(Transcript) Jamaica in WW II

Transcript of Video

Susan Taylor: And to all of you from

Susan Taylor: well, I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to all of you

Susan Taylor: from across the world. It's great that so many of you have joined us this evening.

Susan Taylor: and in particular, I'd really like to thank Paul Farmond, who has so kindly put this presentation together.

Susan Taylor: You will find that a rather bossy secretary will be chasing a number of people over the coming months to do presentations.

Susan Taylor: We we need to get more involvement and to share our knowledge. And it's particularly important at this time, because we've entered the website

Susan Taylor: in the Eurofotech competition next year. So I'm sure at some stage judges will be looking to see what we've been doing. But more important than that, Paul has phenomenal knowledge about Jamaica and about Jamaica during World War 2. And it's going to be marvellous to hear what he has to say. So thank you very much, Paul.

Paul Farrimond: Thank you.

Paul Farrimond: Thank you, Susan.

Paul Farrimond: and good evening or afternoon or morning, to everybody, anywhere you're joining from

Paul Farrimond: As Susan's sensation, I thought long and hard about what subject.

Paul Farrimond: what parts of Jamaican philately might be of

Paul Farrimond: broader interest to those other than just Jamaica collectors, and I decided in the end to do something on World War 2 and the the postal history of that particular period.

Paul Farrimond: And so that's what we have tonight or today.

Paul Farrimond: Let me just share the screen.

Paul Farrimond: Think they want that one?

Paul Farrimond: Okay.

Paul Farrimond: can you all see that?

Paul Farrimond: Thank you. So Jamaica, during World War 2, a philatelic perspective.

Paul Farrimond: And the story begins.

Paul Farrimond: The story begins, with the outbreak of World War 2, which will come on into a minute, and what this presentation will cover is the postal censorship in Jamaica. The internments and prisoner of war camps that were there.

Paul Farrimond: A place called Gibraltar Camp, which I'll explain later.

Paul Farrimond: The postings of British and Canadian army in the island, the Royal Navy, and the Raf.

Paul Farrimond: and there were American forces in Jamaica as well. And then, to conclude, I'll look at what happened at the end of the war in Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: Okay, so the story starts at least from a British perspective. Really.

Paul Farrimond: on Sunday, the 3rd of September in 1939, and a very famous

Paul Farrimond: radio announcement by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

Paul Farrimond: which you're probably all familiar with. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, etc, etc.

Paul Farrimond: and this country is now at war with with Germany.

Paul Farrimond: and that meant as a British colony, that Jamaica was also at war with Germany as of the 3rd of September in 1939,

Paul Farrimond: and that very same day in Jamaica. All the German and Austrian nationals on the island were arrested and interned, and that numbered around 30. And I'll I'll say a little bit more about that later on, in the in the presentation.

Paul Farrimond: personal censorship would actually be good on the 1st of September, as it did in Great Britain. I believe that was also around the 1st of September

Paul Farrimond: in anticipation of the declaration of war.

Paul Farrimond: Now, I don't really need a map to show you where Jamaica is. I'm sure he won't all know that. But I wanted to emphasize its place in World War 2. And

Paul Farrimond: it may seem remote from at least the war in Europe at that time, and it certainly is. But the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico were very important areas really in the Second World War. They provided economic resources to Britain and the Allies. They provided service volunteers. As I'll go on to show you later.

Paul Farrimond: there were important shipping routes through the area because of the Panama Canal, of course, and because of that there was extensive U boat activity in the Caribbean in particular.

Paul Farrimond: and hundreds, literally hundreds of ships were sunk in in the Caribbean during World War 2.

Paul Farrimond: It was on air mail routes between the Americas, as are other parts of the West Indies, of course, and the Americans built bases in several islands, including Jamaica, which I'll come on to explain later on.

Paul Farrimond: So a long way from Europe, but really quite you know.

Paul Farrimond: Not really a backwater in in the Second World War.

Paul Farrimond: A little bit of context. You won't see too many stamps on their own. This is mostly going to be postal history tonight, but these are the stamps that were

Paul Farrimond: current during the Second World War.

Paul Farrimond: They were issued in 1938, the end of 1938 October to December, and they were printed by De la Rue and by Waterloo and the the top 5 up. Here are de la Rue. Printings and Waterlow produce the other values.

