Volume 44 No.1 Archives - Channel Islands Specialists’ Society

A Correction to LL Postcard Numbering

thirty years with Stanley Gibbons and redundancy and, together with my wife, I set about building my own business towards the end of 1993.

In the course of my career, I had always believed it to be of prime importance to be able to refer to well-researched books, both in the course of seeking to purchase either single items or collections or later when preparing for sale items earlier purchased. Thus it was that, over the years that I traded, I sought to build a comprehensive library of those books that I either knew from my earlier career would be of prime importance and value to me as works of reference or which later, in the course of trading, I came across and recognised as being worthy of acquisition with an eye to the future.

One of the major tasks for any aspiring author of a work of reference, and here I am specifically thinking of a philatelist or postal historian, is that of being able to verify facts earlier acquired during the course of studying their chosen area of specialisation. Aside such works of reference as they may have accumulated during their years of study there are places which they may well decide to visit in the course of further research including, for example, The British Library, The Postal Museum, The Public Records Office, etc. In addition, the author will almost certainly seek to enlist the assistance and input of fellow specialists in their chosen subject and acknowledgement will in due course be given when the book is published.

Just occasionally, although thankfully rarely, I have come across instances where too much reliance has been placed upon that information already in print, most often because the facts earlier presented are, or appear to be, either beyond reproach or else are visibly present and believable. At other times a close inspection of an item in the author’s collection may not seemingly contradict previously published facts.

This last possible explanation for the occurrence of an error came to mind recently when I was in the process of integrating a small group of earlier purchased items into my collection of LL postcards of the Channel Islands. Here I should confess that I am not as conversant with the LL numbers of the cards of Jersey as with those of Guernsey having only in recent years decided upon adding the cards of the former island to my collection. I would also mention, and collectors of these cards will be aware, that in the case of black and white cards in particular, it is occasionally very difficult if not impossible to read all of the inscription printed in black on the front of the card when such overlaps the image depicted thereon (Figure 1 above).

Thus, when I came to add the Jersey LL card depicting “Highlands. – Collège de Jésuites (Aile gauche). / Jewish college (left wing).” (Figure 1 above) –incorrectly translated as a Jewish college when it was in fact run by the Jesuits –I needed to confirm the number. Upon close inspection and with the aid of a strong magnifying glass – my eyesight occasionally needing such assistance these days – I thought the number to be 37. As, from recollection, I had thought that it might be numbered in the 80s I referred to my copy of Bob Mallet’s excellent and fully illustrated work on the LL postcards of Jersey (Reference 2) which identified the card as being no. 87. However, a close examination of the of the card illustrated therein determined it to be in fact numbered 37. I then decided to check both Stanley Newman’s listing of the LL postcards of the Channel Islands (Reference 1), the listing that got me started on collecting these most attractive of postcards, and finally the most recent and comprehensive of all published books dealing with the subject of LL postcards, that by John Wood listing all UK LL postcards (Reference 3). Both of these publications do in fact identify the card as being numbered 87. This would appear to suggest the perpetuation of an error over the years, all too easily acceptable when the subject of the error does not itself facilitate easy and accurate identification (Figure 2).

I shall in the coming months have to carefully check the numbering of all of the cards in my collection although I have little doubt that I shall find another instance of accidental misnumbering.

References:

1. LL Postcards of the Channel Islands, Stanley Newman, Fifth edition, 2006.

2. A Catalogue of Jersey Postcards, Published by Levy Sons & Co., Paris” Bob Mallet, 2014.

3. LL1 – All the LL Postcards of the UK” by John Wood, 2017.

The Normandy Minesweeping Squadron

The scan of this interesting card was sent by Henri Chartier of St Malo, particularly for the clear strike ESCADRILLE DE DRAGAGE DE NORMANDIE .

The card, showing the St Peter Port Church, was posted on 21 January 1918 to an address in Rouen by a M(arécha)^al fourrier (Sergeant Quartermaster), torpilleur 340 (torpedo-boat 340), ????? des patrouilles de Normandie à Cherbourg (Manche). The initials FM abbreviation for Franchise militaire, indicate free postage, normal for servicemen.

There is an additional cachet on the address side reading MARINE NATIONALE/ SERVICE A LA MER with a large anchor in the centre. I was surprised to read that minesweepers were used during World War 1, but about 100 minesweeping trawlers were used until the end of the war, when mine technology grew beyond the ability of minesweepers to trace and destroy mines.

I can find no mention of French minesweeping units during World War 1 on the internet. Any additional information would be useful, especially to Henri, who adds that in 60 years of collecting he has never seen this cachet before.

