10th January 2026 - “From the Collection” - Members displays.
- Nick Colley
- Feb 22
- 6 min read
This was an excellent first meeting of 2026 - we had 12 members present of whom ten showed and we had three sessions. Prior to the start of the meeting our President, Geoff Hanney FRPSL, presented Nick Harris with his certificate for winning the President’s Cup competition at our October meeting.
Peter Wood FRPSL showed material from the Irish Contingent to the UN Forces in Cyprus. The United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) was established 1964 to prevent a recurrence of fighting and establish a buffer zone between the Cypriot National Guard and Turkish Cypriot forces. Irish involvement began at that time when the 40th Infantry Battalion were deployed. There was mail sent to and by them and several of the successor units; also some mail-bag labels and official Christmas cards. Special rates applied to airletters, and newspapers sent by air from Ireland. Letters from Ireland were at the foreign rate and several different rates applied over the time the Irish contingents were there some of which were shown.
Tony Stanford FRPSL also with an Irish theme - the Curragh Camp in County Kildare, Ireland was constructed between 1870 and 1900 as a major military barracks replacing an old wooden barracks established in 1855 for training British troops for the Crimean War. This display principally featured the use of the Army Official overprints at the Curragh camp during the Boer War period together with postcards with views of the camp and its principal buildings. Also shown were Army Official overprints used at other Irish camps with postcard views of those camps. On Tuesday, May 16 1922 the British Army handed over Curragh Camp to the Irish Free State Army.
For his second showing Tony displayed Netley Hospital - the display featured the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley which was built at the behest of Queen Victoria as she was so disturbed by the poor conditions under which the sick and wounded returning from the Crimean War were being treated. Netley, overlooking Southampton Water and close to Portsmouth, was selected as the ideal site and on 19th May 1856 the foundation stone was laid with a casket beneath containing the first Victoria Cross and a Crimean Medal. The magnificent hospital, a quarter of a mile long, was completed in 1863 and the first patients admitted in March of that year. The hospital was fully utilised caring for injured during the Anglo-Boer War when the ARMY OFFICIAL stamps were provided for correspondence and again during the First World War.
Peter High was next. He caught the attention of members when he explained that he had been thinking of doctors and nurses. That elicited a few comments unrepeatable here! What he showed was 8 sheets of covers all addressed to the same Italian nurse on board one of the Second World War Italian hospital ships, 'Arno', via the Ministry of Marine, Rome. Several different censor marks were shown. The nurse later moved on to another hospital ship, the 'Sicilia'. Two sheets of photographs of nurses on these vessels followed. To conclude, Peter displayed two 'disaster' covers - both salvaged from an aircraft that crashed at Benghazi in September 1936. An 'ambulance' cover accompanied them, all with an explanatory cachet 'Recovered/fire/seaplane'. The seaplane had been carrying troop mail from Ethiopia.
Lorraine Maguire showed 4 sheets of Xmas Cards and Postcards, sent by soldiers or battalions during WW1. No New Zealand cards were shown, as they had been displayed previously. The cards were very colourful and varied. A set of 6 showed scenes in the Middle East and printed by the Bombay Press. Many were showing flags and telling of the importance of the Empire.
At a second showing Lorraine also displayed 12 sheets under the title “Australia”. These were a collection of covers, stamps, postcards etc that she had gathered over the years. She told the story of the original memorial at Port Said, dedicated to the Anzac Mounted Corps. Destroyed in WW2 it was rebuilt at Albany in South West Australia in 1968. There was a set of mint stamps of the Australian Imperial Forces issue of 1940 and its well travelled First Day Cover being redirected around the USA from 1940. Lorraine had researched the Sailor, Soldier and Airman shown on the stamps but was not very successful with the airman; but Peter Burrows had since done some research and found out more for which she is grateful, which now completes the story.
Danna Strydom displayed Mail from South African Prisoners of War held in Germany. On 6th September 1939, South Africa declared war on Germany. South African forces were moved north to Kenya, to complete their training and to go into action against the Italian forces during December 1940-February 1941. They were then sent to join the British forces in Egypt. Large numbers of South African POWs were held in camps in North Africa before being sent to camps in Italy. Upon news of the Italian armistice, German forces seized administration of Italian prison camps and began transferring Allied POWs north into Germany. In terms of the Geneva Convention of the International Red Cross POW mail had to be carried free of charge, hence the word “Gebührenfrei!” on German POW stationery. As a concession, prisoners were permitted to send a limited number of items by air. This required an additional fee of 25 Pfennig for airmail items to South Africa via Egypt. The words “MIT LUFPOST AB KAIRO” had to be handwritten at the top of the card or letter sheet. German censor marks were applied at each camp. Several designs were used at a particular camp and the censor number formed part of the mark. There were five main groups of camps in Germany:
• STALAG (Abbreviation for STAMMLAGER) a camp for NCOs and other ranks
• OFLAG (Abbreviation for OFFIZIERSLAGER) a camp for commissioned officers
• STALAG LUFT camp for airmen
• ARBEITS-KOMMANDO labour corps
• DULAG (DURCHLAGER) Transit camp.
Two forms of postal stationary were provided to POWs in Germany: postal cards and letter sheets. The display showed postal cards and letter sheets from several camps sent by both surface and air mail.
Geoff Hanney FRPSL showed a number of pages of Home Defence field post offices from the UK in World War 1. He also showed a postcard from 1905 with cachet for the Yeomanry Regiment and Stobs Camp cancelled at Wick.
He was followed by Michael Dobbs FRPSL who showed a selection of material under the heading “Royalty” from a 1953 Coronation Camp for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, in this case from Pirbright Camp in Woking, Surrey (using FPO 969) with a postcard of the Coronation procession through Parliament Square; two covers (FPO 965) and a large programme magazine from the 1960 Military Tournament and Tattoo held in Madison Square Gardens, New York in June 1960 which involved some 500 British Service personnel; the 1 July 1969 Investiture of the Prince of Wales commemorative cover with BFPO 1000 datestamp; the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Supplement of March 2002 issued with the Gibbons Stamp Monthly magazine and a series of Official British Forces Golden Jubilee Covers with the BFPO 1000 datestamps used at various events between February and August 2002.
Nick Harris showed several covers from German soldiers who, following the end of the Second World War had volunteered to help rebuild the war torn infrastructure of Benghazi, Tripoli etc and were being housed in work camps. All the covers were addressed to relatives in either the American, British, French or Russian zones of Berlin. He also showed several caricature envelopes from the Boer War of various British and Boer generals.
Peter Burrows showed a collection of United States Navy Department corner envelopes used from 1910 to 1930’s, some with censor cachets. They included battleships, cruisers, destroyers, as well as navy yards & submarine depots. The larger ships had their own postmarks, and from 1924 to 1935 some were provided with “Flag” cancelling machines. A number of covers were addressed to the Secretary of the Navy or the Bureau of Steam Engineering in Washington. His display was spread over two showings.
United States Naval ships have had their own Post Offices since 1908. Robert Hurst showed 7 pages illustrating mail from one US naval vessel, the USS Arctic, a supply ship that served from 1921 and throughout the Second World War, chiefly in the Pacific, giving an indication of the range of covers that can be collected, including both incoming and outgoing commercial mail, registered, wartime and commemorative covers.