Paul Farrimond: and there were multiple printings during the war, and as with many of the other colonies that resulted in various shades being recognizable, different papers, different gums, and so on. And you can do the same sort of exercise with Jamaican stamps as you can with those of most other colonies.

Paul Farrimond: The Waterloo ones are actually don't show a lot of variation. It's mostly in gum and paper, but the duller ones show more fluctuations, more differences that are recognisable.

Paul Farrimond: I won't say a lot about those but I will flag up one stamp, which is much more recognizable, which is this 5 shilling stamp here? And this is from a printing in early 1941.

Paul Farrimond: Just after all the Perth well, the the delaware's Bun Hill Row works were destroyed in the London Blitz towards the end of 1940, and when this printing was done it was perforated, using an online perforator, which was rescued from somewhere.

Paul Farrimond: and 6,000 stamps were printed, and they were all sent out to Jamaica in August, 1941, so none were sent to dealers. None were kept by the Crown agents for distribution. They all went out, and they were mainly used.

Paul Farrimond: so used. This stamp is not particularly scarce. It's not common, but it's not particularly scarce. But mint is another matter. Mint is is quite a rare stamp, because it they all went out to the island.

Paul Farrimond: Okay, so let's move through the presentation, and I'll start with the postal censorship story.

Paul Farrimond: So, as I've mentioned already, censorship began on the 1st of September, 1939. It actually had started a few days earlier, but only for a few hours. It started as a sort of trial run.

Paul Farrimond: and there were 20 about 20 local staff based in an office above the Gpo. In Kingston.

Paul Farrimond: and they're

Paul Farrimond: remit was to censor terminal mail.

Paul Farrimond: So by terminal mail, I mean mail

Paul Farrimond: finishing in Jamaica or originating in Jamaica. So leaving Jamaica, or address to somebody in in Jamaica. And there's an example here on the right, and this is was posted on the 1st of September, the 1st day of censorship, posted in the morning, almost certainly sensed the same day.

Paul Farrimond: and resealed using these very small green, bluey-green labels.

Paul Farrimond: These are quite

Paul Farrimond: yeah, I would say, rare. Actually.

Paul Farrimond: I've recorded about 20 to 25 covers with these sensor labels on. They were used for only about a week.

Paul Farrimond: and then replaced by larger labels, which I'll show you in a minute.

Paul Farrimond: The remainder went went over to the Cayman Islands, so you may recognize these from Cayman Island. Censored covers as well.

Paul Farrimond: Incoming mail was censored pretty promptly as well. I like this cover because it was sent from Prague on the 20 second of August. So before Britain and Jamaica joined the war, it's arrived in Morat Bay on the 4th of September, and somewhere between the 2 it was censored, opened, and censored in Kingston, possibly on the 3, rd around the 3rd of September, I would imagine.

Paul Farrimond: and again the same labels were were used, so by the time it arrived in Jamaica war had been declared, and so it was opened and censored, and, in fact, the address C. Here has a quite German sounding name. This particular chap was never interned on the island, but I think he was on a blacklist, so all his mail was censored without question.

Paul Farrimond: New censorship labels started about a week later. So on the 9th of September is the is the 1st I've recorded. And and it's shown here this, this particular covers of September the 9, th 1939.

Paul Farrimond: These were larger labels and much clearer and easier to to read.

Paul Farrimond: there's no sensor number on here. This. This

Paul Farrimond: predates the use of individual handstamps to indicate individual sensors.

Paul Farrimond: These were introduced around the end of September

Paul Farrimond: for the 7 senior examiners numbered one to 7, and they use this style of hand stamp initially the 4 line sensor mark, and later on it was replaced by an octagonal Crown sensor mark

Paul Farrimond: circular marks for the if you like. Run of the mill postal examiners were introduced in April, 1940, and they have this

Paul Farrimond: style here, and they were numbered from 8 up to 37. You'll sometimes see reference to one of these. That's a number 6. It isn't. It's a 9 upside down, and that that it's just 9, and if it's struck upside down it looks like a 6. There wasn't a number 6 in this style. The older books sale say there was, and it's definitely not the case. The number 6 was was of this style.

