The History of the South East District Office
and its Sub Offices.
by
J. W. A. Lowder
Section 7 Exhibitions
The
first postmarks in connection with a notable event were put on letters posted
at the Festival of Empire Imperial Exhibition at the Crystal Palace 12th May to
28th October 1911. There were six machine dies illustrated as E.1 with the die
number in the lower part of the date circle, and two hand stamps E.2 numbered 7
and 8. Correspondence was handled by the Norwood office.
E.1 E.2
The
Festival of Britain held on the South Bank site opened on the 4th May 1951 a
Friday. The first collection was made at 2.30 from the eight boxes situated in
the area, and continued at regular intervals daily until the exhibition closed
on Sunday 30th September 1951.
The
total postings were 3,459,866 letters and 10,307 registered letters. A more
detailed history of the exhibition I have written in P. H. S. Bulletin 99.
I
have illustrated the cancellations applied to correspondence as E.3, E.4 and
E.7. Two machines were in use obliterating as E.3 and the 24 handstamps as E.4.
E.5 illustrates the registration serial label S.E.97 used at the exhibition
post office. E.6 was the office internal hand stamp but I have seen it on the
reverse of letters which had been postmarked by machine and hand.
E.3 E.4
On the 12th June 1951 the E.3 date die was assembled
with the year 1952 in error and the obliterator proof book was initialed by
supervising officers unnoticed*.The whole days collection was thus dated 1952!
The error was discovered after the noon collection the following day the 13th.
A total of
16,739 items were stamped by the machine during this
period. (12890-12th. 3849-13th).
* The Proof Book was found
by myself and handed to the G.P.O. Record Room.
E.5 E.6
E.7
On
Wednesday 6th April 1960 the Seabourne Mail Exhibition was opened in the
Greenwich Maritime Museum. Mr Alan Robertson author of "The Maritime
(Postal ?) History of the British Isles" had organised special posting
facilities from the Greenwich sorting ofice and for a special handstamp as E.8.
Although the exhibition was open until December 1960 only letters posted from
the 6th April to the 13th April were specially postmarked. The daily postings
were,
Ordinary Registered
Wednesday
6 April 17,297 308
7 153 198
8 445 200
9 201 200
10 369 200
11 599 200
12 910 200
13 278 305
20252 1811
E.8
The London International
Stamp Exhibition 1960 was held at the Royal Festival Hall 9th July to 16th
July. Correspondence received the cancellation as E.9 for registered and
express letters handed to the exhibition post office. Ordinary letters were
collected to the S.E.D.O. for machine stamping as E.10. One machine was found
sufficient to cope with the work although two slogan dies were available. The
date die was F. There were five special handstamps as E.9, two were in use at
the S.E.D.O. for packets and orkwardly placed stamps, and some registered
correspondence. The remaining three were in use at the exhibition post office.
E.9 E.10
On
the 13th July one of the clerks found his obliterator flooded with ink which
resulted in bad impressions. He stripped the dies and after cleaning replaced
the date die reversed. some 25 registered and 13 express letters were forwarded
before the error was brought to notice.
E.11
During
the week the 42nd Philatelic Congress of Great Britain was held on the 14th
July. The slogan die as E.11 was in use on all ordinary correspondence posted
at the exhibition but the E.9 hand stamp continued in use for registered and
express items. The total postings were,
Ordinary Express Registered
Saturday 21,371 257 2205
4,153 272 199
10,191 241 232
8,303 241 363
7,702 387 400
21,737 617 442
7,511 339 232
10,850 563 317
91,818 2,944 4822
The
Exhibition Study Group wishes to thank Mr J. W. A. Lowder for kindly giving
permission to reproduce part 7 of his work "The History of the South East
District Office and its Sub Offices". Mr Leonard Johnson who made this
section available to me, and also obtained permission to use it, tells me that
this work has never been published. A single copy was however bound and
presented to the Post Office Archives. Mr Lowder mentions he wrote a more
detailed history of the Festival of Britain in the P.H.S Bulletin 99. I shall
endeavour to obtain a copy of this.
© Exhibition Study Group 1996