Plasmarine Advertising Cards

This card caught my eye as it seemed to be similar to the long-running series of PUBLIBEL advertising postal stationery cards issued between 1933 and c1985, carrying paid-for advertising for numerous different products, services, and businesses.

This card is larger than a standard size postcard at 18cms x 10.5cms. It has an advertisement for PLASMARINE tonic, and a printed message in simulated handwriting starting “Docteur” and recommending prescribing this “remedy.” The card is addressed to a doctor in Beziers, in the Herault département, with Montpellier as its main town.

The front has an illustration of Mount-Orgueil Castle taken by the British Travel and Holidays Association.

The card is franked with a 1951 George VI ½d and 1d, cancelled by a J51c seven wavy line machine.

I was able to find a further 266 other PLASMARINE advertising cards on the auction website www.delcampe.net. All the cards appear to be addressed to doctors or pharmacies in France. The countries of posting range from the Falkland Islands, the Caribbean Islands, and a number of French or British colonies., but very few examples were posted in European countries.

The Plasmarine company still seems to be manufacturing natural remedies for stress and fatigue and is based in Corbigny, in Burgundy.

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. Again, the designer was Charles Coker, who submitted the 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 less 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 38 mm x 22 mm 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 three and a half times the size of the final stamp. The overall size of the paper is 248 mm x 176 mm whereas the drawing itself measures 133 mm x 77 mm.

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), which unfortunately was drawn on porous paper. The paper size is 245 mm x 184 mm while the design measures 133 mm x 78 mm. 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 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 do not 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, 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.

A Card to Enjoy

Steve Wells has sent in scans of a postcard he has in his collection, which he refers to as “very unassuming”. It has a very nice strike of the Jersey double circle datestamp.
However, the other side shows a lovely pen and ink drawing ‘filled in’ with various stamp cut outs depicting a rather elegant lady. He adds that it is “of no great value, but still one of my favourite covers in my collection.”
Thank you, Steve.

Henry John Goupillot

Until recently, my main collection of the Guernsey Occupation included no reference to internee mail. However, this changed when I purchased an internee letter from a Henry Le Goupillot and started researching his life. Whether islanders who stayed, were evacuated or were interned they all have their own stories. This is Henry’s.

Henry James Le Goupillot was born in Middlesborough on 25 October 1924. His original surname was Hartley. It is believed that his mother was unmarried at the time of his birth and as it was taboo for an unmarried mother to have a child, Henry was adopted. Adoptions were first made legal in England and Wales with the passing of the Adoption Act 1926. Before then, adoptions still occurred but were arranged informally or privately by organisations or directly between the birth mother and the adoptive parents.
Henry was adopted by Arthur Henry and Eva May Le Goupillot of St Peter Port. Guernsey. Arthur’s brother John was living in Middlesborough at the time of the Henry’s birth, and it is likely that he helped to arrange the adoption of Henry to childless, Arthur and Eva, who brought him up in Guernsey and where he lived happily.

During late 1942 and early 1943, more than two thousand Channel Islanders were deported from the Channel Islands and interned in camps in Germany, including those who were born in the United Kingdom (excluding islanders). Henry was one such person who was deported in October 1942 and sent to Laufen, arriving on 13 November 1942.
I have a number of cards both from and to Henry. The card below (Figure 1) and back (Figure 2 on next page) dated March 30th 1943 was sent by Henry in acknowledgement of a food parcel sent from his parents.

Henry’s comments at the bottom read “When sending cake, please dry well before sending to avoid it going off”. From my understanding, the card used is unique to Laufen compared to other internment camps because it issued its own exceptional stationary such as receipt cards for “next of kin parcels”. The parcel text is printed in both English and Polish.

As well as supplies of food and other necessities provided to prisoners of war by the Red Cross, the next-of-kin of a PoW in French, German or Italian hands, could send them a next-of-kin parcel every three months. The parcel could weigh no more than 10lb, and could be posted without charge, provided that a special Red cross label was attached.

Shortly before the war commenced, and while he was on a visit to Southampton in 1939, Henry discovered that he had been adopted by Arthur and Eva Le Goupillot, although he had no knowledge of this whilst growing up in Guernsey.

I recently saw an internee letter on eBay dated 19 April 1944, a photocopy of which I have. It is from Henry to his parents in Guernsey. I decided not to purchase due to the cost (£195); it has however been subsequently sold!!!

