Quote from Steve on April 4, 2024, 1:45 pm

Hi Glenn,

I completely missed seeing this. Sorry but I have been building up a display and my eye was off the ball here.

I have been collecting Simonstown for years and have several items associated with HMS Doris but I do not have an example like this of its ship's stationery. It is very nice, despite its tattiness. It also has a tale to tell. The men from in the Naval Brigade that manned the heavy naval guns in support of the previously outgunned British artillery during the early conventional war stage of the SAW (1899 - 1902) were drawn from HMS Doris, Powerful and Monarch at Simonstown, South Africa. This brigade included the Royal Marines Light Infantry and Royal Marines Artillery Detachments from these ships. The Brigade itself was under the overall command of Captain Prothero RN who was seriously wounded at the Battle of Graspan in November 1899 while its commader during the battle, Major John Plumbe RMLI, was killed.  As your cover is from the start of the guerilla war phase of the SAW it is likely that the sender was back aboard ship by October 1900 or had never been chosen to accompany the Naval Brigade. It's a pity there isn't a senders name. He would almost certainly have a very interesting QV SAW Campaign medal.

I hope you find more material like this. I reckon it was 50p because of the state of the cover despite the HMS Doris reference. Had the seller known more about its history you might have been asked to pay many more times than that!

Good luck and Happy Hunting!

Quote from L1berty1775 on April 5, 2024, 9:21 pm

Hi Steve, thank you for the information about the cover. It will make a nice display sheet for my wife who collects maritime mail. Thanks Glenn