General Discussion

I recently acquired a cover with a circular cachet inscribed BRITISH MILITARY TRAINING TEAM / UGANDA around the circumference with the date 5 SEP 1984. The cover is stamped with a UK 16p Machin cancelled with a CAMBERWELL / S.E.5 machine cancel dated 10 SEP 1984, but apart from those markings and the address (which is in York) it has no other markings on the front or back. I presume the cover came from someone with the team and, the difference between the cachet date and the postmark date suggests, after they were deployed to Uganda.

I imagine that the team was not large enough (according to Hansard in August 1984 it was taking over from a 36-man Commonwealth training team) to merit its own APO and presumably having the cover carried to the UK without entering the Ugandan Post Office was thought to offer greater speed or security - or both.

I am left asking

1) Would it be normal for mail from small detachments deployed outside the UK to be returned to the UK before entering the Postal System and was this an official arrangement?

2) Why on reaching the UK would it enter the Civil Post Office direct rather than being handled by the Army postal service?

3) Why would it have entered the postal Service at Camberwell in particular? I have not been able to identify any military establishment in the area that seems an obvious point of entry into the UK.

I'd be grateful for any help

Nick Guy