|
Lorraine McGuire started the afternoons displays with a copy of a photo of her father (George Fairbairn) who was wounded at the Battle of Messines in 1917 and who was subsequently repatriated to Brockenhurst and convalesced at Hornchurch. She showed postcards connected with the battle - of troops and of the destruction caused by the battle. Lorraine explained that she went over to Messines for the 90th Anniversary of the Battle and she also attended official New Zealand celebrations. She next showed items from Tyne Cot cemetery as a cousin had been killed at Passchendaele and was buried in a cemetery there. Then came a selection of Christmas cards sent in 1917 with many items connected with her family history. Then the jump to 1942 - she had an older brother who died of wounds in Egypt and she showed photos of him and his grave in 1942 and on a later memorial visit in 2005. Also shown were various covers sent by family members. This was a most fascinating start - living history and a poignant reminder that war brings death and destruction and that it affects us all. John Leathes showed items connected with the merchant submarine "Deutchland" whose 1917 voyage was cancelled due to America entering the war and whose mail intended for that voyage was returned to sender. In the main the mail was addressed to the USA or to other neutral countries around the world via the USA (where there were still postal connections). He also showed mail from POWs at Stobbs Camp from U58 which was sunk on 17 November 1917 off Milford Haven by the US destroyer Fanning. Peter Burrows showed a variety of Isle of Man POW related items from 1917 including Easter and Christmas cards and a series of Christmas cards produced for the Germans. German POWs were allowed to have their own printing presses in the camps to enable them to sell items to raise funds. He also showed two Russian POW cards used by British POWs at Doeberitz POW camp and sent back to the UK in 1917. Other items came from Bando and Kurume POW camps in Japan used to hold German prisoners captured from the treaty ports - these had been rounded up and held in Japan (in WW1 Japan was on the side of the Allies). Peter High as usual showed items relating to hospital ships - the British vessel Panama which became HMHS Maine during WW2. Official mail from HMHS Rewa and picture postcards showing views of various hospital ships, also letters and covers to accompany the illustrations. The Madras: ppc's of the ship sold to raise funds for the ship; the Ellora which served Mesopotamia; covers showing three different cachets used by the Agadir during her life as a hospital ship; the Austurias which had the unfortunate fate of being sunk - he showed a letter from a survivor which this had been torn into four but had been repaired and saved. Other hospital ships showed included the French ships Louqsor, Dughay-Trouin and Ash, Italian hospital ships Cordova, Italia and Santa Lucia and British ambulance barges. He also showed a postcard of the Austro-Hungarian paddle steamer Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, used as a hospital ship on the Danube. Peter Burrows then showed items from 1942 with various Christmas cards and other odds and ends: RAF Aston Down Christmas menu, Christmas cards from Australian and Canadian forces as well as the RAF Air Training Corps. Indian Christmas air letters showing the different printings and Christmas air letter sheets from Malt (with the red cross on the front) and the Middle East (in various shades of blue). Alistair Kennedy provided a miscellany of items only a few of which I can describe here: he stated that in 1917 the Germans stepped up their U-Boat campaign and he showed covers that had survived U-Boat sinkings, a few items of British naval mail, mail from some of the battles on the western front (including Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and St Julian (a cover from the late Colonel Crouch). He showed official photographs of an Australian FPO taken in 1917 and an item of mail from the Portuguese army in France in 1917. He mentioned that in February 1917 the German removed the designations from its postmarks as a security measure. There were also examples of mail from Belgian refugees in the UK; these worked in a munitions factory and were housed in Birtley, Co Durham and had their own post office named Elisabethville (after the Belgian Queen). He next showed items of Royal Marine mail in the Aegean; German mail from the Balkans and items from the Italian Army. British heavy artillery units were sent to Italy in 1917 and he showed items from the period as well as Austrian mail from the Adriatic and Russian mail - Russia had both the Spring and October revolutions in 1917. The push into Palestine started in spring 1917 and items shown included mail from the Imperial Camel Brigade. He showed items of mail postmarked at German offices in Mesopotamia with the Turkish Army and lastly with the entry into the war of the USA in April 1917 he showed a few US APOs and navy ship mail. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
