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I have received the following enquiry:
I have a few questions about British WWI censorship of military mail. The cover in the image has a signature in red (bottom-left below the “Passed by Censor” handstamp).
I have seen a similar signature but it was rubber stamped on the cover.
I have a letter written by who appears to be Rear Admiral Sir R Sentinel on notepaper headed HMS Revenge and dated 2 June 1921. See illustration.
I was unable to find him via the internet and I do not have any Navy Lists, so I tried AI. This is what it came up with :
"The name on your letter is almost certainly Rear Admiral Sir Richard Webb. In cursive handwriting Richard Webb can easily be misread as R Sentinel". Really!
It went on to say, probably correctly "The letter was sent to Lord Tennyson (Hallam Tennyson, the 2nd Baron Tennyson and son of the famous poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson) who served as the President of The Royal Literary Fund during this exact period".
It gave extensive details about the career of Rear Admiral Webb.
If anyone can sort this I would be very grateful
This is Rear Admiral Sir Rudolf Bentinck, who was Chief of Staff to Beatty at Jutland. He was 2-I-C of the 1st Battle Squadron, Atlantic Fleet in 1921-22 and later Admiral Commanding the Reserve Fleet and the C-I-C, Plymouth. He retired in 1929.
One for our 'Indian' Experts,
Currently I record one IFPO in the CM 6 period, IFPO No 5 in July 1918.
As part of my studies I have recently obtained a large quantity of Charles Entwistle's lists,
Working my way through an item in List 137 caught my eye, Described as a 1916 PPC to UK with IFPO No 3 censor 6/ 2654. One problem if 1916, too early, July 1917 is earliest I record for CM 6
Having known Charles for a number of years, he was pretty accurate and vey knowledgeable, I feel in this case were looking at CM 5. Can anyone comment.
Currently I can find no listings or published works on Indian Unit use of CM 1 onwards on the Western Front.
This is from my collection of WWI Indian FPO's with borrowed British ArmyCensors. WF Indian units used only borrowed British Army censor h/s. I would be interested in any information that extends these dates or number ranges.
I came across this lot - Nothing like I collect but I thought it may be of interest. The bids are rapidly increasing so I assumed it is unusal
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/278283244187?_trksid=p2471758.m4704
Hi Mike
Yes, As Alan says and you concur it's CM 5061, I have a scan of this cover, forget now where from, but suspect a Ex menber/dealers stock.
The block 5000 to 5100 from what I record so far appears mainly split around te Base offfices with some 'S' Office use mixed in. I have well over a 1000 firm scans or reports of different CM 6 now, sounds a lot until we realise CM 6 rums to 7500 approx, throw in 3 sexurity swaps and post 1 February 1919 use and we're probally looking at 10,000 combinations. If all used of course, so far I'm not seeing multi hundred gaps like we see in some of the earlier series.
The more the material I see or receive firm reports of the more I can build a clearer picture.
Chris