As usual I’m grateful to Peter Harvey for producing this report on our Zoom meeting held on Thursday 25th May: the FPHS Zoom meeting was once again a great success, with attendance by 18 members from around the globe. The meeting was treated to five excellent displays, including displays from Jim Findley and Jamie Smith, who have not presented previously. As with all zoom meetings, members were engaged with general discussion regarding the items displayed and forces, military, and wartime postal history. The displays included:
Morocco, French Military mail: Peter Stockton presented further items from is extensive collection of French Military mail, on this occasion the French Service des Renseignements or intelligence service in Morocco. Over 12 slides he gave a brief introduction to the collecting topic and the establishment of the service, prior to showing covers and cards from 1912 through to 1917.
Egypt & British Forces 1932 to 1952: Mick Carter gave another outstanding display, which introduces the British involvement in Egypt during 1882 and took us through some of the early Army postal markings and stamps used in Egypt. This display then illustrated the concession period with postal seals and postal stamps, before moving onto the Egyptian ARMY POST issues.
Royal Navy Infighting Admirals: Colin Tabeart introduced in his usual style two famous Admirals of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord Charles Beresford and Admiral of the Fleet Jackie Fisher. This brief display with letters from 1884 through to 1919 described Fisher’s reforms of the Royal navy and the impact they had on improving operational capability, and Beresford’s opposition to change and Admiralty policies.
South Africa WW2 No.1 Army Postal Regulating Depot: Jim Findlay explained the establishment in WW2 of No.1 Army Postal Regulating Depot, in Durban. His display included cachets, postmarks, and covers used at or through the depot. These explained the depot’s important role in handling mail once the well-established mail routes through and over the Mediterranean were closed when Italy entered the war against the Allies.
Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1945: Jamie Smith in his first display to an FPHS Zoom meeting took us on a journey around the Atlantic and the important events during WW2. Illustrated were a wealth of covers from the Allies in areas such as the South Americas, Iceland, South & West Africa, the West Indies and Norway. Jamie’s display is available on the FPHS website with his own embedded commentary.