Stamp_&_Coin_Mart_2016_01_

62 JANUARY 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk

10,000 miles for 2½ pence

T

o track down the whereabouts of a soldier serving abroad

can always be difficult in time of war, and apparently

no easier on some occasions when there is peace, even if

uneasy at times, as it was in the years around the time of

the South African War.

Military units would be sent to one place, and then sent on to either

relieve another unit, or to a new region. If you were of rank or position

then there was a likelihood of you being promoted from time to time

and moving elsewhere for a new command. Additionally, if your trade

within the army was particularly sought after, then your service could

also be transitory.

So it was with Surgeon Captain Hubert Earle, a member of the Royal

College of Surgeons. When this cover was written to him, with enclosure

now unfortunately gone, he was in Egypt, or thought to be. Briefly, we

can say that up to 1897 when he was approaching thirty years of age, he

had been a Surgeon Lieutenant with the Bengal Medical Service in India,

before his promotion as a Captain in Sudan. Now he was with the 35th

(Sikh) Bengal Infantry stationed in Egypt due to troubles in the Sudan.

The cover, which was Victorian postal stationery with an embossed

stamp, had an additional penny-ha’penny (1½d) stamp added for its

journey from the Bedford Street sorting office in west-central London

on 13 May, 1897, as shown by the three handstamps. The first journey

was via Gibraltar and Malta and on to Port Said, where a Suez dated

handstamp on the reverse shows arrival on 20 May. The cover with letter

lingered on in Egypt trying to locate Hubert, as shown by a Sawakin

handstamp of 5 June and an Alexandria handstamp of 24 June.

The first re-direction now took place, via Aden, to Headquarters in

Simla, in the north of India, where arrival was on 28 June as the Simla

handstamp confirms. A second re-direction, to the Principal Medical

Office of the Punjab Command, did not find the Surgeon Captain, as

he had gone on to be with the Lahore Division (not Batt., as written) in

Dalhousie, the letter having already passed through there on 4 July - the

handstamp confirms - to get to Simla. A second Dalhousie handstamp is

dated 20 August, and on to c/o (care of ) the P.M.O. (Principal Medical

Office) Command in Murree. Lingering not long there with arrival

handstamp of Murree on 22 August and departure handstamp the

following day, the cover was on to the place of the last known sighting

of Hubert Earle in the Indian continent, with the Peshawar Battery.

Handstamped on 24 August, 1897, it had now been nearly 3½ months

in travel. Someone remembered that he had ‘Left for England’, wrote it

on the front in red ink, and placed it again in the postal system.

The next journey was via Lahore on 8 September and arrival in

Bombay on 12 October, both placing square Dead Letter Office

handstamps to show arrival and passage. Five months had elapsed,

and no evidence can be seen where it went next, there’s no other

new forwarding address and it does look as though it remained in

Bombay. An unanswered question is whether the envelope and letter

were perhaps placed inside a new cover to return it to the UK. If so,

the usual return route would be via Aden and Suez, and the total

mileage would then be over 16,000 miles. The final years of our

addressee reveal his retirement from the army in 1912 with the rank

of Lieutenant Colonel, and then his return to the army in 1914 to

fight again for his country. In 1916 he married Miss Blanche Fox in

Chelsea, London, and then nothing. He disappears from that date in

all searchable records, but at least he doesn’t entirely, as this cover that

perhaps travelled so many miles to reach him shows.

With thanks and acknowledgements to Richard Stock FRPSL who is the

source of this 1897 cover, and for his assistance in unravelling the story.

KNOWN TOTAL MILEAGE

London to Gibraltar 1,200

Malta 991 2,191

Port Said 936 3,127

Sawakin 850 3,977

Alexandria 900 4,877

Aden 1,360 6,237

Karachi 1,464 7,701

Murree 800 8,501

Dalhousie 250 8,751

Simla 150 8,901

Dalhousie 150 9,051

Murree 250 9,301

Peshawar 150 9,451

Lahore 225 9,476

Bombay 900 10,576

Cover explained

The travels of a cover sent on a circuitous journey from London to India in 1897, being

re-directed five times and receiving many handstamps, is discussed by Dane Garrod

p62 Cover Explained.indd 62 23/11/2015 14:38