Great Britain: Postmarks

Chatham, Kent. (My Mother's birthplace)

I think it is Geo Acworth Esquire Stan

Shropshire and Canolbarth 3 November,2006

GB KGV 1913 1d definitive good used Lauder Berwickshire postmark. Graham

To start British summer off with something nice, a few Queen Victoria surface printed with numeral 466 (or part of) postmarks from Liverpool. Graham

GB KEVII 1d reds with a couple of nice Scottish postmarks from postcards. You often get some lovely postmarks on postcards. Graham

Official postmark used to cancel mail from the 1st Great Britain Philatelic Congress held in Manchester in 1909.

This one brings back bad memories. Health issues 2 days before the flight to Europhilex in London, May 2015 meant I had to cancel. Luckily, a Stamp buddy attended and purchased some goodies for me.

Nice May 14th Europhilex Cancel on RM Postcard.

This card with TWO postmarks is very special to me. I often wonder how many others exist, either similar to this one or maybe a letter from this day ? I have never seen another but there are many out there, has to be.

Let me explain.

Just a year since I re-discovered this great hobby at 'London 1990' I found myself, together with 4 friends, queuing up about ¾ mile from the entrance of Wimbledon, the home of tennis in Britain. We'd arrived at 2pm on that Saturday June 29th thinking we would be near the front of the line. Huh !! No chance. It was wet, it had been raining all week but there we set up camp for the 10am opening on  June 30th..........the first time in history that the Wimbledon Tennis Championships had been played on a Sunday !!    (Most days during the first week had been washed out)
There was an atmosphere like no other. Afternoon went to evening, evening to night. There was music, dancing, eating....one huge and very organized, well looked-after campsite. One of those times in ones life, (we all get them) that will forever live in the our minds and hearts. We still talk about it today !
But I digress. This is a Postmark thread after all ! 

Once in, rare programme in hand and seat on the centre court we were well made up. During one of the breaks I popped out to send this postcard to myself. In those early collecting days I wanted everything no matter how trivial. I was hoarding you might say.
There is at almost every major sporting event a Royal Mail temporary Post Office. Usually the cancel is special and gets sent directly from the venue....except on a sunday. So all cards, letters posted on that day got the special Wimbledon cancel and at the end of the day were forwarded en masse to the the local sorting office. There they got another postmark (July 1st-Monday, working day). I am sure the system is different today where Sunday play is not uncommon and postal delivereies very different. But back 30 years ago it was .....well, special. At least to me.

As you can see I wrote some details on the card. Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg........what a day it was. Made perfect by seeing every mans dream Lady tennis player.....Gabriella Sabatini. 

All that for a couple of postmarks.......sorry folks. But good memories are worth sharing aren't they ? 







Oddity (nothing to do with postmarks, sorry). At the end of the day, I purchased from my friends their programmes that were sold at £1 each. I gave them each a pound. During the following days I put these up for sale in a London Classified ads Newspaper and made over £120 !!!!! I kept two and still have them to this day to remind me of something special.

Londonbus1.......but don't tell my friends !!

Postmark used for the Penny Postage Jubilee Exhibition held on July 2nd 1890 at the South Kensington Museum, London (Now the Victoria & Albert Museum).
The envelope with Insert was available at all British Post Offices but the cancellation only from the Exhibition.

Useless piece of info: In 1857 a  Cafe was opened , the first Museum in the world to offer refreshments ! (yum)

GB QV preprint stationery 1/2d 1896 used Homerton S. O. postmark. Embossed The British Xylonite Company. I had no ideawhat xylonite was so checked it out and found the following; The British Xylonite Company pioneered in early plastics production. As the market expanded in the 1870s its factory and workers’ village at Brantham was built. It produced cellulose nitrate, which was combined with the plasticizer camphor to produce Xylonite. The cellulose nitrate and plasticizer combination, also known as celluloid, was the first of a long line of what we refer to today as “plastics.” I used to play football for Brantham and the factory has in the last decade been demolished, which is sad. I had no idea that "plastics" were invented that long ago. The office must have been London based, whilst the factory based in Brantham, Suffolk, Graham

thegubman

Slogan Postmarks for the 1924 Empire Exhibition were in use from October 22nd, 1922. So yes, your early example is for advertising the upcoming event.

Londonbus1