Postmark Calendar

Postmark/Cover of the Day
27 March 2017
Centenary of the First World War Road of Remembrance Folkestone
Geoff (GBCC) www.gbcovercollector.co.uk

27 March 1861

On the rear of this 1861 cover addressed to His Excellency Sir Richard MacDonnell at Government House, Adelaide, South Australia, we see postmarks for Sydney and Waverly (an Eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales) for March 27, 1861. A solo 1860 6d "Diadem" violet, is tied to the cover with a 208 (Waverley) numeral postal cancel. An Adelaide GPO arrival postmark for April 4, 1861, shows a 9 day transit. The addressee(?) has inscribed the front of the cover, "Bishop of ("Adelaide" crossed out) Sydney", corresponding with the embossed Bishops mitre on the rear flap.


The addressee was the Irish lawyer, judge & colonial governor, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell (1814-1881), the 6th Governor of South Australia from June 8, 1855, to March 4, 1862. After leaving Australia, he held the offices of 31st Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (1864-1865) and 6th Governor of Hong Kong (1866-1872). The Anglican Bishop of Sydney in 1861 was Frederic Barker (1808-1882), who served as Bishop from 1854 until his death in 1882. There was no Catholic Bishop of Sydney in 1861 (John Bede Poldin had served as the only Catholic Bishop April 5-22, 1842, before becoming Archbishop until his death in 1877).

It was in Waverley that Bishop Frederic's wife, Jane Barker, established a school for the daughters of the clergy. The sandstone building which remains the focus of St. Catherine's School, was completed in 1859. Bishop Frederic's wife in this period (he married again after her death), was Jane Sophia (née Harden) Barker (1807-1876), whom he had married in 1840. They had no children. Bishop Frederic died in 1882 in San Remo, Italy, while convalescing from a paralytic stroke.

Pictured L to R: Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Bishop Frederic Barker, Jane Sophia (née Harden) Barker

28 March 1894

This Canada Post Card, dated March 26, 1894, is addressed to entomologist and malacologist Charles Willison Johnson (1863-1932), who was Curator of the Wagner Free Institute of Science (1888–1903) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before later becoming Principal Curator at the Boston Society of Natural History (1903-1932). The card was processed at Hamilton Post Office, Canada, on March 27, and received in Philadelphia at Columbia Station on March 28.

The sender, E.D. Marshall of Hamilton, Ontario, requests a sample copy of The Nautilus, an important American malacological publication, which Johnson was associated as a business manager and editor. The Nautilus was regularly advertised in The Oölogist, inviting readers to “Send for sample copy”. In a postscript, Marshall writes that he saw Johnson’s advertisement in the “Oölogist”. This was in deference to the requests in each issue of The Oölogist to its readers, “When answering advertisements always mention the 'OOLOGIST'”.

Celebrating the 17th Universal Postal Union centenary this Swiss cover was issued in 1974 almost 50 years old now.

The phosphor trial started in 1960 in Southampton only, but by 1963 it had spread as far afield as Scotland. But it was still patchy, and I don't know if Birmingham was included or not. The way to tell is to hold the cover up to the light or use a UV lamp if you have one.

29 March 1965

This cover, addressed to Dr. John J Guyer MD, McCormick Hospital, Thailand, from Sydney, Australia, carries a "Smart People Wear Seat Belts" slogan cancel date March 29, 1965. The solo 1964 1/6d Galah pays the correct ½ oz. airmail rate from Australia to Thailand, and is a scarce example for the rate, franking and destination.

The addressee was Dr. John Jacob Guyer (1925-2018) of Portland, Oregon. Dr. Guyer graduated with an MD in 1948 from the University of Oregon, and after working at several hospitals in the US, travelled to Thailand in 1952. As a specialist in internal medicine, and a foreign missionary in the Presbyterian Church, he become staff physician at McCormick Hospital, Chiang Mai, in 1953.

30 March 1935

This cover, dated with Windhoek airmail datestamps for March 30, 1935, is addressed to Desmond Grattan, Johannesburg, South Africa, from the South-West Pharmacy in Windhoek; three SWA ½d Kori Bustard definitive stamps with OFFICIAL / OFFISIEEL overprint, pay the 1½d airmail rate.

Postmark/Cover of the Day
31 March 1971
The Completion of the Ramisi Bridge by 9 Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers Kenya BFPS_1583
Geoff (GBCC) www.gbcovercollector.co.uk

31 March 2017

This advertising postcard (address and other details removed to protect the innocent 😇) is postmarked March 31, Heisei 29 (2017). The stamp is from the Hospitality Flowers Series which was issued on July 15, 2016. This 52 Yen stamp depicts an arrangement of three plants, the マツ (Matsu, Pinus), センリョウ (Senryou, Sarcandra glabra), and ハボタン (Habotan, Brassica oleracea var. acephala).