Paul Farrimond: I am

Paul Farrimond: conducting a sort of survey of or building the database of censored covers that have been censored in Jamaica, and all types of censorship, postal censorship, all different labels and councils, and so on, hand stamps, and my chart for this particular style of of numeral censor mark.

Paul Farrimond: Is on here, and I don't want to spend long on it. Just want to raise a few points. This mark was used up until November, 1942. So nearly 3 years. All 30 examiners. I've recorded examples, for except for 2 Number 33 and Number 37, both have been recorded, though I think they're both recorded in the book by Burroughs, but with no

Paul Farrimond: further details of date. But it's interesting to see that on some of the sensors were used extensively, and throughout the war, and others kind of came went a few times that I should say the 611 covers on here. So it's it's not massively extensive, but it's fairly rigorous, and it certainly gives a flavor for which sensors and did most of the work, and which which we use less frequently.

Paul Farrimond: That's assuming the number hand stamps remained with the individual sensor, which was the normal practice. So I I expect it was the case here.

Paul Farrimond: Yeah, that's all I need to say about that, really.

Paul Farrimond: So that's the local censors who censored all the terminal mail. The incoming and outgoing mail

Paul Farrimond: in May, 1941,

Paul Farrimond: an Imperial censorship unit was set up in Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: and their remit was to censor transit mail

Paul Farrimond: between South America, the Us. And the sort of Central American

Paul Farrimond: Countries, particularly Cuba, Haiti and and the Dominican Republic.

Paul Farrimond: and there was a lot of mail that potentially was routed through Jamaica, and I'll come onto that in in a moment.

Paul Farrimond: It was set up at the end of May, with 20 staff that were brought in from established Imperial censorship units in Trinidad and Bermuda, which is set up previously.

Paul Farrimond: and they set up an office in Halfway tree just outside at that time, or at least just outside Kingston.

Paul Farrimond: And this is an example of a cover transit mail from Columbia to Michigan in the United States, and this has a Uk type sensor label, which is what was used by the Imperial sensors wherever they were. Initially, at least, it didn't have country code on it. It just looked like a regular British sensor label.

Paul Farrimond: and the way to distinguish them is to know which sensor numbers relate to Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: And there's quite extensive documentation on that. Now.

Paul Farrimond: Also, this date stamp is quite characteristic for Jamaican sensor labels.

Paul Farrimond: Date stamps were used occasionally in Bermuda and more commonly in Trinidad, but they normally had the American style of of dates, and here you can see this is a yeah UK. Date style. Only much later in Jamaica. Did they use us style date stamps, so you can normally tell.

Paul Farrimond: So this was the Imperial censorship

Paul Farrimond: censoring mail between South America and the United States.

Paul Farrimond: In a sense, this was one way of closing the back door of getting mail into the United States without being censored by by the Allies. There were actually 3 main routes by which mail could fly into the Us. From South America. We just change my point, as you can see better.

Paul Farrimond: Up here to the to the east, through Trinidad on the Foreign Air Mail, 6 route, Pham. 6, which went up through the Antilles and up into Miami.

Paul Farrimond: fan 5, which went up to Columbia, and then up through Kingston to Miami. Both of these was censored. Once the Imperial censorship unit was set up in Jamaica, and then there was another route up through Central America into Texas or across to to Miami. So via the Canal Zone.

Paul Farrimond: and this latter route avoided the Allied censors.

Paul Farrimond: That was

Paul Farrimond: bad news, really, because there was a lot of access

Paul Farrimond: sympathy in South America.

Paul Farrimond: On on one hand.

Paul Farrimond: and also

Paul Farrimond: there was a air mail route from

Paul Farrimond: Italy down to Rio de Janeiro, the Nazi line, the Italian transcontinental airline flew from Rome down to Rio.

Paul Farrimond: and their mail could be picked up by Panagra. That's Pan am and grace airways

Paul Farrimond: and collaboration flown over the Andes, up the west coast of South America, and then normally up through Canal Zone into the United States. This way, avoiding censorship. A lot of mail was deliberately rooted that way, probably to avoid Allied censorship.

Paul Farrimond: So on. Here it's partly covered by the label, but it says, via South America in German. So this was directed and paid for this longer route, which is more expensive than the normal route which would have been across the Lisbon, and then using Pan Am. Across to New York.

