The Philatelist as Social Historian

A massive piece of research arising from a simple cover peter . Congratulations .

A few years ago I started a thread here “Postal History is more than just Stamp collecting “ with this sort of thing in mind. My various covers touched on social history in some cases, though not in such depth as yours.

Just as a follow up to peter ‘s great research . I had two uncles, both rubber plantation managers and both with the Malay Volunteer Force . QSM Alexander Anderson was killed/ died of wounds at the fall of Singapore. No body found and no known grave. It took us till 2018 to get his name added at the war grave in Kranji Singapore. The other uncle Willie Allan was interned for nearly 4 years in Changi as a civilian (though secretly a Lt. in the Dal Force guerilla unit) . Willie returned to Malaya in 1947 to find most of the Chinese former members of the Dal Force were the insurgents of the Emergency. He was fortunate to escape when his assistant manager was killed by a roadside bomb.

I just have to say "Wow!"

I am impressed both with your research as well as with your ability to present your findings so well!

I quite agree with all the kudos, peter, wonderful work and presentation!  I also agree with Terri that your post would make an excellent article for the TSF Newsletter.  I hope you will consider submitting something for a future edition.

If you are interested in doing that, please contact Steve (tomiseksj), the TSF Newsletter editor, by PM.

Once again, congratulations on such beautifully presented information.

peter yep that is them. We only looked forward nothing tracing them back a generation. My better 1/2 has a tiny tree on Ancestry so that if a future generation ever ties into it we will see if they want the letters (But I am keeping the covers) LOL

You have inspired me to at some point to look at lots of my other covers and do the same.

In this entry, we will be looking at the social history (and a little postal history) behind this 1916 censored and taxed cover addressed to Alfred Binggeli in Albligen, Switzerland; a former municipality in the canton of Bern in Switzerland (merged with Wahlern on January 1, 2011, to create the municipality of Schwarzenburg). The cover is postmarked Wowan, Queensland, Australia.



Postal History

Before we examine the social aspects of this cover, some quick postal history elements...

Postage Due

The Binggeli cover was franked with an Australian 1914 KGV 1d red, which was the valid postage rate for letters sent from Australia to Great Britain and countries in the British Commonwealth until a ½d war tax was imposed in 1918. However, it underpaid the 2½d per ounce letter rate to 'other foreign countries' by 1½d, resulting in the cover being taxed 30c in Albligen, Switzerland; represented by the Swiss 1910 10c and 20c postage due stamps depicting the Swiss coat of arms and alpine roses, with numerals in red.

Unpaid or short paid international letters and postcards were taxed at double the amount of the deficient postage. This was paid by the addressee. To calculate the postage due between countries with different currencies, the conversions were based on a standard rate established by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) using the gold centime. Australia joined the UPU on October 1, 1907. Prior to 1921, the UPU rate for letters throughout the Union was set at 25 centimes for the foreign letter rate. In Australia, this was equivalent to 2½d; i.e. 1d = 10 centimes.

• Amount due in Australian pence: 1½d
• Double deficiency: 2 x 1½d = 3d
• Conversion of deficiency to gold centimes (1d = 10c): 30c
• Conversion to Swiss centimes (on par): 30c

Wowan Postmark

The earliest and latest recorded dates for the Wowan postmark are August 12, 1915, and January 16, 1968, respectively.

This information is found in the book "Queensland Steel Datestamps - Commonwealth Period" (2nd edition, 2017), by Terry Dell and David Price; available for free download at The Toowoomba Stamp Club website (https://www.toowoombastampclub.org/pubs.htm). An excerpt from this text for Wowan is shown below.


Wowan Post Office

Wowan is a rural town and locality in the Dawson Valley in Queensland, Australia; approximately 82 km (51 mi) from the city of Rockhampton. Wowan was established in 1912, and the post office opened in June 1915. The location is shown through this image from Google Maps:



Through the Australian newspaper archives at TROVE (https://trove.nla.gov.au/), the following excerpt, regarding the post office in Wowan, is quoted from The Capricornian newspaper of May 12, 1923.


This following picture, which also appeared in the same edition of The Capricornian shows how the J. Spyve General Store appeared at that time. The initial "J" refers to the store’s registered owner, Jane Spyve, née Kearney (d.1967). Using the Queensland Birth, Death, Marriage website (https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/), we can see that her husband was Herbert Spyve (1877-1946), and they were married October 12, 1898. Herbert and Jane had four children, George Maxwell (1899-1971), Dorothy (b.1901), Vivian Arthur (1903-1930), and Gertrude (Gerty) Olive (b.1912).



