Transvaal T.S.O.
I saw this on a Kenny Napier Auction this morning. Get on his Mailing List!
This item makes the very interesting and quite plausible suggestion that 'TSO' may be an abbreviation for 'Temporary Sub-Office'.
That is not a description of 'TSO' that we have considered. I think it is a strong contender - BUT that does not mean it is correct!
Plausible, but probably not right.
As the attached page from the Transvaal PMG's Annual Report for 1906 shows, certain offices in Johannesburg are listed as Town Sub-Offices, the explanation offered some time ago by Chris Board.
The attached table is an attempt to bring together the available information. Fifteen offices are known with date-stamps which say "T.S.O" after the office name, thirteen in Johannesburg, one (Sunnyside) in Pretoria, and one in Potchefstroom. Eight other Johannesburg offices are listed as Town Sub-Offices in the 1906 report but date-stamps with "T.S.O" haven't been reported.
The earliest known TSO date-stamps date from 1903 (Bertrams and Commissioner Street East); several others date from 1904-5. All the offices with TSO date-stamps opened before 1910 according to Putzel's Encyclopedia, which suggests that the designation was not used by the Union Post Office.
I'm trying to gather information on these and other Transvaal date-stamps, and would be grateful for scans of anything that readers of this post think might be of interest.
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Because you have done the research and have convinced me, because the impeccable Chris Board first suggested it, because it is confirmed by your 'Transvaal Administration Report', I concede that it is almost certain that 'TSO' stands for 'Town Sub-Offices'.
Jamie, I hope this answers your and David Morrison's question! Thanks to all who contributed, most notably Bas.
As a result of researching Commissioner Street Post Office, Johannesburg, for an article that I am writing I found a reference to a 'Town Sub-Office' in Putzel's 'Encyclopedia of SA Post Offices', (Vol. 1, A-E,, page 351). There were three POs called Commissioner Street. Putzel says of the first Office of that name opened in 1904 - "SO opened 1904 (as Town Sub-Office Agency)" ie. a 'TSO'.
Putzel's 'The Postmarks of South Africa' lists three Commissioner Street post offices but only shows postmarks from one:
- Commissioner Street SO, Johannesburg, 1904 (the TSO) - no postmarks recorded.
- Commissioner Street, East, (1905 - 1906 - closed after just 3½ months) - no postmarks recorded.
- Commissioner Street, Johannesburg (1920) - some 30 postmarks recorded including on the Visser Addendum.
Curiously, while Putzel refers to the 1904 Commissioner Street, Johannesburg PO as a TSO he does not do the same for the 1905 - 1906 Commissioner Street East which is the one included in Bas' list of TSOs (PDF above).
Of Commissioner Street SO Johannesburg (TVL), Putzel reports "This short-lived Office of 1904 has not yet been found. (Not to be confused with the later Office of 1920)". Of Commissioner Street East (TVL), he says "This short-lived Office (3½ months) has not yet been seen". There is no new info on either of these two POs on Alex Visser's Putzel Addendum on the PFSA website . Their datestamps remain unseen. However, the 'main' Commissioner Street Johannesburg PO (opened 1920) has been updated with new finds.
Looking at Bas' supplied TSO list above, it shows no TSO datestamp has yet been recorded for Commissioner Street East. Could that be because it never was a TSO?
COMMISSIONER STREET, JOHANNESBURG, OFFICES: 1903-1920 and later
As so often for this period, we are short of information and there's a mismatch between the account given by Ency and the date-stamps that have been reported.
According to Ency, Commissioner Street is said to have opened as an SO in 1904 and was short-lived. Commissioner Street East (the street is long, and so having two offices along its length isn't immediately implausible) is said to have opened in late 1905 and closed in early 1906. And then nothing until a new Commissioner Street office opened in 1920.
There are plenty of Commissioner Street date-stamps, as Steve says, from 1920 onwards. But the only earlier date-stamp that I'm aware of is a registered cover listed and illustrated some years ago on BidorBuy:
The scans aren’t very high-res, but it’s clear that the date-stamp is inscribed COMMISSIONER ST. EAST TSO, and dated 21 MAY 03, two years before Ency says the office opened, and the date is amply confirmed by US arrival back-stamps dated in June 1903. (This date-stamp is listed as Add 1 in Alex Visser’s Addenda to Putzel’s Catalogue; and was described and listed in our catalogue of ZAR and Transvaal date-stamps (see The Transvaal Philatelist, 56 (1) p.25, 2021), which is also available on the SAPF website (under Resources – Postmarks – ZAR/Transvaal)).
Further speculation is unlikely to add much – we can only hope for further information, either from archival sources (it’s not clear what sources were available to and used by Putzel), or from date-stamps on stamps and covers. Please keep your eyes open!
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Thanks Bas for your continued input to this post and for your polite tolerance of my constant ineptitude.
Well, I am embarrassed - again. I checked Alex's Addendum but for some inexplicable reason I missed the reference to the 1903 cover, probably because in my haste I only looked for an image, not a listing. More fool me. Nevertheless, this has resulted in you posting a remarkable and presumasbly rare COMMISSIONER STREET EAST TSO. In exchange for seeing that I will take a kick in the pants.
This is a remarkable post, a gift that keeps giving. Let's hope it does not end here.