Channel Islands Specialists’ Society

75th Anniversary Year

Journal Articles

Journal Indexes

Two Guernsey Sub-Post Office Occupation Registered Covers

I have recently been fortunate to acquire two extremely nice commercial registered covers from Market Place and St. Peter in the Wood sub-post offices, both used in 1942.

Market Place

This cover is addressed to the Procureur’s Office, Manor Place, Guernsey. The embossed 4½d registered letter has been uprated by the addition of a 1d Arms stamp to make up the correct registration fee of 5½d with both stamps cancelled by the 24mm single circle datestamp for Market Place on the 8 July 1942.

A perforated coil gummed registration label has been affixed for this Town Office and is Type 3 in David Gurney’s book The Postal History of the Guernsey Sub-Post Offices.

On the reverse, shown above, is the Market Place backstamp.

St Peter in the Wood

The cover below (Figure 3a) is addressed to the States of Guernsey, The Emergency Hospital, Castel, Guernsey. This too is similarly uprated to make up the correct fee with both stamps cancelled by the St. Peter in the Wood double circle datestamp on the 13 July 1942.

A perforated coil gummed registration label, which came into use during the German Occupation and similar in style to those introduced in the late 1930s is affixed and is Type 5 in David Gurney’s book.

There are no postal markings on the back of this cover (Figure 3b) and the wording is different from the Market Place cover above.

My experience suggests that whilst many philatelic registered covers can be found from those Guernsey sub-offices that remained open during the Occupation period, truly commercial covers are very scarce, and these are two such excellent examples.


I will be most interested to hear from any member who may have similar examples used from these offices at a similar time.

Conway Street, Jersey – “C” type registration label

I recently acquired this envelope sent by registered delivery from the Conway Street town sub-post office with an unknown label.

Registered envelope from Conway Street to Paris dated 28 12 1908. Stamps cancelled by the main office of St Helier (SG type J57) and unlisted registration label for the post office of Conway Street. Datestamp of the Conway Street sub-office (Type 1) and Paris arrival datestamp 30 12 08 on the back.

The letters of the word JERSEY extend with a 10mm line for the insertion of the office number allocated by the main office of St Hélier, in this case number “2”. This style of label was in general use from 1907 onwards, and was only issued to small offices handling less than 3000 registered items in a year. When Conway Steet closed, the registration label of the same type was used by the Beresford Street office which opened in 1909, also using the number “2” but in manuscript.

Priaulx and Son – 1824 Forwarding Agent

This entire is a letter from Messrs Priaulx & Son based in Southampton addressed to a “Major De Havilland/ Guernsey/ with a crate” and is dated 10th December 1824 carried privately.

The entire is signed “Yours & obliged obedt. servants Priaulx & Son” and was sent to Guernsey via Captain Le Maître of the Aeolus.

There are no postal or charge markings, however the letter details the charge for the carriage of a crate from London to Southampton and shipping it to Guernsey at a cost of 6 shillings and ten pence plus 4d for the Duty charge making a total of 7/2d.

The SG Channel Islands Postal History Catalogue lists Priaulx & Sons as Forwarding Agents in Southampton in 1829, David Gurney, FRPSL in his book Letter Forwarding Agents of Great Britain handling Channel Islands Letters 1673 – 1855 states ‘The Stanley Gibbons Channel Islands Postal History Catalogue lists this firm as an Agent in 1829, but the author has not so far seen an example of use’ at the time of writing his book in 2011’. This letter clearly shows the firm was in existence and trading much earlier, in 1824.

The Priaulx family were wealthy merchants and their various firms and partnerships based in Guernsey and also in Southampton and Jersey were heavily involved in the merchant trade with many countries. As a matter of interest, the Priaulx Library in Guernsey is housed in the old Priaulx family home, Georgian Candie house, and the magnificent Candie gardens with superb views across the sea to Herm Island and much further.

However, between 1796–1829, the firm of Priaulx and Bienvenu was in business in Southampton. This entire suggests that the dates given by the Gibbons catalogue may be incorrect at the time of writing the catalogue and that other related firms include Priaulx and Son, Nicholas Priaulx and N.M.Priaulx all in Southampton and possibly Josué Priaulx in Jersey and Guernsey and Priaulx Lauga & Co in Guernsey commenced conducting business in the period mentioned above and certainly Priaulx and Sons from 1824 as shown in this significant letter providing the first evidence of their existence.

I am most grateful to my colleague David Gurney FRPSL, for providing some additional information for this article.

CISS Member Profile – David Laurillard

When and why did you start collecting C.I. stamps/postal history?

Early in 1964 I read an article by Bill Newport in his weekly column in the Daily Telegraph regarding a forthcoming set of Herm “stamps” overprinted ‘WORLD REFUGEE YEAR 1964’. This reminded me of many happy hours exploring this lovely little island. I was brought up by my grandparents who lived in London, but as my grandfather was born in Guernsey, we visited his family every other year. On impulse I sent to Herm for a set of the overprints, and this started me on the long road of collecting the Islands’ stamps from the Occupation issues to the Regionals and then the Independence issues. These were followed by Occupation postal history and finally the Islands’ World War I postal history.