Part of the letter is as follows:
“There is something I think I had better tell you as its easier to say it on paper than if I told you personally. From information I gathered in September 1939, when I visited Southampton, my true name is Hartley, and I suppose I was adopted by you and that you are my stepparents. I am sorry I have had to tell you this, but it will save you the trouble of telling me, of course I shall also regard you as my parents, so don’t worry.
I remain yours affectionately, Henry”.

Henry made contact with his birth mother and whilst in Laufen, he regularly corresponded with her and the Prisoner of War airletter shown opposite (Figure 3) is one such letter from her to him dated 23 August 1943 from Huddersfield, Yorkshire. It is a standard Prisoner of War air mail letter, which was specially designed for writing to PoWs and was sold at most UK post offices at a cost of 3d, which covered the cost of the airmail postage rate of 2½d.

The letter has censor pass stamp from UK and the receiving Laufen stamp, received on 17 September 1943.

In the letter his mother confirms that she is regularly receiving his cards and letters and mentions that Dorothy (Dot) is home again with her and that she has a job driving a horse and cart on a milk round and that Dorothy had just turned 16 the previous week, who I can only assume may have been his sister.
Some of Henry’s diaries are held at the Hoover Institute at Stanford university. Stanford, California who provided me with a copy of another Prisoner of War Post, from his birth mother’s sister and it was clear that he was in regular contact with that side of his family and was looking forward to meeting up with his biological family once the war was over.

Laufen was liberated on 4 May 1945 by the American forces. Unfortunately, Henry died after the liberation and prior to being returned home to Guernsey. The incident relating to his death was recorded in the book, “Fair & Honest” by Ambrose Sherwill, the exact text is as follows:

1st June 1945
“At 1.30pm. it was reported to me by Mr. Woodruff that at about noon that day Henry Le Goupillot had been accidentally shot while sitting in a lorry near the Lazarett Barracks by David T. Fisher and that Le Goupillot had been taken to Hospital where he died within about 20 minutes of the occurrence. I interviewed David Thomas Fisher, Eric Geary and D. Mc A. Campbell, internees, briefly and reported the matter to the British Consular Mission now in Camp I requested the witnesses to prepare statements in writing and sent a message to other witnesses Arthur Winterflood, Victor Gontiel, L Jenkins and D. Munro also to prepare written statements”. Briefly, the accident appears to have occurred as follows: –
A number of Internees under the control of Internee Woodruff and including the deceased Le Goupillot, Fisher, Geary & others. were engaged in guarding the Lebanese Prison enclosure where there is a typhus hospital and where also there are a number of German women prisoners. The guards are under the nominal control of the American Military Authorities and sleep at the Lazarett Barracks. Just before 12 noon on 1st June 1945, Fisher going on guard duty borrowed a German Automatic Pistol from Eric Geary and one clip of ammunition. Geary and Fisher both believed the weapon to be unloaded.
Le Goupillot, Fisher (and others) got into the lorry sitting face to face. Fisher had the pistol on his knee and appears to have been playing with the trigger. The gun went off, the bullet striking Le Goupillot in the stomach. Le Goupillot was removed immediately to the nearby Hospital where an operation was commenced. He died, however, at about 12.10 p.m. before the operation could be completed. The guards were not provided with arms by the Americans, but their possession of arms does not appear to have been discouraged, Geary picked the automatic pistol and ammunition in question off a dump of German arms about 3 weeks ago and appears to have had it in his possession ever since”.
On 3 June 1945, the funeral of Henry took place at 11a.m. Henry is remembered in a plaque which was unveiled in 2010 to remember over 1,000 people who were deported from Guernsey and Sark during World War II and those that died in those camps.

Unusual Civilian Message Form from Jersey to Germany

I purchased this rather tatty message form from Jersey as it had a number of differences that I could not recognise.

The message form was sent from Frau Cawley in Jersey to Gerald Cawley in Germany. It is undated, but bears the British censor cachet and passed P.77. At the top right is the alpha-numeric date stamp used in Germany between March 1941 and January 1942, dated 16 June 1941 printed in black; no reply on the reverse. It has a number of changes to the previous forms. Changes in type size and weight, rows of dots for messages to be written on are two dots, 5mm apart, this does not appear on any of the forms used in David Gurney’s book, Red Cross Civilian Postal Message Scheme with the Channel Islands 1940-1945.

After a lot of help from a dealer friend in Jersey, who also stated it is a very early German Form, it eventually became clear. Frau Cawley has obviously been informed that Gerald had been captured, so was writing to the British Red Cross, hoping they could help finding his address.

The letter was sent to the U.K. with the address CC–17042/Hw, standing for Cas civil (Civilian case) 17042 (reference number), Hw (Heimwacht – German Home Forces).