Paul Farrimond: The transatlantic clippers that you're probably familiar with.

Paul Farrimond: That mail was increasingly getting intercepted at Bermuda for censorship.

Paul Farrimond: But the mail on this route wasn't until the Imperial censorship unit set up in Jamaica, and from July, 1941. A couple of months after that setup. Arrangements were made with the Us. For mail to be diverted at Cali, in Colombia, up to Kingston, and opened for censorship, and this is an example of that sent on the 19th of July, and that was routed through Kingston. And this is Jamaica censor.

Paul Farrimond: the sense of that.

Paul Farrimond: Eventually the censorship services were integrated the local one and the Imperial one in late 1942, 1st of September, 1942, and from then the integrated service censored both the terminal mail such as this. So leaving Jamaica and the transit mail such as this, so in this case, Venezuela to New York City, but censored in Jamaica

Paul Farrimond: by this time, and once they they. This services joined, they were using these country codes that that you may be familiar with from your own country. So d. Is Jamaica or Id, d. And Id are both Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: and I chose these 2 examples because they're the same sensor just using different label types at different times. This was 1942. This was 1944. And I'm not going to show you all the different label types because there are quite a lot. And it's not really adding anything to the story.

Paul Farrimond: Okay? So that was censorship. You'll see a bit more censorship later on on the other mail that that I show

Paul Farrimond: if I move on to internment and and the prisoner of war camp in in Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: as I mentioned earlier.

Paul Farrimond: as soon as war broke out, or war was declared by Great Britain, I should say. On the 3rd of September all the German and Austrian men in Jamaica were arrested, and in turn. They were locked up in the detention barracks of the British Army Base, which is at Up Park Camp.

Paul Farrimond: and and it was pretty cramped. But a camp was

Paul Farrimond: established fairly quickly after that, which I'll I'll mention in on the next slide, I think.

Paul Farrimond: Rather. Unfortunately for for a visitor, Ulrich Hilde. I wrote a short article on this for the Journal. I think a couple of issues ago he was a German manager of the African Fruit company in Cameroon, and he arrived in Jamaica on the 1st of September, 1939,

Paul Farrimond: and he couldn't get away, and unfortunately, and so 2 days later he was interned, and I think he might have spent most of the war in in the camp in in Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: This is an example of mail that he sent. So this is by from him. On the 12th of January, 1940,

Paul Farrimond: all internees were given in surname numbers, and you can see just about that his is 23. He was one of these 1st you know, 30 or so that were arrested on the 1st day that war broke out.

Paul Farrimond: and this is internment camp mail. It's got the from internment camp boxed hand stamp, and one of the senior sensor handstamps that I mentioned a few minutes ago.

Paul Farrimond: Numbers grew gradually, mainly in 1940, early 1940, with the capture of lots of German merchant ships in the Caribbean, they'd all scooted into various ports to try and shelter from the effects of the war, but as soon as they made a run for it, British ships, or Allied ships, as you say, and captured mostly all of them, and a large number of internees were taken to Jamaica for interment.

Paul Farrimond: These were mostly merchant seamen. These are not military personnel.

Paul Farrimond: so, although it's called an interment and prisoner of War Camp, that I don't think any or very many internees were really true prisoners of war in the military sense. They were treated as prisoners of war, but they were more in internees

Paul Farrimond: so numbers rose to to a few 100. By this Stacy. This is interning number 1 0, 4. I'm pretty sure this guy was a merchant seaman on one of these vessels, whereas this guy here was Number 16. He was a a Jamaican resident

Paul Farrimond: who is interned at the the outbreak of war

Paul Farrimond: large internment camp date stamp on the on the back of both of these envelopes. These are printed envelopes, and these were only used for a very short time.

Paul Farrimond: They went on to using hand stamps such as this on later mail, and this is an example

Paul Farrimond: of mail since sometime later, 1941, January, 1941,

Paul Farrimond: and by this time there were many 100 internees in the camp. So the camp was enlarged considerably, and eventually housed over a thousand internees.

Paul Farrimond: The numbers swelled massively at the end of 1940, when a lot of internees from West Africa were brought across the Atlantic to to Jamaica. So nearly 600 German and Italians came over. These were mostly plantation managers, engineers, missionaries, nurses, and all sorts, men and women and children.

