Trooper Atkinson correspondence
The Atkinson Correspondence
Lance Corporal W.A. Atkinson served with the G Troop of the Bechuana Border Police during 1891-3. He was first stationed at Macloutsie, but was later during his tenure relocated to Fort Gaberones. Several covers to him from the Cape Colony exist. They were all mailed from East London addressed in the same handwriting. An example is shown here. They are all franked with 2d and cancelled with hooted or regular Port Elizabeth dated cancellers. The cover addressed to Macloutsie received transit marks at Fourteen Streams, Vryburg, and Mafeking and a receiving mark at Macloutsie thus providing excellent information on mail route and schedules. Many of the covers were taxed at 2d or 4d and may record a 1892 rate change in the Cape for early Bechuanaland Protectorate mail.
At present we know about eight covers, but assume that more may exist. Attempts to obtain information on the corporal or the letter writer in Port Elizabeth have so far been unsuccessful. Atkinson apparently was and still is a common name in Port Elizabeth. Fortunately, a cover has recently surfaced with a return name on the reverse.
It appear to read: J. Doherty, xxx Department. East-London. S. Africa. Can anybody read the department name _ Loes??
I write this to solicit your assistance and help. We are interested in obtaining information about similar covers in your collection and would also like to hear if you have any insight into the identity of the corporal and the letter writer.
Thanks for reading this and hope to hear from you.
Thank you so much for posting this one - Brilliant cover! it get lonely here on ones own!
Sorry - look like I repeatedly write Port Elizabeth. As all can see - it is East London.
Sorry but I cannot help much.
I think that your "Loes?? " is actually 'Svcs', short for 'Services'. If you look at the 'S' in what I assume is 'Southern' at the bottom of the cover (front), it looks much like your 'L' in 'Loes'. The second letter, your 'o' in Loes, looks nothing like the other rounder 'o's in the address and could be a 'v'. Your third letter, the 'e', could be a 'c' and we agree the last is an 's'. The reference to a 'Svcs Department' is possible as many large companies and institutions, etc, have just such today. But which company or institution would be big enough to have such in East London in 1891-1893 I do not know. The City Council? At that time East London was booming but still not very big. The largest and most successful company in East London was Malcomess & Co who sold imported farming equipment and machinery into the interior. He had warehouses on either side of the Buffalo River. The Bechuana Border Police would also have had a need for his products - barbed wire, water pumps, tools, etc.
I was intrigued by your "hooted or regular Port Elizabeth dated cancellers". I now realise that you meant 'hooded'. As an aside, some years ago I met a new English collector who had developed his own naming conventions for datestamps. He described the hooded canceller as a 'coat-hangar'. I rather like that desciption.