The next line adds Schreiben des I.K.v.R.K. vom 2.1.41 (Internationales Komitee vom Roten Kreuz (ICRC) posted on 2/1/41).

The letter was then handled by the German Red Cross on 16 June 1941, and passed to the International Red Cross in Geneva on 1 July 1941. They would have all the information of Prisoners of War and their whereabouts.

I have not seen any Civilian Message forms sent from the Islands to Germany. It would be interesting if any members have found similar forms, or is this a one off ?

1945 Red Cross Message Forms from Guernsey to England

A close-up of a document

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I enjoyed Bryan Elliston’s article on the Red Cross message form carried on one of the German Fortress supply flights (Les Iles Normandes Vol 43 No. 2).

I can record two later Red Cross messages from Guernsey. Bryan illustrated a message written on 30 December 1944 (number – B22480). My example was written on 24 February 1945. This form is numbered B23912. This is illustrated in Figure. 1. It is addressed to Cirencester. However, it did not receive the

Geneva red circular Red Cross cachet nor a British censor mark on arrival in England. This form did arrive in England because there is a message on the reverse, dated 2 June 1945.

In his earlier article, Alan Moorcroft (Les Iles Normandes Vol. 17 No. 4) states that this form was definitely flown out of the Islands on a supply flight. In this case, the form would probably have been sent out on the twentieth supply flight (13 March 1945) or the twenty-first supply flight (19 March 1945). The question is then what happened to the form when it arrived in Germany. Did this form ever reach Geneva? How did it reach England?

My second Red Cross message form (Figure 2) is addressed to Leicester and is from the same correspondent as shown in Bryan’s Red Cross message form. This was written on 17 March 1945. Again, there is no Geneva Red Cross circular cachet and no British censor mark. The Guernsey Red Cross number is B24766. There is no reply on the reverse but the arrival date in South Wigston, Leicester, is inserted in manuscript – 11 June 1945. This could have been flown out on the last fortress supply flight which left Guernsey on 10 April 1945 (the twenty third flight). If this was the route, how did the message form get from Germany to England?

Alternatively, this form was held in Guernsey until after Liberation. Then it could have been forwarded on the Vega which departed Guernsey on its final voyage on 5 June 1945 this time sailing to London. I would be interested to know if members have any further information on possible routes of these 1945 forms.

A Guernsey Maltese Cross Handstamp …….. nearly!

The piece below appears to carry a superb example of the Guernsey Maltese Cross. Indeed, Rockoff & Jackson, the authors of the definitive Encyclopaedia of the Maltese Cross Cancellations of Great Britain and Ireland, include this particular strike as one of the examples they list of Guernsey crosses. The strike is listed as being on a piece from Guernsey to Newcastle on 7 October 1843.

The absence of an addressee on the piece and the presence of the manual endorsement “Per private steamer via Southampton” (required on mail from Guernsey to qualify for the 1d inland rate if carried via Southampton) both aided in the misidentification of this strike. Indeed, the black Guernsey double-arc datestamp (Type G20a), together with London and Newcastle receiving marks in red and black respectively, give the appearance of an item posted to Newcastle from Guernsey, via London.

However, closer examination of the receiving marks shows the letter to have been in Newcastle on 4 October 1843, in London of 5 October and in Guernsey on 7 October. This letter went from Newcastle to Guernsey, not the other way around! Further proof of this routing comes from a closer examination of the Maltese Cross itself. The Newcastle Maltese Cross is very similar to the Guernsey mark, but the inner cross and the diamond each have a break, illustrated as “A” and “B” in the diagram below – orientated to lie the same way up as the actual strike below. In addition, at “C” in the diagram, there is a bulge on the western end plate.

1806 Entire Letter from Alderney

When Post Offices were established in Guernsey and Jersey in 1794, no provision was made for Alderney, and mail for that island was carried privately until 1812. As such, mail between 1794 and 1812 from Alderney is very scarce.
I was very pleased to obtain recently an 1806 entire letter from Alderney (Figure 1 below) confirmed by the entry on the first page of the letter.

As can be seen on the front (see Figure 2 below) the entire is addressed to Ashburton in Devon and is rated at 11d.

Rate: Total 11d comprising the packet rate Guernsey to Weymouth 3d and UK inland single letter rate (80 – 120 miles) 8d.
On the reverse (Figure 3 below) is an oval ‘Ship Lre/Crown/Weymouth’ (Robinson S 2) handstamp.

I would be interested to learn if any of our members have similar entires. If so, please contact chairman@ciss.uk.