Journal Articles Archive - Page 2 of 231 - Channel Islands Specialists’ Society

Editorial

We have reached the end of a year of very enjoyable events, including our display at the Royal Philatelic Society London, our few days in Guernsey and participation in the UK international stamp show in Birmingham.

We now return to a year of “normal” activities, but bolstered by a record number of new members having joined us in 2025. We hope that all our members have had an enjoyable collecting year, and that we will continue to meet more of you at our activities in 2026.

Enclosed with this journal you will find information and an application form for our conference at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, from 24 – 26 April 2026. This is a new venue for us, but we have been assured by a number of societies who have used this hotel during 2025 that it is a good venue.

I would again like to thank those of you who have given your time to provide articles for our journals, and urge you all to try to let me have some contributions, small or longer. One small contribution from every member would do much to fill our four journals next year! You do not need to be an expert! A simple question may lead to another welcome contribution. It is obviously a truism to say that “No articles equal no journal” and this is the perennial plea of every editor. Please help – my cupboard of articles is nearly empty for 2026.

Your committee wish you all a successful winter of collecting and studying, and we hope to see many of you in Kenilworth in the Spring.

Best wishes,

Nick

New Members

Jethou’s 1963 Europa issue

When Captain Cliff decided to issue a set of stamps for Jethou to commemorate Europa 1963, he chose to have the stamps printed by Thomas De La Rue & Co. Ltd. rather than by Guernsey Lithoprint Ltd. It could be that he wanted a better quality of printing but the real reason for the change could well be that Guernsey Lithoprint Ltd. did not want to repeat their disastrous experience at perforating a large quantity of stamp sheets. After all, Cliff intended to issue 50 000 sets of the Europa 1963 stamps. The designer was again Charles Coker, who submitted a first proposal to Captain Cliff (Figure 1) and Cliff settled for a two-values set, 3d and 1/9.

Coker’s first draft for a 3d stamp differs in many details from the final issue: most notably the value is within a square whereas in the issued stamp it is within a circle; there is a line around the whole design in the final version but no such line in this rough draft; the sky and the sea have fewer lines in the final design and the bird, a razorbill, is much more detailed in the issued version. Additionally, there is no designer’s name at the bottom left of the design in this first draft. As Coker wrote in the upper margin, it was only a rough draft. He drew a 38mm x 22mm rectangle at the upper left to show what the final size of the stamp should be, and he wrote “x 3½” at top right to indicate that this drawing was 3½ times the size of the final stamp. The overall size of the paper is 248mm x 176mm, whereas the drawing itself measures 133mm x 77mm.

Captain Cliff wrote his comments in the right-hand margin: “3d vignetted, line right round, Isle of Jethou reduced in size”. Charles Coker corrected his design accordingly and he submitted a second draft (Figure. 2 above), which was unfortunately drawn on porous paper.

The paper size is 245mm x 184mm while the design measures 133mm x 78mm. Coker made the corrections requested by Captain Cliff and he added his name below the design at bottom left. But because the paper was porous the ink bled and Coker wrote “Ink has spread on this surface. Unsuitable for reproduction”. We must conclude that he redid his design once again, but I have no clue as to the whereabouts of this final, printer-ready design.

Normally, Bradbury Wilkinson would submit colour essays on cards and as we will see in the next article, they did so for the Europa 1964 issue. I have never seen such De La Rue colour proofs on cards of the Europa 1963 issue and they are not mentioned in Backman’s catalogues, which does not mean that they don’t exist of course. Imperforate proofs in the issued colours are not rare (Figure 3). According to Backman and Forrester, the same plate was used for printing the colour background of both values, but different plates were used for the black part.

This issue was printed by De la Rue in small sheetlets of 12 stamps (4 across and 3 down), set up in larger printer’s sheets of 4 sheetlets arranged 2 across and 2 down (see Figure 4 below for a reconstruction of a printer’s master sheet), as shown in Backman’s Jethou of the Channel Islands Specialized Catalogue published in 1976 and in Backman & Forrester’s The Channel Island of Jethou, Its stamps and postal history of 1978.

The printer’s imprint appears once at the center of the bottom margin of each sheetlet of twelve. The four sheetlets can be identified as follows: the perforation guide in the shape of a cross in the left or right margin identifies a left or right pane, and the bottom margin of the bottom panes is imperforate through, but it is perforated in the upper panes.

In the next instalment covering the Europa 1964 issue we will see some very interesting De La Rue proof cards.