Postmark/Cover of the Day
1 April 2021
The Maiden Flight of Airship R 36 Inchinnan Renfrew
Geoff (GBCC) www.gbcovercollector.co.uk

No April 1 cancellations. I'm here to say that I made a mistake in my March 28 post.

I did some arithmetic to arrive at March 28, 2010: yy-m-dd, which I took as a very plausible contraction of the ISO standard (yyyy-mm-dd). But there was one fact I didn't know, and peter tipped me off to it: the Thai calendar is an almost-unique hybrid of the Western and Buddhist calendars. Back in 1889, King Chulalongkorn decreed that the calendar should start with the year Rattanakosin (which is now Bangkok) became the capital of Siam (which is of course now Thailand). So 1889 - which was 2432 in the Buddhist calendar, whose Year 0 started with the death of the Buddha - became Year 0. And the King's new year began on January 1.

King Chulalongkorn's calendar didn't last long. The Thai calendar was reverted back to the Buddhist year, but the innovation of moving New Year's Day to the Gregorian one remained in place. So the date in that postmark - 10-3-28 - isn't 2010-03-28 (the ISO standard), it's 10-03-2528, or 10 March 2528. This has the happy effect of making the cancellation on my piece 1985 in Western years and not having to worry about why those stamps had been sitting around in a desk drawer for more than three decades.

After reading Peter's note, I did some research. (Actually, I thought for a while about what an unusual combination a Gregorian day, a Gregorian month, and a Buddhist year gone solar was, and then I went to sleep.) And I found a couple of fascinating articles. One of them tells what year it is in Thailand and why, and the other one gets into how it works in practice; for instance, the Thais celebrate both new years; the Buddhist new year (songkran) is in April.

I also learned that the year of the Buddha's death was designated Year 0 in Thailand but Year 1 in neighboring Myanmar. So in Myanmar, it's not 2566, but 2567. I don't know about everybody, but to me, this is all fascinating. 

2 April 1954

April 2, 1954, cover to the Chrysler Corporation from Lars Halvorsen Sons Pty Ltd, is postmarked in Ryde, the Sydney suburb in which their boatyard was located. Halvorsen Boats used Chrysler marine engines in its cruisers.

The Halvorsen boating dynasty began in 1887, with Halvor Andersen in Norway launching his first boat. His son, Lars Halvorsen, continued the boat-building tradition but eventually moved to South Africa after losing money in the post-WWI recession. He later settled in Sydney, Australia, where he started a successful boat-building and repair business in 1924.

In 1927, the company moved to Neutral Bay, and Lars Halvorsen Sons Pty Ltd was formed in 1937 after Lars' death in 1936. His eldest son, Harold Halvorsen, became the chairman and managing director at the age of 27. In 1938, the company purchased a new site in Ryde on the Parramatta River and relocated its boat-building operations there, constructing cruisers using the 6 cylinder Chrysler Ace petrol and 8 cylinder Chrysler Majestic petrol engines

3 April 1901

Today's (very delicate) cover, dated April 3, 1901, is a long-format registered cover from the stamp dealer, Harry Kennedy of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to Mr. A. A. Bartlett, of the philatelic firm Bartlett & King, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The total franking of 1/9, pays 8 x 2½d U.P.U. postage rate + 3d registration fee. All stamps are from the first (January 1901) printing of the Victoria 1901-12 issue. The 1/- & 6d values are scarce on cover and in period, as the designs were relatively short lived.

Multiple transit postmarks on the rear of the cover map the journey this cover took; from Melbourne (3 Apr 1901) to Windsor, Ontario (6 May 1901) > Montreal, Quebec (date illegible) > Moncton & Campbellton M.C. (9 May) > P.E.Island M.C. Boat > Charlottetown, P.E.I. (9 May). The Moncton & Campbellton line was part of the Intercolonial Railway. Branch lines could take mail to Pointe-du-Chêne, N.B., or Pictou, N.S., from which steamers operated daily to PEI. Seasons often dictated what steamers could operate.

Not much is known about Harry Kennedy. Initially at 7 Elizabeth St., by c.1899 he was operating from No. 162 (the address used on this cover). It is interesting to note that this was the same address as the noted Australian stamp dealer, William Ackland. The addressee, Arthur Alison Bartlett (1852-1920), was also a stamp dealer; famous for having the largest collection of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island remainders. He is also known for his unique business letter-head which was printed in Hamburg, Germany, and considered to be so good that the Ottawa Postal authorities were worried they could be cut out and used as postage to defraud the post office. Bartlett was banned from using the letterhead, but after a legal fight was allowed to finish his stock.