Mef (Middle Eastern Forces)

The Army Printing Services in Cairo probably executed the original M.E.F. overprints on the so-called "dark colour" stamps of George VI. The original overprint is 14 mm. wide. Later overprints are 13.5 mm wide.

Stamps overprinted "B.M.A. Tripolitania" were issued for use in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica.

After the occupation of these territories the British Military Authority issued new banknotes. For political reasons these were denominated in Military Authority Lira (M.A.L.). Old Italian Lira coins, however, remained valid.

The change from a military to a civilian administration and the use of the overprinted stamps by the wider public led to the "M" being dropped from the overprint. On 6 February 1950, stamps with a "B.A." and territory name were issued in Eritrea, Somalia and Tripolitania.

These are beautiful pages. How much more attractive and personal home-made pages are than printed ones or ones from the web,

Thanks for your kind comments GeoffHa
I am not a big fan of printed album pages or those available on the web either. They do not fit my collecting interests.

Continuing the story:

On 3 May 1951, the GPO issued some of the George VI stamps in new colours. This was done to comply with the Universal Postal Union's regulations for stamps for international use. The UPU regulations state what colours should be used for such stamps. At the same time, the GPO issued new high value definitives. These issues coincided with the issue of stamps commemorating the 1951 Festival of Britain. As a result, the high values became known as "Festival" high values.

The new definitives, including the 2/6, 5/- and 10/- "Festival" high values were overprinted and issued by the British administrations in Eritrea and Tripolitania. These were also issued on 3 May 1951.

The stamps overprinted "B.A. Tripolitania" were only issued for use in Tripolitania. Local stamps had been issued for Cyrenaica. On 24 December 1951, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fazzan became independent and formed the Kingdom of Libya. In 1952, the British Military Administration of Eritrea ended and Eritrea became self-governing.

No stamps were issued for use in Italian Somaliland that had become a United Nations trusteeship in 1949.

At the same time as the ordinary stamps that prepaid postage, some of the current postage due stamp watermarked GVIR were overprinted.

First, postage due stamps were overprinted M.E.F. for use in the theatre of operations of the Middle East Forces.



In 1948, stamps overprinted "B.M.A. Eritrea" and "B.M.A. Tripolitania" replaced the M.E.F. stamps in Eritrea and Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. No postage due stamps were overprinted for Italian Somaliland.




In 1950, stamps overprinted "B.A. Eritrea" and "B.A. Tripolitania" superseded the B.M.A. versions of 1948.