In the early hours of November 24, 1926, a fire destroyed the Spyve's store, as well as the neighboring Moore's Boarding House and Hosking's Auction Hall and Offices. Jane was away when it happened. Herbert and Vivian were sleeping on the verandah but were awoken by the noise of the fire. Fortunately however for the postal service, a new post office had been built and officially opened by the Member of the Australian Parliament for Capricornia, Francis Michael Forde, a year earlier on Saturday, October 31, 1925. Francis Forde would later serve as Australia's 15th Prime Minister in a caretaker capacity after the death of John Curtin, and is the shortest-serving prime minister in Australia's history (July 6-13, 1945).


Social History

Although the sender has not identified themselves on the cover, my research points to the sender as Alfred’s brother, Christian Binggeli, who was residing at Pheasant Creek, near Wowan, at this time.

To begin, we start with FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/), which yields a passenger manifest for the Aberdeen Liner Themistocles. The manifest shows that a Mr. C. Binggeli, a 23-year old farm hand, boarded the ship at Cape Town and was contracted to land at Brisbane.

The Themistocles, which arrived in Brisbane on August 11, 1913, had the distinction of being the first vessel on the Australian trade to be armed with guns for defense against hostile vessels. The photograph below, which appeared in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday August 2, 1913, was taken on the day the ship (and Christian) arrived in Sydney on August 1st. It shows members of the ship’s specially selected gun crew manning one of the 4.7 inch guns. As the guns had a strictly defensive role, they were fitted at the stern of the ship to fire on a pursuing enemy as the Themistocles made its escape.


Using the Australian National Archives (https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/), we find a digitized copy of Christian Binggeli’s 1920 application for naturalization, which gives us more information about him, and his activities since arriving in Australia. Describing himself as 5ft 6in in height, with brown hair and eyes, he was born November 26, 1889 at Albligen, in the Canton Berne, Switzerland (same address as the cover). The record also confirms his arrival in Brisbane from Cape Town aboard the Themistocles. 

Since his arrival in Australia, Christian resided at Springsure, in the Central Highlands Region of Queensland for two years, and "was at present and have been employed by Alexander McLaughlin and Clare Foot for one year at Springsure". He had been in Wowan for four years and six months at the time of his application on March 6, 1920.


Alexander McLaughlin and Clare Foot were well known station owners in the region. Alexander McLaughlin may refer to Alexander McLaughlin Sr. (1850-1928) or his son Alexander Carson McLaughlin (1885–1941). Clare Foot was Clare Leslie Randall Foot (1891-1980) who owned the property Rainmore. A photograph of Clare Foot comes down to us through an advertisement for the piles remedy "Rexona" which appeared The Bulletin on October 13, 1927; perhaps highlighting a health problem common to all cattlemen?




On June 23, 1914, Clare Foot married Isabel Caroline Funk (The Brisbane Courier, 15 July 1914). The Foot-Funk wedding would have been a major social event in the area and it is likely that Christian would have been in Springsure at the time.



Returning to Christian Binggeli, the letter pictured below was submitted by him as part of his naturalization application. The similarity in handwriting helps support with a high degree of certainty that the cover was from him.



In 1923, a profile of Christian Binggeli was part of an 18-page illustrated feature on Wowan titled "The Dawson Valley. Wowan, A Great Cotton Centre," published in the Saturday May 12 edition of the Rockhampton newspaper, The Capricornian.

The complete article has been transcribed below.


Christian was one of eight children born to to Niklaus Binggeli (1839-1919) and Margaritha Seiler (1855-1923). Margaritha was Niklaus’ second wife. His first, Barbara Imhof, had died in 1870, just 3 months after they married. Christian’s younger brother, Alfred, to whom our cover is addressed, was born in 1894. Although the contents of the cover are long gone, we can speculate that the cover carried news from Christian to his brother about his new life as a land owner and cotton farmer in Pheasant Creek. Perhaps the correspondence even encouraged his brother’s decision to emigrate, which he did in 1924.

Alfred Binggeli, his wife Elizabeth Anna Zuicher (b.1901), and his children, emigrated to Queensland in November 1924; the year following his mother’s death. While we do not have a record of his first years in Australia, on March 21, 1931, he placed a notice in the Queensland Times announcing his intention to apply for naturalization and identifying his place of residence as East Haldon, a rural locality near Gatton, approximately 90 km southwest of Brisbane. 

