Little bits of history through the post …..that remarkable invention

The continuing series on first day issues, and the history behind them.

These are the envelopes of first day issues from our Stella’s collection, and this one speaks for itself.

Now I have always had a fascination with the Hovercraft, partly because I once made an Airfix model of the prototype, and because in 1980 me and my sister Elizabeth took the hovercraft ferry to France.

Pictures; first day of issue stamps, 1969, from the collection of Stella Simpson

Lessons from a stamp album …… no. 1 ….. this is who we are

Now I know it is stating the obvious to say that postage stamps can and are political.

Like coinage they aim to say something about a country, whether it is the leader, its system of government or its achievements.

I still have a collection of British postage stamps to commemorate the Battle of Hastings and the Battle of Britain.

Although some may ponder on why Britain wanted to commemorate a battle in which the Norman French were victorious, but some one will have an explanation.

And that leads me to a short series based on the collection of stamps from our Stella, who having salvaged my stamp albums of the 1950s, went on to make her own during the 1970s and 80s.

Like many of the family treasures they came north from Well Hall after father died, and for a while sat in the cellar which on reflection was not the kindest of places.

Forty years in a dry but cold cellar allowed some of the lose stamps to get stuck together, but others fared better.

And so here are some of those stamps which she bought from dealers, coming in small packs which retailed at 15p a sheet.

To start the series I have selected some from the former communist states of Poland and the USSR, which carry a very overt political message.

That said I do have to confess I went for the Polish stamps first  for another reason than our Julia is Polish and along with our Saul lives in Poland.

Enough said.

Location Poland and the USSR,, 1970s, 

Pictures; stamps from Poland and the USSR, 1970s, from the collection of Stella Simpson

Lessons from a stamp album …… no. 2 ….. having fun

Yesterday I started the series on Lessons from a stamp album with the serious stuff, choosing Poland and the Soviet Union to explore the messages that states want to project.

So here were postage stamps about the victories of Polish arms in the Middle Ages and the heroicsacrifice of the Russian people in the last world war along with the achivements of Soviet space technology.

But today it  is fun.

And fun that comes in the form of stamps from Sharjah which my wikipedia tells me is is "the emirate Sharjah. 

The emirate shares legal, political, military and economic functions with the other emirates of the UAE within a federal framework, although each emirate has jurisdiction over some functions such as civil law enforcement and provision and upkeep of local facilities. 

Sharjah has been ruled by the Al Qasimi dynasty since the 18th century".

It is also the name for the capital of "the emirate", which is a centre for culture and industry, and alone contributes 7.4% of the GDP of the United Arab Emirates".*

Someone will know why it choses to go for a collection of stamps based on Walt Disney cartoon, but I am glad they did. 

Location; Sharjah 

Pictures; stamps from Sharjah, 1970s, from the collection of Stella Simpson

*Sharjah, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharjah

Little bits of history through the post …… Mr. Dante and a road

Now, collecting stamps and even better first day issues were something I only had a passing interest in.

Not so our Stella who pretty much collected lots of things, and this week I revisited her collection of stamps which were issued for the first time.

And as you do I was drawn to two from Italy.

The first and in some ways my favourite I came across was one issued in Rome for the 700th anniversary of the birth of the Italian poet Dante, which one source describes as “known for establishing the use of the vernacular in literature at a time when most poetry was written in Latin, making it accessible only to the most educated readers. 

His De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular) was one of the first scholarly defenses of the vernacular. His use of the Tuscan dialect for works such as The New Life (1295) and Divine Comedy helped establish the modern-day standardized Italian language, and set a precedent that important later Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would follow.

Dante was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy, and his depictions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven provided inspiration for the larger body of Western art.

He is cited as an influence on Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton and Alfred Tennyson, among many others. 

In addition, the first use of the interlocking three-line rhyme scheme, or the terza rima, is attributed to him. 

He is described as the "father" of the Italian language, and in Italy he is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta ("the Supreme Poet"). Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also called the tre corone ("three crowns") of Italian literature”.

All of just leaves me with the second which commemorated the 1962 Road Cycling World Championships held in Salò  in Italy on September 2nd.

That is it …….. more to follow.

Location; Italy

Pictures; first day of issue stamps, 1962 & 1965, from the collection of Stella Simpson

*Dante Alighieri, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri

Little bits of history through the post …… letters without envelopes

The continuing series on first day issues, and the history behind them.

Now, this is the last of the series and I have to concede that this story is not about first day issues.

