps used in Ceylon (UA, JHAM, CBO). He also put up a near complete collection of illustrated airgraphs used in Ceylon. He also showed RAF Base PO and numbered RAF Post Office Ceylon postmarks as well as mail from US forces - they were there as part of HQ South East Asia Command and moved to Ceylon when that HQ moved to Kandy (used US APO 432). Both he and Rodney Frost displayed a variety of illustrated air letters used in Ceylon, many of which were scarce. Click thumbnail to see full size images of Army Signals datestamps used in Ceylon Peter Burrows showed Christmas air letter sheets and RAF Christmas cards, also RAF menu for Christmas meals. He also showed a variety of East African air letter sheets addressed to Ceylon Command - East African troops were sent to Ceylon for training. Alistair Kennedy showed a variety of items including British FPO 40 used by 16th Bde, part of 70th Div; 3d postcard rate UK to Ceylon (introduced for areas where the air letter service had not been introduced); post-war British Fleet Mail 27 (Trincomalee); a selection of covers from a unit which had moved to India but still used Ceylon stamps for security reasons and a cover with the cachet of No 5 Indian Field Censor Unit (pmk Indian FPO 74 of 31 JAN 42). Peter O'Keeffe put up five sheets which contained honour envelopes and air letters used in Ceylon. Nick Colley showed a selection of WW2 naval mail, including naval airgraphs and different naval censor marks other than the usual tombstone type; also a rather unusual cover: Ceylon to Sweden in 1944, postmarked RAF Post Colombo, censored by Dutch navy and written in Norwegian !