Isle of Sark issues its own Postage Stamps

On 27 August Guernsey Post issued the Isle of Sark’s first postage stamps of its own.

The first set commemorates the island’s wartime history with stamps depicting key moments from the German Occupation during World War II, and the 80th anniversary of the island’s Liberation on 10 May 2025.

A definitive stamp series is to be released on 3 September, featuring Sark’s extraordinary wildflowers and depicting several species.

We no longer include notifications of new issues in Les Isles Normandes, but this is a reminder that we are able to purchase these new issues as well as other current Islands issues direct from the respective postal authorities direct links are available on the CISS webpage and by copying this link you can reach the correct pages: Links – Channel Islands Specialists’ Society

Town Post Office, Guernsey

On 20 May 2025, Guernsey Post formally announced that the Town post office, situated in the old Tourist Information Centre, would close on Friday 4 July and would be relocated to a new home at 7 Commercial Arcade – a familiar location that housed the Arcade sub-post office many years ago.

The decision to vacate the North Plantation building had to be made as it was to be re-purposed as the Victor Hugo Centre.

Three counter positions were in use at the time of the announcement, and these were to be dismantled and rebuilt at the new office at 7 Commercial Arcade. Consequently, while this took place, the post office moved temporarily within the North Plantation building, but with only two counter positions being available in the interim period.

The Town office had used three datestamps originally but, during the interim period, only the datestamps with Codes F and G were used. The datestamp with Code H was returned to Envoy House.

However, on close examination of the datestamps used on the covers obtained on the last day of opening, there is clear evidence that those datestamps issued and used when the office was opened in April 2024 had been replaced.

This is illustrated below (Figures 1 and 2) of like-to-like scans of the two datestamps with Code F inserted. On examination, it is evident in (Figure 2) that the date is much larger than in the original datestamp and GUERNSEY/POST at the foot of the datestamp is also larger, and the lettering spaced differently. This change has now been confirmed by Guernsey Post, although the specific date of the change is not available. It is believed that the new datestamps were issued sometime during 2025.

At 8.30am on Tuesday 8 July 2025, the new Town post office at 7 Commercial Arcade officially opened to the public. The new location would offer a full range of postal services in a more modern and central setting. The branch would also include Saturday opening hours. (Fig 3 below). The new office has three counter positions and therefore all three datestamps with Codes F, G and H are in use.

The photograph below (Figure 4) shows how this new type of datestamp arrives from the manufacturer. The main element of the datestamp is in blue ink and the date is in red ink.

It is Guernsey Post’s usual practice to only use black ink. However, as can be seen from the Special Delivery envelope below (Figure 5), cancelled on the first day of opening, this has not been the case as the “spare” datestamp with Code H inserted and returned from Envoy House, is in blue ink with the date in red ink. It looks most unusual!!

Guernsey Post also announced that a small Postal Museum would be located on the top floor of the building and would be open to visitors on Tuesday 29 July to coincide with the 200th Anniversary of the opening of Commercial Arcade on that day. The museum showcases the Island’s rich postal and philatelic heritage. An interesting new venue for our members to visit.

Last Day of the La Baissieres Sub-Office in Guernsey¸ 1966

The postcard illustrated below was franked with a 1948 Third Anniversary of the Liberation 2½d and a 1965 Churchill Commemoration 4d (on the first day of issue). The two stamps on the postcard are struck with the Type 1 date stamp, with a despatch date of 8 July 1965, and addressed to Miss F Flambard, Khyber, Les Baissières, The Vale, as the road running westwards has the St Peter Port-Vale parish boundaries through it.

A Type 1 registration label was issued for use from opening on 1 February 1952. Almost 1,400 registered letters were recorded but not many examples are known to have survived. This sub-post office closed on the 8 July 1968 after only 16 years of serving this area of western St Peter Port.

Coincidently, the 8 July datestamp on the postcard for the first day of use of the Churchill 4d stamp is also the closure date of this sub-office.

An Underpaid Cover from St Servan to Jersey, 1966

The scan of the cover below is another sent in by Henri Chartier.

It was posted at St Servan, a town on the semi-tidal River Rance which flows into the English Channel between Dinard and Saint-Malo to Jersey. It was posted in November 1965, franked at 30c instead of at 60c, and received a nice publicity cancellation for the town as a centre for sea activities, its camping sites and swimming pool. How does a 6d postage due charge in 1965 relate to an underpayment of 30c?

Thanks to Gerald Marriner, and Ken Snelson of the Postage Due Mail Study Group for commenting on the surcharge marking and postage charges.