Alfred had been resident in Australia for six years at this point. The minimum required by the Nationality Act 1920 to apply for naturalization was five years. The placement of a notice in a newspaper announcing the applicant’s intention to seek naturalization was a mandatory requirement in order to give citizens the opportunity to bring forward any cause why the applicant should not be naturalized. The requirement was removed in the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1955.



By February 1932, Alfred’s naturalization was approved and his certificate issued May 6, 1932. Approved naturalizations were printed in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, as shown here for Alfred Binggeli in the May 19, 1932, edition.





Now, having the right to vote in Australian elections, we find Alfred and his wife Anna included on the electoral roles from 1934. His occupation, farmer. 



Alfred and Anna’s son, Alfred Albert Binggeli (usually referred to as Albert, presumably to avoid being confused for his father), had been born in 1922 in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1954 he was engaged to Ula Francis Lane (spelling "Una Frances" also seen), and is listed in the Electoral Rolls, like his father, as a farmer in East Haldon. He passed away on March 6, 1988. A daughter, Anna Elizabeth, was engaged to Noel Daniel Laing (1916-1948) in 1947. However, he died the following year before they were married. In Laing’s funeral notice, Anna (referred to as "Betty Binggali") is listed as his fiancé. From the Electoral Rolls, we are able to trace her movements in this period from a bar attendant in Brisbane to being employed as a cook at Mount Isa Mines in the 1950s.

Alfred passed away on September 22, 1984. His wife predeceased him on July 17, 1983. The sender of our cover, Christian Binggeli, died February 23, 1940, He lived in Pheasant Creek, Wowan, until the end (Morning Bulletin, 24 Feb 1940)

Christmas is approaching, so here is a Christmas cover and its story...


In December 1935, Detective-Sergeant J. Birch of the "Criminal Investigation Department," Melbourne, received this marbled-blue cover from Dunedin, New Zealand; franked with a solo 1935 1d Kiwi stamp, tied to the cover with BUY HEALTH STAMPS FOR HEALTH CAMPS slogan cancel. Inside, was a matching marbled-blue paper Christmas card featuring a picture of Mt. Egmont on the front. Also known as Mt. Taranaki, the mountain is a dormant stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island with an elevation of 2,518 m. Written inside the card is a short message which reads "with best wishes for Christmas 1935. from Jim Gibson."


The addressee was James Richard Birch, who was born on August 21, 1882, in Carlton, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. James was the eldest son of Richard Birch and Emily Jones. Using the FamilySearch website, we find that Richard and Emily were married in Collingwood, Victoria, on July 6, 1874, at St. Phillips. Looking further into their ancestry, we find that Richard was born in January 1847 in Gravesend, Kent, to Richard and Jane (White) Birch. Emily was born in 1852 in Codicote, Hertfordshire, England, to James and Ann (Etchells) Jones.

From the Australian newspaper archives on TROVE, we learn the dates that James' parents passed away, and the names of his siblings. Richard passed away June 11, 1910. His death notice, published in The Argus on June 11, 1910, reads:


Emily passed away a few years later on August 27, 1912. Her death notice in The Argus of August 29, 1912, reads:


From the Australian electoral rolls, we know that following the death of their parents, James and his siblings, Jane Rebecca (1875-1952) and Richard Edmund (1888-1938), continued living in the family home at 49 Moreland Road, until 1925, at which point Jane and Richard (a clerk) moved to 18 Caton Avenue, in Coburg; a suburb in Melbourne, approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) north of Melbourne's Central Business District. James and his wife, Eva Helen Fox, moved in next door at 20 Canton Ave, a few years later. Google Maps provides us with an image of these two addresses as they appear today; looking like they may have been renovated or modernised (if not rebuilt) since the 1930s. Number 20 is closest, on the corner of Caton Avenue and Crozier Street.


During the 1899-1902 South African War, Birch served with the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles. He was slightly wounded at Brereton on November 28, 1901, and was mentioned in dispatches. The news report pictured below on the left was published in The Age on December 4, 1901, identifying James Birch as a former gunner in the Victorian Field Artillery Brigade, who had been a driver resident on Princes Street, Carlton. The Australian electoral roll for 1903 show that his parents, and paternal grandmother, lived at 151 Princes Street, Carlton. His father's occupation was also listed as "driver" and his mother as a "saleswoman". Pictured on the right is an excerpt from the final dispatch of Lord Kitchener, published in the London Gazette, in which James Birch was the only private from the Victorian Contingent to be singled out for special mention.  