Paul Farrimond: The the style of hand stamp, the date stamp had now changed the the one I showed you a minute ago. The larger one is quite scarce or even rare.

Paul Farrimond: This was the one you'll most commonly see once there was a lot more mail being sent from the the camps.

Paul Farrimond: A lot of the mail was sent to the American aid for German war prisoners.

Paul Farrimond: Which you you can see here. This is an example of Jamaican prison, of War Camp Postal Stationery. These were printed especially as you can see, for the camp in Jamaica. I know nothing really about the printing. I think it must have been done locally. And we're looking at various different types myself and and Harold, who's joined us today for this presentation

Paul Farrimond: here. Harold also provided these scans for me, so thanks very much for those. This is a postcard that was part of the fundraising. The Emmy lawyer who was the

Paul Farrimond: He established the organization in the United States. It was in Buffalo, in in New York.

Paul Farrimond: and it was established to to help prisoners of war, German prisoners of war in Canada, Jamaica, and elsewhere, and later, as you'll see on the next slide. It was also extended to prisoners of war generally, and not just German prisoners of war. Emmy Lawyer was German born, but was a Us. Citizen, but eventually his organization had to had to be closed down. I'll I'll mention at the end of this talk and monograph, which which explains all this.

Paul Farrimond: So that's postal station is lots of different types. I'm not going to show. Show them all. But there's 4 or 5 different types anyway.

Paul Farrimond: The organization of the the camp. It was under military authority. There was a camp adjutant, Captain Henry Mccabe, and this is his signature with his, with a hand stamp, giving special permission for an extra letter to be sent over and above the the regulation number, which I'm not entirely certain of, but would have been one or 2 letters a month, probably, and maybe 3 or 4 postcards a month, some something like that.

Paul Farrimond: And this example is from the Italian supervisor in the camp, which is why he was allowed to send more mail.

Paul Farrimond: There was an Italian supervisor, and also a German supervisor. These were trusted in internees. So they were German and Italian and internees. And this is actually a guy called was a guy called Echola, who was the Italian supervisor?

Paul Farrimond: This, this hand stamps? Not massively rare. But it's not that common, either you you come across them.

Paul Farrimond: I should just say, actually, a lot of the this mail is saved because Emmy, lawyer was also a stamp dealer

Paul Farrimond: as well as organizing the American aid to war prisoners. And you you'll see here it is now just war prisoners, not German war prisoners, and they were helping the Italians as well.

Paul Farrimond: and a lot of this mail survived, and because the the you know it wasn't thrown away, it was sold on to collectors.

Paul Farrimond: Incoming mail is a lot more difficult to find. I've recorded maybe

Paul Farrimond: 15 or 20 something like that. I forget exactly how many, maybe 20 and they tend to be to 3 or 4 specific people. So some internies kept the mail, and it's ended on the philatelic market others would have been destroyed, or it's just not made it to the market.

Paul Farrimond: So these are just a couple of examples. But I'm showing them, because it does emphasize that a lot of attention was given by the census to this male. This is a senior censor handstamp here. Number 5. This is another one, number 4, and then there's an internment camp censored Mark as well. So this was checked, apparently by 3 3 people and by the Germans. Of course, in this case this came from Germany. This came from Rio

Paul Farrimond: in Brazil, which is quite nice.

Paul Farrimond: There was a women's camp. Women and children were housed in a large house in in downtown Kingston.

Paul Farrimond: and initially there were only

Paul Farrimond: 13 internees there, and it was fine, but when the ship came over from West Africa in December, 1940. The numbers were were huge, and this was very, very crowded, and the conditions were really quite poor. And there's a lot of correspondence to the British government about the

Paul Farrimond: the conditions, and eventually a family camp was was built, which I'll I'll mention on the next slide.

Paul Farrimond: This is an example of mail from the women's camp. They didn't use the hand stamps. That that you saw in the on the mail. I've just shown you.

Paul Farrimond: So everything was either typed or more commonly handwritten on these envelopes from the from the company would, they would normally say, women's internal camp like this.

Paul Farrimond: still censored by the senior census and air mail had to be paid for. Surface mail was free for prisoners, prisoner of war. There

Paul Farrimond: the family camp was built in art of Gibraltar camp, which I'll come onto in a moment, and that allowed the population, which was now, you know, 170 or so to have much more space, but it took a long time. It was nearly 3 years

Paul Farrimond: before that that camp was was made available. That part of that camp was made available. And here's an example of male from a female interny.