At that time the French charge for UPU mail was 60c and the letter was therefore 30c underpaid. The calculation of the fee is as follows: 30c deficiency is 30/60 x 6d = 3d postage due, doubled to a minimum charge of 6d.

Both Ken and Gerald commented that the green charge mark 258 was struck at Dover.

“Merci”, Henri, for the scan, and to Ken and Gerald for their interpretation.

PSJ Clark

In the September 2024 issue of Les Iles Normandes, member Roger Cichorz was trying to get to grips with who P S J Clark was.

Peter Sidney John Clark was born on 31 March 1921 in Caterham, Surrey. His father was Sidney Clark. In 1939 he was living with his parents and older brother, Jack, at 52 Foxon Lane, Caterham, Surrey.

In 1941, he joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery with the service number 1817689. In 1952, he married Annemarie Katharina Van Kempen (1925-2011).

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was the Honorary Secretary of The British Businessmen’s Club, with an address at Tannenstrasse 8, Düsseldorf, Germany.

As a Member of the Institute of British Engineers he used the postnominal M. Inst. B.E.

Peter Clark was an expertiser, and from 1961 he was a member of the Bund Philatelistischer Prüfer E.V., the leading German association for the examination of philatelic collectibles. His areas of expertise were of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands, Lundy Island, and Propaganda Forgeries. It was within these philatelic categories that he issued expertisation certificates.

In Surrey, he was at 122 Eldon Road, Caterham and he later moved to 68 Norman Avenue, Sanderstead, South Croydon. This address was one he used as a return address for items of post he had sent Poste Restante.

On 16 December 1990, Annemarie Katherina Clark and Peter Sidney John Clark were appointed Directors of Palex Consultants Ltd. This business services company was registered on 23 June 1988, and it was active until 31 March 1991.

Peter and Annemarie lived at 68 Norman Avenue until the end of their lives.

Peter Clark died on 23 March 2010, and Annemarie died on 26 October 2011.

Other than as an addressee on items of mail, Mark has found no references to a Patricia Clark associated with Peter and Annemarie.

Switzerland to Jersey: Compulsory Re-registration on Re-direction

Summary

Mail re-directed from the address on an item of mail but dropped in a letter box was treated as ”Posted Out of Course” and was compulsorily re-registered for delivery to the new address.

Original posting

The letter shown below was sent from Hagendorn (Canton Zug) in Switzerland on 26 February 1948, franked with a 60 centimes stamp for 30c letter rate + 30c registration fee (Figure 1).

It was addressed to the Ritz Hotel, St Helier, Jersey and received the oval registration arrival mark REGISTERED / JERSEY CHANNEL IS. / 2 MR 48 on the back (Figure 2).

Re-redirection

Following delivery, the letter was re-directed to the Montfort (House) Hotel, Great Union Road, and apparently dropped in a letterbox without payment of an additional registration fee. The fact that the cover was marked with the usual blue cross was sufficient for the post office to re-register it compulsorily. The partially adhesive label was attached (Figure 3) with the explanation, and the cover was struck with the boxed cachet TO PAY POSTED OUT OF COURSE with the Jersey main post office identifier 409 at bottom left and 3 (pence) inserted in manuscript for the standard registration fee.

The Hotels

Both the Ritz Hotel (Figure 4) and the Montfort House Hotel (Figure 5) were developed in the heyday of Channel Island tourism in the 1930s but both were closed as part of the sector’s general decline in the 1980/90s.

German Ultimatum for Jersey’s Surrender in 1940

In September 2024 I made the most important and exciting find of my entire Channel Islands collecting career. The item has no exciting cachets or postmarks but is one of three copies of the most important German document of the occupation dropped by air over Jersey on 1 July 1940. It is a copy of the German ultimatum for Jersey’s surrender in its original envelope, found at the airport and thought lost for the past 84 years. It is also the first German airmail of the Occupation

At 05.40 on 1 July 1940, three pouches trailing red and blue streamers were dropped over Jersey by a German aircraft. Two pouches landed in St. Helier and the third landed at the airport. The pouches contained envelopes bizarrely addressed “On the Governor of the Isle of Jersey” (sic) and in them was a two-page typed ultimatum itemising the terms of surrender for the island. The Jersey Airport Controller, Charles Roche, found the letter dropped at the airport (Figure 1) and telephoned the Bailiff of Jersey, Alexander Coutanche, who ordered him to keep it and remain at his post as he had already been given two dropped on St. Helier. The German ultimatum demanded that by 07.00 on 2 July 1940, white flags and white crosses should be prominently displayed in the town and at the airport to indicate total surrender. (Figures 3 & 4) The States ordered a translation of the ultimatum be printed and posted immediately (Figure 5) and a translation appeared on the front page of that afternoon’s The Evening Post.