After returning to Australia, James Birch joined the Victorian Police Force as a constable on May 12, 1903. He was assigned to the Russell Street Station, as shown in the following excerpt from the Victorian Police Gazette. He was very shortly thereafter transferred to the Carlton Station, and was to remain there for 17 years as a plain-clothes constable, before transferred back to Russell Street.




During the 1930s, police forces around Australia established 'special branches' to police 'subversives'. Victoria's "Political Squad" as they were known, was considered one of the toughest and most ruthless. Established in 1930-1, it was headed by Birch. According to the Bernard Smith's book on the Australian social realist artist, Noel Counihan, "Noel Counihan: Artist and Revolutionary", Birch was "an enormous, bullet-headed man possessed of a choleric temper" and his Political Squad "behaved like thugs". In a May 4, 1932, newspaper article published in The Sun, Birch explained that for the past 18 months his squad had been watching the activities of the Communists and the Workers' Defence Corps; "Every suburb of Melbourne has a Workers' Defence Corps, organised by Communists" he is quoted as saying.


Birch was due to retire in 1942, but under National Security Regulations his service was extended until the end of WWII. As head of "Special Branch", as it became known, Birch was responsible for rounding up enemy aliens during the first days of the war. In a report that appeared in The Age, on 9 Dec 1941, Birch arranged for 20 Japanese nationals to be rounded up and interned, followed shortly after by nationals of Finland, Hungary and Romania. Similar actions occurred in other states.

Finally, in 1946, after 43 years of service he finally retired. In 1947, he was awarded the King's Police and Fire Services Medal for Distinguished Conduct. Reporting on the award, The Age of June 12, 1947, wrote of his service:



In 1934, the Duke of Gloucester visited Australia to participate in the centenary celebrations of Victoria; during which he unveiled and dedicated Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. On departing Australia to continue his tour in New Zealand, Birch travelled with him as an official escort. In New Zealand, Chief Detective James Gibson of Dunedin was one of six detectives attached to the 1934-35 tour, and this is the "Jim Gibson" who sent the card one year later; presumably based on the friendship forged on that visit.

Following the Royal Tour, Gibson was one of four detectives detailed for duty at the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition at Wellington. He was promoted to the rank of Detective Sergeant in 1940, and was transferred to the Invercargill office in 1945. He was promoted to Senior Detective in 1946, taking charge of the Invercargill office in January 1947.

As a token of his gratitude to all who had assisted in the success of their tour, the Duke of Gloucester individually thanked each official and bestowed a small gift. To James Birch, it was a watch. To Jim Gibson it was a "striking silver pencil, engraved with the Royal arms." The following excerpts from news articles, elaborate on these gifts.

British Naval Query

I am researching my Great, Great, Grandfather's Naval History
and having trouble understanding "Borne" in Naval terms

His service records has him 7th July 1806 as a "boy" on HMS Indian
(A flush decked Bermuda Sloop)

His previous 4 ships, HMS Tartar, HMS Vixen, HMS Halifax, HMS Tourterelle (= Turtle Dove  fr)
Show no payments
7th July 1806, the above are bracketed, and read "Borne in Indian" ?

Would that be a payment audit, or apprenticeship history or ?
Borne?

Or any advice / links where I may seek 19th century naval information?

Ah! that makes sense Peter, many thanks, 
I'll report any further advances of info (like how often they were paid etc)

Just a nonsense note from my readings on sundry Naval history (Roots web)

Quote:
The Hampshire Telegraph of 28 May 1804 reports that a Private in the Army Reserve, proved to be female, though she had served
unsuspected in the ranks for upwards of 4 months [I appreciate that this is off-topic, but one reads about these things in the history books,
but to actually see it mentioned in a newspaper of the day.......simply couldn't resist it.]

For my ancestry? No, it was all laid out in various books and we have a wealth of family papers in various county archives to draw upon.

Forgive me, for it has been four months since my last post on TSF.

However, I have been very busy putting together a website devoted to a particular philatelic collecting passion. That website is still in development, but for Virtual Stampex 2024, I have made a "display" version, and that is now live on the Virtual Stampex 2024 website in the "Display" area as Poster #1, titled "The Changing Faces of North American Ornithology after the American Civil War: A Social Philately Project."