Paul Farrimond: Now, given an internee number, there weren't that many internees, but the numbering must have started for the women and children.

Paul Farrimond: That's about 2,500 or or something like that.

Paul Farrimond: There isn't a great record of of all of this.

Paul Farrimond: and that's another example of the stationery that was used. This is a letter sheet that folds out, and so all the letters on the inside, and you you folded, fold it up, and then it was censored and and sent on its way. This was actually

Paul Farrimond: from October, 1946, you'll notice. So the internees were there. Well, after the war ended, and I'll mention that at the end of the presentation.

Paul Farrimond: So let's move on to Gibraltar Camp

Paul Farrimond: in early 1940. In April it was decided to evacuate Gibraltar of its civilian into civilian population.

Paul Farrimond: and the bulk of them were evacuated to Britain.

Paul Farrimond: But a camp was built in Jamaica with a planned capacity of 4,000, and eventually it was increased to 7,000,

Paul Farrimond: but only 1,500 Gibraltarians were ever brought to to Jamaica, and they arrived in late 1940. As you can can see here. The camp was built incredibly quickly. It started in July. It was ready, I think, in September.

Paul Farrimond: and it was certainly very ready by the time the Gibraltarians arrived. They were housed in these large. They're called huts, and not my idea of a huts. They're great long buildings, separated into rooms. That house 2 or 3 people

Paul Farrimond: so small family units or couples.

Paul Farrimond: This was run on. As as a camp basis. It did have a fence, but the Gibraltarians could come and go relatively, freely. They just weren't allowed to have employment in the island, and so boredom was the main problem in Gibraltar camp, and lots of activities were were put on for them.

Paul Farrimond: A post office was opened straight away 1st November, 1940 it used the Kingston and Doubling Days

Paul Farrimond: camp with the company, that online which is from Gibraltar Camp.

Paul Farrimond: The the male normally has this cachet, and then, later on in the war there was a burning type date stamp, which I'll show you in a few minutes.

Paul Farrimond: and so you can recognize the mail. This has Gibraltar camp Cache was censored.

Paul Farrimond: You'll notice, not by a senior examiner in this case, just by one of the regular postal examiners, which was you know, routine for most mail that left Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: and this was sent back to Gibraltar to to another family member. So probably a wife writing back to her husband in in Gibraltar.

Paul Farrimond: Postage had to be paid for. These were not into, you know, prisoners of war. These were evacuees.

Paul Farrimond: If I say, internees. I apologize. Evacuees, in fact, refugees. These are refugees

Paul Farrimond: examples of mail coming in here. So this is addressed from the Uk into Camp Gibraltar or Gibraltar camp. Same thing. Set from a Gibraltarian refugee in in the Uk to one in actually it is evacuated one in in Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: and then over here a letter from the Camp Gibraltar camp in in Jamaica is the cachet on here, and a rather nice handwritten, registered label sent to Morocco, where a lot of the Gibraltarians had sought refuge as well. So there was a large population in in North Africa at that time.

Paul Farrimond: because the camp wasn't fully utilized. There was an awful lot of spare capacity and agreement was made with the Jamaican government, and to take Jewish refugees from Europe.

Paul Farrimond: and the 1st contingents of these, mainly polish, arrived in 1942 on the Ss. Serpa Pinzo. This is a postcard showing the the ship.

Paul Farrimond: and this is a cover posted in Kingston while that ship was birthed in Kingston and on its way to the United States, and it's sent by a German refugee or evacuee

Paul Farrimond: a refugee, I guess. Who was on his way to the United States.

Paul Farrimond: So this isn't from from Jamaica. As such it was posted probably on board the ship.

Paul Farrimond: The refugees from other European countries started to arrive later on in 1942 various countries

Paul Farrimond: Czech Slovakia. There certainly was some some French and large numbers of Dutch refugees, and they arrived in late 42 and 1943, and at least 500 or so.

Paul Farrimond: and these are examples of mail from Dutch

Paul Farrimond: refugee. Sorry! This is a French-speaking refugee, this one, this one here sent from Gibraltar camp, as you can see here with the cachet, and then this later one is from a Dutch refugee, and it's got now the Gibraltar camp. Birmingham style date stamp.