At 07.00 the following morning, Oberleutnant Richard Kern, the 25-year-old pilot of a Dornier Do 17z flew over Jersey and observed the displayed surrender signs. He promptly landed at the airport to be the first German to ‘capture’ Jersey and was met by Charles Roche who informed him that Jersey was ready to accept the occupation terms. Oberleutnant Kern returned to base to report his actions and in the afternoon eight Dornier Do 17z aircraft and two Junkers Ju 52/3m troop transporters landed at the airport with German assault troops and Luftwaffe officers led by Hauptmann Gussek. The German occupation of Jersey had begun.

Charles Roche had kept the airport letter and endorsed the envelope in pencil with the location, time and date of dropping but in the heat of the moment he initialled and dated it 1/6/40 (rather than 1/7/40). Order 5. of the ultimatum demanded that “Representatives of the Authorities must stay at the Airport until the occupation.”, so obeying Coutanche’s order, Roche had remained on duty to await the arrival of the German troops.

Roche was not a Channel Islander; he was an Englishman born in 1897, and a retired First World War R.A.F. lieutenant. His previous R.A.F. career should have rung alarm bells with the Germans but despite it they foolishly kept him in his crucial role managing the Airport where he was credited with destroying at least 28 German aircraft and crew by cutting the runway grass to an unsafe short level so that aircraft would skid and crash on landing. The Germans remained unaware of his sabotage regime, but it was nevertheless curtailed in 1942 when he and his wife Mary were deported to Biberach internment camp in Germany along with most of the other English born residents in Jersey. (Figure 2)

Charles and Mary were in their late 40s when they were deported, but they must have been in ill health because Mary was repatriated to England on the first Red Cross mercy repatriation via neutral Sweden of the elderly and infirmed in September 1944, and Charles followed on the second in March 1945. They were reunited in England and eventually able to return to Jersey after the liberation when Charles resumed his old job as airport controller until his retirement in 1957.

The three German ultimatum letters were the first and probably the most important documents of the occupation. They can also be regarded as the first airmail of the German occupation, but none of the three copies has ever been on public display. The two dropped on St. Helier and handed to the Bailiff remained in the Coutanche archive but the history of the letter dropped at the airport is more obscure.

When Coutanche told Roche that he did not need the letter dropped at the airport as he had already been given the two dropped on the town, Roche may not have realised its significance as he may have thought there were others. He is unlikely to have taken it with him into internment but there is no record of him giving it to someone for safe keeping or hiding it until his return to Jersey. It has always been assumed that it was destroyed or lost.

America in 2024 saw the first two parts of a charity auction of the Alfred F. Kugel military postal history collection, a philatelic collection of worldwide military mail dating from the late 1800s to modern times, valued at several million dollars. There were only two lots from Jersey in the auction; one was a genuine set of the “Swastika Jersey 1940” overprinted King George VI stamps along with the Bigwood trial, and the other, a poorly photographed envelope that purported to have contained the German ultimatum dropped on 1 July 1940.

I recognised that the envelope might be the missing Roche letter and attempted to authenticate it before the auction closed. I obtained good photographs of the envelope and its contents and approached various authorities in Jersey who might have seen the other two letters. Only two people had.

Damien Horn, owner of The Channel Islands Military Museum had seen one of the letters complete with its pouch and ribbons that had been kept by Coutanche, and he thought a second one was also in the Lord Coutanche collection.

Georgie Bois, Archives Officer of Jersey Heritage confirmed that they held the Lord Coutanche Collection containing one of the letters with the original pouch, but the collection was not yet catalogued, and the letter was not on display. As the collection is not catalogued, this raises the possibility that the collection holds both letters dropped on St. Helier.

Nobody was able to offer me any more information about the third letter and the auction house knew no more provenance although it was thought Kugel had acquired the letter from a German collector in the 1980s along with the swastika over-printed stamps. After some strong bidding (I was not the only person to have recognised the letter’s significance), I managed to acquire the letter in the American auction in September 2024, and I’ve since displayed it at the CISS 75th Anniversary Display at the Royal Philatelic Society in January, and again during our weekend visit to Guernsey in April this year.

A very important German occupation document and first occupation airmail letter has at last seen the light of day.