That said the four letters were amongst the collection which our Stella had acquired, and may even have arrived in the same batch as some of the envelopes which have already appeared on the blog.

And while the four do not carry eye catching stamps or colourful “first day envelopes” I rather think they more interesting.

For each is actually just one page of paper which has been folded to form an envelope, containing the message inside and the address on the front, and for added security a wax seal had been attached, which effectively closed the letter and of course was proof it hadn’t been opened.

None of the four carried a postage stamp, although three of the four has a post mark which offer up a location and a date, which in turn indicates that one was sent in July 1849 and another in July 1852.

They were all written in French and one begins “Citoyen”.

In the fulness of time I will scan the message side and share with anyone who can read French.

For now I will just reflect on how once upon a time similar letters would have been sent through Britain in the same postal way, which of course opens up the opportunity for people with far more “posty history” to add a contribution.

Location; France

Pictures;letters without envelopes, mid 19th century, from the collection of Stella Simpson

Little bits of history through the post …..going French

The continuing series on first day issues, and the history behind them.

Now having started the short series with Italy, today we are doing all things French, and I have started with  Marianne, who is that symbol of the French Revolution.

As one source says she is the “personification of liberty, equality, fraternity and reason, and a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty.

Marianne is displayed in many places in France and holds a place of honour in town halls and law courts. She is depicted in the Triumph of the Republic, a bronze sculpture overlooking the Place de la Nation in Paris, and is represented with another Parisian statue in the Place de la République. 

Her profile stands out on the official government logo of the country, is engraved on French euro coins, and appears on French postage stamps.

It was also featured on the former franc currency. Marianne is one of the most prominent symbols of the French Republic, and is officially used on most government documents”.*

So, no surprise then,  that it appeared on this 50 centime stamp which was first issued in 1971.

Leaving me just to add the second first issue which commemorated the life of Marcechal Juin, who was a senior French Army general and later became a Marshal of France. 

And given that I knew nothing about him I have again fallen back on Wikipedia, which some I know can be sniffy about but I reckon does the biz.

"A graduate of the École Spéciale Militaire class of 1912, he served in Morocco in 1914 in command of native troops. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, he was sent to the Western Front in France, where he was gravely wounded in 1915. As a result of this wound, he lost the use of his right arm.

After the war, he attended the École Supérieure de Guerre. He chose to serve in North Africa again. 

After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, he assumed command of the 15th Motorized Infantry Division. 

The division was encircled in the Lille pocket during the Battle of France and Juin was captured. He was a prisoner of war until he was released at the behest of the Vichy Government in 1941, and was assigned to command French forces in North Africa.

After Operation Torch, the invasion of Algeria and Morocco by British and American forces in November 1942, Juin ordered French forces in Tunisia to resist the Germans and the Italians. 

His great skills were exhibited during the Italian campaign as commander of the French Expeditionary Corps. His expertise in mountain warfare was crucial in breaking the Gustav Line, which had held up the Allied advance for six months.

Following this assignment, he was Chief of the Staff of the French forces and represented France at the San Francisco Conference. In 1947 he returned to Africa as the Resident-General of France in Morocco, where he opposed Moroccan attempts to gain independence. Next came a senior NATO position as he assumed command of CENTAG until 1956. 

During his NATO command, he was promoted to Marshal of France in 1952. He was greatly opposed to Charles De Gaulle's decision to grant independence to Algeria, and was "retired" in 1962 as a result. He was the French Army's last living Marshal of France until his death in Paris in 1967, when he was buried in Les Invalides".*

Pictures; first day of issue stamps, 1970-1971, from the collection of Stella Simpson

* Marianne, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne

** Alphonse Juin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Juin

Little bits of history through the post ….. two mysteries ….. “boldy going” ….. the Moon and the Mayflower

The continuing series on first day issues, and the history behind them.

These are the envelopes of first day issues from our Stella’s collection, starting today with that Moon landing back in July 1969.

I have to confess that I never saw the live TV coverage of the historic event.  We had gathered to watch it at the house of a friend in Orpington, but I was on an early shift which meant being at work for 6 am, which in turn meant leaving an hour earlier if I wanted to be on time.

And so Clive and I who was also working, left the assembled gathering and drove home to Eltham.

I suppose looking back it was a decision that lacked the sense of history, but then Glenville’s food factory on the banks of the Thames by the Blackwall Tunnel was where I earned my money, and a failure to show up could have cost me my job.

