Canada 1910 Official Mourning Cover

Picked this up recently.



Dated September 21 1910 it is an official cover from the Patent Office in Ottawa, sporting an Ottawa Canada FREE cancel and a hand stamped signature.

The black border mourns the passing of King Edward VII the previous May 6.

Two questions.
1. Does anyone recognize, or can read the signature. No joy on google.
2. Does anyone know how long the Canadian Government would have used such mourning covers after the passing of a Monarch? Again, google is no help on this one.

Very nice! Likely each department used them until they ran out of their supply - in this case 8000 envelopes ordered on the 18th of May, 1910 (my interpretation of the code at the lower left corner).

So no progressively smaller border as time passed, like on private mail? (though I don't know when that custom disappeared)

Could you possibly enlarge just the signature handstamp? As a guess, it could be (???) Fr" (Father) or just (???) F., then "O'Hallo(ran?)

Not sure if this will help, but why not.





I see Geo. (George) F. Altal... or Aital...?

Found a list of Wilfred Laurier's ministers at the time, and nothing comes close, that I could see.

Thanks! The apostrophe is there and is not just some stray ink. So now maybe Geo. F. O'Halloran with some kind of title at the end of his name.

So maybe this George F. O'Halloran?:
https://books.google.com/books?id=0hMTAAAAYAAJ
It's Canadian, it's of the time frame, it has something to do with the Ministry of Agriculture (see gray torn cardboard cover). But this O'Halloran is not credited on the cardboard cover of the 1899 report, nor in the intro. That makes me think he is a more recent second editor matching the more modern binding shown in the top photo.

EDIT: so then the handstamp may or may not be contemporary to the cover.

Well, hy-brasil, I think you've hit hit the nail in the head. Excellent detective work!
Googling Mr O'Halloran does show he was Deputy Minister of Agriculture around that time. Well done you!
Thanks so much for your research.
The signature hand stamp would be perfect for franking a gov't letter from the ministry. More research needed into his career.
Cheers!

edit - a couple of google clicks and we do find that George Finley O'Halloran was Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the Liberal government of Wilfred Laurier and the Conservative/Union Conservative governments of Robert Borden from May 20 1902 to 1919.

Brilliant! Thanks again.