When did you join the CISS? What/Who introduced you to the CISS?

Later in 1964, again through an article about the CISS in The Philatelic Magazine by Bill Newport.

What benefit have you got from your membership of the CISS?

I have gained so much knowledge of the interesting history of the Channel Islands through reading books and articles in the Society’s Journal. Meeting and talking to members, viewing their displays, and just enjoying the company, fellowship, and friendship of these members over many years has given me so much pleasure and enjoyment. 

What aspect of C.I. stamps/postal history do you collect?

The main part of my collection is now the First World War including postcards, but smaller collections of stamps and postcards include Island birds, transportation of mail throughout both Bailiwicks especially the smaller islands, coastal fortifications and finally horticulture and agriculture.

Do you have a favourite item or group of items in your C.I. collection?

Yes, especially covers from the front lines and military postcards.

Do you collect other non-C.I. stamps/postal history?

Worldwide bird stamps and covers, as well as covers from my family. I have also designed covers into which I have put notes pertaining to places and events my wife and I have visited during cruises and holidays throughout the world. These I have then sent back home to myself as a diary of that holiday.

What has the hobby of philately meant to you?

In the past Scouting was my main hobby, closely followed by philately, but since retiring both from that organisation and work, collecting has moved to the front with a period of being the CISS Chairman and now its President. I believe it is the detective work of tracing the history of a cover, its sender and receiver or a photo of a soldier that fascinates me most and that helps keep an active brain.

CISS Annual Competition 2024

Thank you and congratulations to all the entrants in our competition.  As always, there was a wide range of topics of a very high standard. An enjoyable meeting was appreciated by all. 

Palmares by Award

TitleEntrantClassAwardScore
Essays and Proofs of the Jersey Pictorial Views Occupation StampsRon BrownStampsGold88
The Guernsey Red Cross Messaging System during the “Fortress Period”Bryan EllistonOccupation Postal History and MarkingsLarge Vermeil80
The Jersey Penny PostDavid WinniePostal HistoryLarge Vermeil80
German Occupation of Alderney 1940 – 1945Richard FlemmingOccupation Postal History and MarkingsVermeil78
Handstamps Applied to Mail Arriving in France from the Channel Island 1755 – 1839.Richard FlemmingPostal HistoryVermeil78
Combined Obliterators of Jersey 1881-1905Steve PowerPostal HistoryLarge Silver73
Guernsey Under Occupation – The BisectsJulian BagwellOccupation Postal History and MarkingsLarge Silver71
An Overview of the Postal History of the Channel IslandsRobert CordenPostal HistorySilver68

Letter to the Editor

Bob Trower of the Isle of Wight writes to ask for information regarding two presentation cards of the 1941-1944 Occupation Issues which he bought from a newsstand in Jersey in Spring 1968.

As can be seen from the scans, both have basic printing information although there is no mention of the publisher of these cards. If any member has similar cards or can shed any light on these, please reply via the Editor.

Journal Digitisation

The huge project of digitizing our Journal going back to the first issue in December 1975 was completed last year. This should be a valuable resource for all our members and all the individual journals can be downloaded through the Our Journal menu on our website. Individual references or a word search can be conducted through the Search button on the top right of every page.

75th Anniversary Celebrations 2025

As part of our Anniversary Celebrations, the CISS has been invited to provide a full presentation to the Royal Philatelic Society London on 9 February 2025. Members interested in displaying should please contact: anniversary@ciss.uk. More information to follow.

New Page on our Website

Having considered the effectiveness of the ‘Discussion’ section of the website, the Committee agreed to create a new page headed ‘Members Forum’. This will hopefully give this function more visibility and provide a more effective platform for communicating and requesting information about our collecting needs.

Obituary – Ron Osborne

Very sadly Ron passed away peacefully on Monday 22 January 2024 at home surrounded by his family. Ron had sustained a fall in early January followed by two weeks in hospital at the age of 97 years. An amazing age and a member of our Society for at least 31 years so must surely have been our oldest member. Ron usually attended meetings with his wife, Betty (nearly 95), and their most recent attendance was at our London meeting this last November 2023 accompanied by their son and daughter! 

In the light of Ron’s age, it was decided he should be the first candidate for our Profiles of long serving members and was featured on page 5 of our March 2023 Journal. Ron enjoyed collecting the postal history and the LL postcards of all the Channel Islands.

Ron was called up in December 1944 and served in the Royal Armoured Corps in WW2 and then in the Middle East postwar. An accountant by profession he worked for the same shipping insurance company in the City of London for over 40 years. In addition to his keen interest in C.I. postal history, he was a keen sportsman playing football and tennis in his youth and bowls in his later years. An Arsenal supporter since his first visit to Highbury in the 1930’s and at various times a shareholder and season ticket holder. Ron and Betty were married for 68 years, they had Sue and Steve and there are now four grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Ron was very much a family man and will be much missed by his family and friends.

David Gurney, FRPSL