Chapter 7 No.7

The following are examples of the marks now being used (Figs. 42, 43):

42 ? ? 43

42A. ? ? 43A.

It may be well to give a brief outline of the methods of the Army Postal Service, that its work may be better known and understood. In addressing letters to the troops it is important to give the full military particulars of the addressee, viz:-Regimental number, rank, name, squadron, battery or company, battalion, regiment (or other unit), staff appointment or department, and title of the Expeditionary Force. With these details set out clearly on the envelope, the work of the Army Postal Service is facilitated and the letter stands every chance of going through without delay.

In France, as the postmarks already illustrated denote, the British Army Postal Service has several grades of post offices. The chief is the Base Post Office, the principal sorting establishment for all mail matter passing between our British Post Office and the Army Postal Service. The Base Office is quite a large concern and has a vast amount of clerical work to perform. In it letters are sorted, letters taking precedence over all other mail matter, after which the newspapers, and lastly the parcels are dealt with. Accounts of all the branch post offices are filed and the general routines and formulae of the Post Office at home are adhered to in detail. Letters, etc., for services, departments and units at the base are put into callers' boxes for delivery to the post orderlies. Those for more distant services and units are forwarded to the various grades of branch offices.

At the Base Office one of the most complicated and difficult tasks is the re-direction of letters. Here are kept hospital lists, giving names of men away from their units in hospital, and these hospital rolls are revised weekly. Here also records have to be kept of the movements of the units, and these records are constantly in process of revision, and frequent communication is maintained with every branch office in the field.

From the Base Office mails for field units are forwarded to the Advanced Base Post Office, which in its turn distributes them to the Field Post Offices serving the units to which the letters are addressed. There are several kinds of field post offices; those "with train" are attached to the headquarters of each train, and handle the letters of the units served by the train. Branch field post offices are attached to the general headquarters, and to the headquarters of armies, divisions, and brigades. Then there are stationary field post offices at various points on the line of communication, and in some cases travelling post offices on railway lines.

It devolves upon the Director of Army Postal Services, who is represented at general headquarters, and at the headquarters of each Army by an Assistant Director, to organise the service, and to supply to the various offices the information necessary to ensure the proper circulation of the mails. This, especially in a campaign like the present, is a delicate task, often complicated by the restrictions necessary in military policy to preserve secrecy as to the movements of the troops.

* * *

Naval Postmarks. Of the naval postal arrangements, reference has already been made to the cancellations used on letters originating with the British Fleet in the Baltic during the Crimean War (Fig. 20). Special navy post offices were in the early days established by local postmasters at various ports as a link between the land service and the Fleet in home waters. The letters were marked with Fig. 44, and the local postmaster collected an extra penny charge upon such letters for delivery to ships lying in the harbour or roadstead.