Show Your British Empire Covers & Postal History Here

I thought a thread dedicated to British Empire covers and postal history might be of interest. I would certainly like to see what others may have in their collections.

To start, here is a rather battered, but still an absolute cracker (I think) of a cover which would also quite easily fit into a collection of Turkish or Syrian postal history.



British Occupied Syria used Palestinian stamps from 23 September 1918 until until 23 February 1922. This cover was posted at "HALEP" (Aleppo) in Syria on 25 October 1919.

Feel free to share your British Empire covers and postal history. If its a front or piece, or has a legible postmark, its all postal history in my book.

I don't think I have any cover more redolent of Empire than this mourning cover, sent from Jammu to Srinagar, both in Jammu & Kashmir, in 1898.



It's addressed to Lady Younghusband, wife of Colonel Francis Younghusband, who led the 1904 British expedition to Tibet. She was apparently staying at the British Residency in Srinagar.

(The Resident was the British representative in the State of Jammu & Kashmir, responsible for keeping an eye on the Maharaja, and goings-on in Jammu & Kashmir. The State was at the very centre of the Great Game - the rivalry between the British and Russian Empires in Central Asia - immortalised in Rudyard Kipling's Kim.)

The stamp, India SG 85, is worthless, by the way; printed and used in vast quantities.

Commonwealth Day
Public holiday celebrated on the second Monday in March in many parts of the
Commonwealth. It was called Empire Day until 1958 and celebrated on 24 May
(Queen Victoria's birthday) until 1966.

Postcard : Empire Day
The British Bulldog PPC printed by Beagles postcards.

India 1916

Post Office at Newspaper.
"Empire Press Sorting Office"
I have seen this strike in black and violet.

The proposed Empire stamps and "Empire stamp essay"
to John Hennicker Heaton printed by Waterlows

Full account if anyone wants it, too large an image
for the 90Kb limit

Bermuda 1944

"Liquidation of Empire"
(note Jewish Hexagram top of crown)
CV2002 $30 AUD

Not forgetting the world's first Xmas stamp.

The first penny, paid mail anywhere in Canada,
the second penny, sent mail anywhere in the Empire
marked in red on the stamp.....

Palestine used in Lebanon. "MERDJAOUN" cancel. Palestinian issues were used in Lebanon from 21 October 1918 until September 1920. Stanley Gibbons, citing John Firebrace, have the town name spelt Merdjajoun, but to my eye this cancel is Merdjaoun (no second J).

Spelt both ways here, plateflaw:
http://www.zobbel.de/stamp/pal_21e.htm

Another from the land of the Great Game:



Poonch SG 27 on an Indian ¼ Anna postal stationery card

Poonch is now just inside the Indian side of the de facto border in Jammu & Kashmir, between India and Pakistan. Poonch was a feudatory state under the rulers of Jammu & Kashmir: it was ruled by a junior branch of the Jammu & Kashmir ruling family.

This card went from Poonch, through the exchange office with British India at Kahuta, on the border between Poonch and British India. (Kahuta is now the site of the A.Q. Khan Laboratories, Pakistan's nuclear research centre.) The card was addressed to Rawalpindi.

And since someone mentioned the War ...





A very philatelic cover from Jind State to Bombay during WWI, with a suitably patriotic label on the reverse

Lovely Jind cover Tony, with a great Cinderella.

The Poonch card, how may that have travelled? runner?
Rough and hilly terrain, no?

And one more, from Jaipur State in India, which neatly encapsulates the passing of the Empire:



This is a 9 Pies Jaipur postal stationery envelope used (improperly) in November 1950, and cancelled with old Jaipur State CDSs; by this date, Jaipur State was no longer, having been absorbed into the new State of Rajasthan.

It's used with a British Indian 3 Pies stamp (SG 265), still bravely showing the King Emperor, and a new independent Indian 9 Pies stamp (SG 311) - the two defunct jurisdictions together with the new.

Thanks for the link there rod222.

Very useful. It may help me work out where Field Post Office GM 1 was located on 16 February 1919.

Runner most likely, Rod. Pretty rough country. A couple of photos here:

http://www.holidayiq.com/destinatio...hotos-1.html

Mail from Srinagar, the capital of Jammu & Kashmir, usually passed through Poonch, and out to Kahuta and on to British India, during the Kashmiri Winter. Snow usually blocked the direct South route through Jammu to Sialkot in British India, so mail had to take the Western route, which was slower but still usually passable.

Some maps and notes on the postal runner lines in Kashmir here:

http://www.kashmirstamps.ca/MapI.html