In the last Journal, our French member Henri Chartier showed five postcards and a cover that he had recently acquired. Two cards had descriptions, but three cards and the envelope were shown without narrative or captions. I have been asked to comment on these because, on a cursory viewing, they look as if they are all associated with the First World War French seaplane base in Guernsey; closer inspection however proves that this is not necessarily the case.
CARD ONE
Printed Caption:
LA BASSE NORMANDIE PITTORESQUE
2362 – CHERBOURG (Manche). – Hydravion prêt à prendre son vol
This is a printed postcard published by Le Goubey – St Pierre Eglise, showing the entrance to the Centre d’Aviation Maritime de Cherbourg. (Cherbourg Naval Seaplane Base).
Two different monochrome versions and this colour tinted printing of the card were published by Le Goubey, probably after the end of the Great War, as the hydro aeroplane viewed on the slipway is a Georges Levy G.L. 40 HB2 that first entered service in November 1917 and was never seen in Guernsey.
Pioneer Aviation in the Channel Islands Vol.1 Chapter 12 illustrates this card in reference to a Cherbourg based Georges Levy G.L. 40 HB2 that made an emergency landing in Jersey on the sands by Millbrook on 16 August 1923.
I assume Henri showed this card because the Cherbourg base is the destination that his next card is addressed to.
CARD TWO
An ‘On Active Service’ post-free postcard from the French Military Seaplane Base in Guernsey addressed to the Naval Arsenal in Cherbourg.
The author of this postcard was Gerard Sauvée, a Quarter Master Mechanic at the Escadrille d’Aviation Maritime de Guernsey (the French seaplane base in Guernsey). Several postcards are recorded from Sauvée written in his distinctively bold, scratchy pen, all addressed to an Enseigne Louis Vacquement at various addresses in Cherbourg: the Centre d’Aviation Maritime de Cherbourg, the Arsenal Maritime, and a civilian address in the town when Vacquement was promoted to an “Enseigne de Vaisseau” – a naval sub-lieutenant.
The Guernsey seaplane base was initially established with members of the disbanded Adriatic seaplane squadron who had been based in Venice. Sauvée was a member of this Squadron and the messages on his cards often complain about the Guernsey weather and food compared to that of Italy.
Initially the Guernsey base did not have its own cachet. This postcard bears an early cachet that had been brought to Guernsey by the Venice Squadron. It is a 27mm diameter double circular cachet reading around the edge “ESCADRILLE D’AVIATION DE …..”; there follows a 28mm gap from which the name “VENISE” or “L’ADRIATIQUE” has been excised.
All the postcards written by Sauvée bear the handwritten endorsement “SERVICE AIR” (indicated on the card with a pencil arrow). It was this endorsement that gave rise to the erroneous assumption by early collectors that an airmail service flew between the Guernsey and Cherbourg bases. The endorsement however indicated that the sender was on active service with the Aviation Maritime and the cards should be delivered “Post Free” through the normal post; similarly, a French soldier would write “SERVICE MILITAIRE” or a sailor “SERVICE A LA MER” to ensure “Post Free” mail.
In 1964, the French Consular Agent in Guernsey, Monsieur L.V. Lambert, who had been a pilot at the Guernsey base, stated to Bill Newport that there had been no special postal facilities provided for the base, the mail went post free through the Guernsey Post and there was no airmail service to Cherbourg.
CARD THREE
A post-free postcard addressed to Le Genets, France, bearing a “MARINE FRANCAISE *SERVICE A LA MER*” double circle cachet with anchor, in blue, a double circle Guernsey 17 SP 15 postmark and a faint Le Genets receiving postmark.
The “MARINE FRANCAISE *SERVICE A LA MER*” cachet was a French Navy cachet indicating that the sender was on active service and entitled to free post. Various versions of the cachet were widely used on French Navy ships and shore bases; the Guernsey seaplane base had a distinctive bold 35mm diameter version with the anchor rope forming the inner second circle.
The postcard illustrated was not sent from the Guernsey seaplane base because it was post-marked on 17 September 1915, two years before the seaplane base was built! As there was no French Navy base in Guernsey in 1915, this card must have been sent by a sailor from a visiting French naval ship or submarine.
The postcard breaks several censorship conventions:
The writer should have indicated his name and rank and the card should have been countersigned by a senior officer.
The writer should not have indicated his location – Guernsey. (This would have been picked up by the Senior Officer.)
The Guernsey Post Office should have used a dumb cancel on military mail, rather than also indicating the location with the Main Post Office postmark.
In 1915 the Channel Islands were yet to be affected by the war. Some Guernsey men sailed to England to enlist, but the Royal Guernsey Militia (reformed as the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry in December 1916) did not see action in France until September 1917, so the conventions for handling military mail were not strictly enforced or understood in the Islands in 1915. Indeed, the Guernsey Post Office does not seem to have received a “dumb” postmark for use on service mail until 1918.
The use of this Navy “MARINE FRANCAISE * SERVICE A LA MER*” cachet in Guernsey is exceedingly rare, especially linked with a Guernsey postmark. I have never seen one before and this may be a unique example.
LETTER FOUR
A letter from the French Guernsey Seaplane Base addressed to England, bearing an “ESCADRILLE D’AVIATION DE GUERNSEY” cachet stamped in violet with a George V postage stamp cancelled with a Guernsey Post Office “dumb” cancel.
This envelope presents a conundrum as it bears the French Guernsey Seaplane Base cachet, “ESCADRILLE D’AVIATION DE GUERNSEY” but is not endorsed “SERVICE AIR” or “ON ACTIVE SERVICE”. The sender must have been a civilian as they have attached a George V one penny definitive for delivery to England. This is the first indication I have seen that a Guernsey civilian might have worked at the base.
The Guernsey Post Office’s new dumb cancel has been used to cancel the stamp, but this security is somewhat futile as the French cachet clearly states the location of posting.
(I have seen one other very similar typed envelope addressed to England bearing the French Guernsey cachet, but it also bore the typed English endorsement, “ON ACTIVE SERVICE” and a boxed “CENSORED” cachet that was over-stamped with the dumb cancel. The Censor had also initialed the French Guernsey cachet. English Navy seaplanes visited the base and I assume that this envelope may have been sent from an English service man working at the base and that it was censored because it was sent overseas to England.)
In my book Pioneer Aviation in the Channel Islands Vol.1 Chapter 03, I explain and illustrate in detail the history and postal service of the French seaplane base in Guernsey.
