Mail From The Prime Ministers Office?

Here's a cover and card sent from the Prime ministers office during WWI to the parents of a soldier that was killed in action. (card seems pretty blunt and to the point)
I found this very interesting historically from the content in the envelope but would there be any interest to the stamp community.
I have a lot of WWI letters in envelopes with the stamps and field cards that were sent home from the front.
Included are a couple covers sent from the House Of Commons which I noticed are also signed on the bottom left corner of the envelope.
Coe Hill Ontario is a small town about 230 Km northeast of Toronto. population around 700
Anything interesting in this lot?

I think it is pretty interesting from a historical point of view for sure but I really don't know about the value and collectibility. I would assume there would be interest though...

The initials in bottom left corner of cover are for Robert Laird Borden 8th PM of Canada from 1911 to 1920. Probably the receiver put this on himself. Interesting free frank cover from Ottawa.

Nice work No1.
I have a foggy memory of signed covers on this forum some time ago,
where covers were often signed bottom corner as a routine (cannot recall the correct phrase)

It is sad to think about the family that received this.

Very, very nice cover...Not many covers out there with signatures or initials of Canada's Prime Ministers.

Robert

No1, I can't say with absolute certainty but I really don't think it was written by the receiver.
I have hundreds of pieces of mail from this family Spanning from early 1900's to the 1950's the writing does not match anyone from this household.
In all the letters that I have pre 1930 there were none that were in ink, I would hazard to guess that they didn't even have ink in the household.
I have several pieces that were sent from the House of Commons and other government branches that are also signed on the bottom left corner, I just thought it was a government practice.
Here's a piece from the House of Commons.

Cheers, Bill

Collectible? Yes. Everything is collected by someone. I like the cover.

Initials: Seeing the second example, it does point to a practice of having initials at the LL to note legitimate official mail to receive the free frank.

That said, both examples have extra scribbles after the 3 initials consistent with a secretary's writing. Routine printed matter correspondence of this level had no need to be seen by the PM. So while I believe the "RLB" was applied before mailing, I doubt it was applied by him, but rather by a low-level clerk. (Nor do I think the scribble is a simplified "PM".)

Definitely not Borden's signature if you compare his signature to the above on the letter.

Hi Bill,

Would you be able to provide a close up on the signature for the second cover you posted?

Hi John Becker, thank you for your input and thanks to everyone for the help.
I agree this was not likely done by Borden himself, I've seen his signature and to me it doesn't appear the same.

Cheers, Bill

Hounddog Bill

Dont give up yet..yes John Becker is correct that most of the time the autograph/initials/signature is done by a person's secretary or appointed initialer

BUT, some are authentic..Below is a picture of the Guest Register for the Western Home Hotel that Sir Laurier and Robert Borden stayed at before Borden became Prime Minister.



Below is the comparison of his authentic signature and the initials on your cover...They are so similar.



This cover has me interested that it could be the actual initials of Robert Laird Borden, that I am sending it to a "Document Examination Expert" in Toronto...I hope (with no money spent) that they will tell me one way or the other if it is authentic or not.

So let it be for now and I will post any results I receive one way or another...If it turns out authentic, maybe you could mail it to me so I can hold it for a while..HAHA.

Robert

Brad905 Here's the close-up you wished for but the first cover is from the Prime Ministers Office the second is from the House Of Commons.
The second cover is from their MP I believe and the initials on the envelope look to be that of the person who signed the letter that was enclosed.

Cheers, Bill

Secretaries and clerks quickly learned to mimic the boss's signature. The similarity is not surprising, thus the extra scribble following it is the giveaway feature. This is back in the day when penmanship was a standard business class to take in school. My dad took penmanship in the 1950s and often "signed" his professor's signature onto ditto masters because they were a bit tricky. Dad always added an extra little flourish so both knew instantly who had actually signed it.

So John..This one may be a non legit initial..?

Robert

Robert, Anything with extra scribbles is highly suspect as being a secretary/clerk. Common sense would dictate that important people had far more important things to do than routine correspondence. Unless ... the initials are clearly an abbreviation for an office: MP = member of parliament, MC = member of congress, etc., then look for corroborating evidence. I would hesitate to pay any premium for these being really initialed by the person they represent - just saying.