That said the job was hard, and unpleasant and consisted of filling 56 lb bags of hot granulated milk powder, from an outlet.

The outlet had long ago lost the regulating tap, and so we had to slip one hand underneath the outlet while the other chap pulled the filled bag free and a an empty substitute placed underneath the tap.

The heat made you perspire and as you were already covered in milk dust, it combined to produce rivulets of sweet milk.

Looking back, the sitting room in Orpington might well have been preferable, although neither would have been as challenging as that moon landing.

By contrast the departure of the Mayflower from Plymouth may seem tamer, but a journey in a small sailing ship across the Atlantic, which was destined to arrive in November just a head of winter was a tough challenge.

I have no idea when the Mayflower  envelope was issued but I think it will have been to commemorate the 350th anniversary which was in 1970, and with a bit of research came across the story of that commemoration, which I will leave you to read..*

Pictures; first day of issue stamps, 1962 and 1969, from the collection of Stella Simpson

*The 'greatest festival Plymouth ever staged' is coming back, Rachael Dodd, August 1st, 2018 Plymouth Live, https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/history/greatest-festival-plymouth-ever-staged-1840518 

Little bits of history through the post ….. two mysteries ….. and only one solved

Now our Stella’s collection of first day issues is a fascinating mix of British and international history, and each envelope offers up a story.

And the two from Khartoum and Cyprus also threw up mysteries of which The First Camel Post has yet to be resolved.

I like the idea of the “Camel Post”, and there will be someone who knows much more than me about its origin and subsequent history.

What makes the Khartoum to Libya service a lot more intriguing is the over stamped message, “Camel Post Interrupted By Revolution Returned to Khartoum”, which I take was the overthrow of King Idris of Libya by Muammar Gaddafi in 1969.

So, I await chapter and verse from someone with a detailed knowledge of all things posty and Libyian.

The second card remained a mystery only until I spoke to my friend Sophia Kanaouti who lives in Athens, and  translated the Greek on the envelope  which reads, “Cyprus a member of the European Council”, “Cypriot stamp collecting company , first day of issue”.

It is dated 1962, and was the year Cyprus joined the Council of Europe which “is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe.[3] Founded in 1949, it has 47 member states, with a population of approximately 820 million, and operates with an annual budget of approximately 500 million euros”*

The island had a troubled and violent history during the 20th century, culminating with its independence from Britain in 1960, a period of communal violence through the next decade, leading to the Turkish invasion in 1974, and the division into a small Turkish area in the north east and the rest.

More recently efforts to resolve the division had failed.

Leaving me just to explain why Mr. A. Medawar's address has been left on the envelope, which is something I wouldn't normally do.

But a quick search showed that 30/32 Gray's Inn Road no no longer exists, having been replaced sometime after 1962 with modern shop and office buildings.Location; Khartoum, Libya and Cyprus

Pictures; first day of issue stamps, 1962 and 1969, from the collection of Stella Simpson

*Council of Europe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Europe#Member_states,_observers,_partners

Little bits of history through the post ….. planes and things

Now the story of Alcock & Brown and the Dam Busters’ are so well known that I shall refrain from writing about either, other than to say that both Mr. Alcock and Brown have connections with Chorlton and that 617 Squadron used the Derwent Reservoir in the north of Derbyshire for some of the practice runs.

And any one who has no idea about Alcock and Brown’s transatlantic flight or the Dam Buster’s can explore the many references in books and on online.

Instead I will just say that our Stella collected first day issues of special commemorative stamps, and over the next few days I shall share some of my favourites.

Yesterday It was two from Italy celebrating the 700th birthday of the Italian poet Dante and the 1962 cycle road race, held near Milan.

Many of the originals had been sent to a Mr. Tom Pdgeon but for reasons despite the passing of nearly half a century I have airbrushed out his address.

And that is pretty much it other than to say that the Dam Buster’s issue has that added interest that it celebrates the reunion of the 617 Squadron held in Toronto in Canadian June 1972.

An event which is not unsurprising given that the crews included RAF personnel of several nationalities, drawn from  members of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF). 

On the reverse there is the  post mark from R.A.F. Post Office Scampton, in Lincoln June 23rd 1972, which was where 617 Squardon was based at the time of the attacks on the German dams.

While the stamp and the post mark on the front are Canadian.

Location; Lincoln, and Toronto

Pictures; first day of issue stamps, 1969 and 1972, from the collection of Stella Simpson