General Discussion

What I thought might be an easy query to resolve by our Society has provided to be one where there are no answers:

Query: I am researching the work of naval censors as part of my work on the novelist Barbara Pym. She was a WRNS censor officer. I am trying to understand how mail for RN personnel was handled, whether shore-based personnel in the UK, like Barbara Pym used box numbers, or the names of shore establishments (in her case, HMS Mastadon pre-NEPTUNE). Can you advise where I could discover more about this? Many thanks.

My remarks: According to Proud’s “The Postal History of the Naval & R.A.F. Postal Services” he states that the standard address for all HM seagoing ships was “H.M.S. ......., ℅ GPO, London EC1”.  However, how was such mail delivered to such vessels?  I appreciate that there were Fleet Mail Offices at various locations around the world, but what about HM Ships in areas not near to FMOs?

I have received a response from Nick Colley but he is unsure - can anyone assist please?

He does correct the query in one respect: Anyway, HMS Mastodon (NOT Mastadon) was a landing craft training base near Beaulieu

Thanks, Mike