Information on soldiers in WW1

Curiousgal · 14-08-2011 9:41am

johnny_doyle wrote: »

The following group might be worth contacting :

http://www.forcespostalhistorysociety.org.uk/

Thanks, Johnnie. I sent an email and got this really informative reply, which might be of interest to some - though it suggests I won't find out where they were... (back to the drawingboard!):

The tracking of units in wartime is a difficult affair as being part of a field army they could and did move locations as the campaign and battles developed and some may indeed move quickly and frequently. I regret to say that identification of Field Post Office datestamps and / or censor marks will not necessarily make it easier. Whilst we might be able to allocate a Field Post Office datestamp to a particular FPO we do not always know all the locations of that FPO at any particular time, especially during times of battle when the front line changed frequently. We might be able to allocated a censor number to a particular unit, but that will not provide a location. A precise location is generally not always possible, a general location if a FPO datestamp can be identified is possible. If the unit kept a war diary and that war diary is available in the National Archives at Kew it might be possible to determine actual locations - it all depends on what was actually written in each individual war diary. Red Cross Ambulance Trains were not military units and so I don't think they had war diaries.

There were hundreds of different postmarks used by the British Army during WW1, used in different theatres and for different reasons. Certain groups of postmarks in France were switched around between field formations every six months for security reasons.

You mention a censor number (4110) but do not describe the design - there were eight designs used by the British Army during WW1. Units would have changed their censor stamp as the design changed at certain times. I have attached a scan from "The Field Censor Systems of the Armies of the British Empire 1914-1918 Unit allocations" (Part 1) by the late Frank Daniel. Daniel's book shows the different designs that part 1 covered - types (CM) 1, 2, 3,4 and 7. It was produced in 1984 and is no longer available. Sadly Frank died before he could produce any further parts. From this scan can you identify which censor type your postcard is please. The listings are all hand written and it does not in any way allocate all of the numbers available (there have been no official lists which have survived). The listing by Daniel merely reflected what he had recorded, seen or surmised / deduced and there are plenty of gaps. It is merely a listing, it does not go into any detail of particular units and is really for the specialist collector who is interested in censor marks per se. I have to say that for a general enquiry such as yours it will offer no information (other than possibly to confirm the allocation of the censor number to the unit concerned). Daniel's book is merely a listing of censor numbers to units (where identified).

Great knowledge!

johnny_doyle · 15-08-2011 1:10pm

there are samples of the types of stamps used by the field censors in this old

http://bnatopics.org/hhlibrary/newsletters/mm/mm-1986-01-n066.pdf

Information on soldiers in WW1

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