Paul Farrimond: This is sent to another refugee or previously refugee who is in Canada. A lot of the young Dutch men in the camp in in Jamaica volunteered for military service, and they were trained in Canada.

Paul Farrimond: And so you do find mail going over to to Canada to relatives of the refugees in Gibraltar camp.

Paul Farrimond: and and some mail going back as back and forth as well.

Paul Farrimond: Okay, so that was Gibraltar Camp.

Paul Farrimond: British and Canadian forces, and I'll mention them together because the British forces, the British army was replaced by the Canadian army so historically in Jamaica there would have been a British infantry regiment before World War 2. And

Paul Farrimond: at the time that World War 2 started the King, Shropshire Light Infantry were stationed in Kingston.

Paul Farrimond: in in Jamaica, in Atop Park Camp.

Paul Farrimond: and they were called back. We called to the UK. And were replaced by, as I'll show you in a few minutes, and the Canadians.

Paul Farrimond: various support groups, units, were left behind. They remained in Jamaica to support the Canadians, and, for example, the Royal Army Medical Corps were there. There's a military hospital. There was a military hospital. This image is from a Christmas card, and this is a letter from a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps at the Military Hospital in Up Park Camp, in Jamaica, sent in July 45.

Paul Farrimond: There were other units as well. The Royal Army Service Corps signals, some Royal Engineers. I'm not going to show all of the different types of mail. The only other british army thing I will show, because you find them quite often are the sensor marks the the army sensor marks, and there were 3 different types used.

Paul Farrimond: this one here military sensor, and specifically has Jamaica on it. This was obviously a local one, only used in Jamaica. There's a range of numbers, I forget how many at least 10, maybe maybe 12.

Paul Farrimond: It's in the book which I'll I'll mention later

Paul Farrimond: and then more common British style.

Paul Farrimond: sensor marks army sensor marks the shield with a crown, and you also have a circle with a crown which I'm not bothered showing. But those types were extensively used in Jamaica as well.

Paul Farrimond: And so you find mail from various units. So this was the Army Medical Corps, someone sending mail back to the UK. And this was from a sergeant of the Royal Army Service Corps.

Paul Farrimond: Again writing back to the Uk. And their mail was censored mainly by the units, but would also be censored in in Great Britain in both cases as well.

Paul Farrimond: sometimes locally censored by the Jamaicans, too.

Paul Farrimond: occasionally mail was posted, not through the orderly room in Park Camp, but would get posted through the normal channels, and then it would be censored by the postal

Paul Farrimond: senses.

Paul Farrimond: In June of 1940 the Canadians replaced the the British army, the British infantry regiment, and it was the Winnipeg Grenadiers who assumed the garrison duty.

Paul Farrimond: and their role was primarily the internment camp, the prisoner of war camp. So guard duty, but also any other

Paul Farrimond: things that that needed, you know, and supporting the peace, or whatever else was needed in Jamaica at the time the the Canadian army would do. Instead of the the British infantry.

Paul Farrimond: the Canadians had to pay postage at least initially, but later on it became concessionary in a reduced air amount. Right? So there's a couple of examples here. This shows a rather nice Winnipeg grenadiers and sensor mark

Paul Farrimond: self censored. This is from Captain John Norris, and he was able to censor his own mail as as a captain, and this one here is a different style of mark. This is more commonly seen, and these so-called Y force, which referred to the Canadians in Jamaica. These sensor marks were handed onto the units which remained, whereas this one went with the Winnipeg Grenadiers. When they left

Paul Farrimond: they went over to Hong Kong and and served

Paul Farrimond: very active service in in Hong Kong. After they were in Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: They were replaced in September, 1941 by the Argonne Civil and Highlanders. I won't go through all of them. But 4 different units served in in Jamaica during the Second World War.

Paul Farrimond: and there's some example from a couple of the the units here. This is the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, despite the name. It was a Canadian unit, and they've got their own sensor mark here by this time. If mail was marked Canadian Army overseas, surface mail would go free. This is acknowledging a package of cigarettes sent to the Canadian troops, and if you sent air mail. It was sixpence instead of whatever it was on the previous 1 10 pence.

