General Discussion

I am wondering if anyone has a clearer example of the device used to cancel the KUT stamp on this AMLC or has any information about its source? The AMLC's sender gives his address as "C.P.O. Mess, Kilindini" and the faint blue censor's mark worded PASSED BY NAVAL CENSOR is one of the naval censors' handstamp series N463 - N468; traces of the letters in the apex of the inner triangle of this series can be seen on the original although they are too faint for the actual lettering to be read. Marks from this series are recorded on mail from East Africa. The writer has not dated his message so the exact date of use is unknown. The stamp is the 30c Blitz perforation (perf 14) (and slightly overpays the 25c East African charge for the Forces Air Mail Letter Card Service - no 25c stamp was issued until 1952 necessitating the use of two stamps on AMLCs at a time when KUT was suffering from difficulty in replenishing stamp stocks; I imagine either the sender or the PO had 30c stamps to hand but not one or both of the 20c and 5c stamps usually used). This perforation is listed in the SG Catalogue as issued on 3 July 1941, while the replacement perf 13¼ x 13¾ is listed as issued on 10 May 1942 and as the records of Naval postmarks at Kilindini/Mombasa are from the period after the Headquarters of the Eastern Fleet were transferred there in May 1942, I think it most likely belongs to the first few months after the transfer - but I suppose there must have been visits by Naval units before that,

with convoys and troopships for the Abyssinian campaign in 1940/41 if nothing else. Goldup (Naval Mails 1939 - 49. 1950, TPO & Seapost Society) notes a variety of "odd" cancellations in the first few months after the transfer but the only dumb cancels he illustrates are a double bar and circular datestamps, and Henning (East Africa - World War II. 1966. ISBN 0-9515864-2-1) follows Goldup. (Apart from the Naval section of Colley & Daynes (FPHS, 2016) I have not found a more recent general study on Royal Naval postal history of WWII so if there is one, I should be pleased to hear of it). If my mark is one of Goldup's "odd" items, it is not published - but it does look as if it might be a worn or badly struck barred oval, though with no sign of a number or letter. If so, it is not an adapted East African mark and I wonder if it might be a mark that the Fleet brought with it? (To avoid confusion, the Port of Mombasa is made up of a number of areas including Kilindini Harbour and Port Reitz and it does not always seem that the use of the name of one location or another actually means that different places are being spoken of).