The Postage Stamp in War

Excerpt

The Postage Stamp follows the Flag. The same small talisman which passes our letters across the seven seas to friends the world over maintains the lines of personal communication with our soldiers and sailors in time of war. Wherever the British Tommy goes he must have his letters from home; like the lines of communication, which are the life-line of the army, postal communication is the chief support of the courage and spirit of the individual soldier. His folk at home send him new vigour with every letter that tells of the persons, places and things that are nearest and most cherished in his memory.

In these days letter-sending and letter-getting are so common-place that few give any thought to the great organisation by which thousands of millions of postal packets are posted and delivered in this country every year. And now that most of us have friends at the Front, in France, in Belgium, or on the high seas, we are perhaps inclined to take it all just as a matter of course that letters pass and repass much in the ordinary humdrum way. This is plain to the conductors of our postal services when during war time they get numerous complaints from individuals of delay or even non-delivery, or any one of a number of other minor inconveniences which must often be unavoidable in the stirring times of war.

To-day many thousands of letters and postal packets are being sent to and received from the troops of the British Expeditionary Force in France, yet it is a simple fact that but a small percentage of the civilian population in this country knows anything of the existence, far less of the workings, of the Army Postal Service as an organisation separate and distinct from the postal department of the home Government. The Army Postal Service is administered under a Director of Postal Services, who is responsible to the Commander in Chief of the Army, and whose system is established with the co-operation of the Inspector-General of Communications.

The formation of a British Army Post Office Corps is of comparatively recent date. It was first suggested by Colonel du Plat Taylor in the seventies, as a means of using the services of the Post Office Rifle Volunteers in war time, but it was not until the Egyptian campaign in 1882 that the corps was formed.

Prior to this, however, bodies of servants of the Post Office had done duty with the army in organising and maintaining postal communication with the armies in the field and with the links connecting up with the home service. During the Crimean War extensive arrangements were made by the Post Office to maintain postal communication with the forces in Turkey, the Black Sea, and the Baltic. Prior to the war, the British Government did not maintain any postal packets between Mediterranean ports save some steam vessels for the transport of the Indian mails, and some of these were taken up by the military and naval authorities. Letters for Constantinople and the Levant ordinarily went through the French and Austrian administrations and were chargeable at the then high foreign rates of postage. With the assistance of the French Government, letters were sent viâ Marseilles to Constantinople (or vice-versâ) at first at intervals of three times a month, but afterwards six times a month, and during the latter period of the war, twice a week.

But the French mail packets went no further than Constantinople, so the British Postmaster-General sent out an experienced officer, Mr. E. J. Smith, of the London General Post Office, to Turkey as Postmaster of His Majesty's Forces; and three Assistant Postmasters, together with seven Letter Sorters. As the facilities for land transport accorded the Postmaster proved insufficient he was furnished with eighteen horses and mules for the exclusive use of his office. The Postmaster was supplied with the postage stamps of the home country, then (so far as the penny and twopence denominations were concerned) in the early and beautifully engraved design of William Wyon's "Queen's Head." This was the first use of British postage stamps on foreign territory, or indeed anywhere beyond the limits of the British Isles, and stamp collectors take a considerable interest in the English stamps which survive with the various Crimean postmarks specially supplied to the Postmaster of His Majesty's Forces in the East. Stamps used on letters from the forces may be recognised by either the Crown and Stars or Cypher and Stars or the circular dated postmarks (Figs. 1-4)....