Paul Farrimond: so instead of regular postage, they had a concessionary mail right back to Canada.

Paul Farrimond: So those were the the Canadians. They served there through to the end of the war, and and well after the end of the war into 46, and then British infantry units came back and did the 2 to 3 year postings. Typically in in Jamaica

Paul Farrimond: there was rather less Royal Navy and Royal Air Force personnel in the in the in Jamaica during the Second World War. But there was some.

Paul Farrimond: There was a Naval Control Office, and there's a hand stamp here. Naval Control Officer, Kingston, Jamaica, 1940, Naval Control Service, Kingston, Jamaica, here.

Paul Farrimond: And these are pretty scarce things. And they were

Paul Farrimond: It was mail typically to do with well, what the Naval control Service had to do with was controlling movements of merchant ships, organizing convoys, and and so on at that time.

Paul Farrimond: So that's some from the office in Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: There was also the Naval Intelligence Center for the West Indies was in in Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: and this the Naval Intelligence Service is perhaps quite well known, because Ian Fleming served in that during the Second World War, and I think a lot of his ideas for his James Bond. Books came from his time there he did visit Jamaica during the Second World War for a meeting. I'm not sure he was based there at all permanently. But he did visit Jamaica, and, as I think you probably all know, he ended up living in Jamaica later on, sometime after the war had finished.

Paul Farrimond: This is an example of mail from the Naval Intelligence Center with this rather nice hand stamp by British packet in charge of commander

Paul Farrimond: and a lot of the mail from this

Paul Farrimond: group. In fact, I think all that I've seen

Paul Farrimond: doesn't go through regular postal channels. It goes through safehand through some sort of secure

Paul Farrimond: packet or parcel

Paul Farrimond: by military personnel. Basically.

Paul Farrimond: there was a fleet I air on so enable air station in just off Palisados, just offshore Kingston, I mean that spit of land which forms part of the bay there, and there was a squadron of these other primitive looking fairy swordfish, torpedo bombers and

Paul Farrimond: th. The squadrons were replaced from time to time. So it wasn't just a single squadron serving there. They were replaced, and this is an example of mail from the the Royal Naval Air Station, from the officer in charge of armaments supply to a a colleague in Bermuda. So again. This is

Paul Farrimond: the Royal Naval Armament Depot in Bermuda.

Paul Farrimond: And these these guys hunted submarines. So it goes back to the U-boat story that I mentioned at the start of this this presentation

Paul Farrimond: a couple of examples of mail from the the depot. There it was given designated Hms. Buzzards. So all the shore stations of the Royal Navy have names just like the ships do. And it was Hms. Buzzard was the the Fleet Air Arm Base at palisados, and so Royal Air Force palisados here, and Royal Air Force Accounts unit here, and both of these pieces of mail went to the British Air commission

Paul Farrimond: in Washington, DC.

Paul Farrimond: You occasionally find mail from Raf. Staff, but there weren't very many posted there, and so they're not that common. I think both of these probably come from Derek Sutcliffe's collection originally, and they can be recognized from the sender's details on the back. So here we have

Paul Farrimond: leading aircraftsman Hancock from the Raf. Detachments Hs. Buzzard to the UK. And I like this one. It's difficult to see it's internal mail, so it's not censored, and but I like these Doodles on the Back Royal Air Force and the Raf. Wings with V for victory underneath. In here, it says, air craftsman, class Raf. Flight 26. So these were Raf. Personnel posted in in Jamaica during the Second World War.

Paul Farrimond: The other Rf.

Paul Farrimond: activity in Jamaica during the war, was a recruiting office in Kingston.

Paul Farrimond: and almost 6,000 West Indians joined the Raf. It's it's not that well known. And but the but there were that many, and the majority of those almost 4,000, I think, came from Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: Of the 4,000 or so Jamaicans. I think, just over 300 or around 300 served as air crew. So they were actually pilots, observers, gunners, or or whatever.

Paul Farrimond: This is an example of mail, and sent from Jamaica from family to flight. Sergeant Observer Robison, who was serving in Iceland at the time in in Caldad's. However, you pronounce this this base in in Iceland.

Paul Farrimond: And he was out there on Lockheed Hudson's and again that was

Paul Farrimond: searching the Atlantic for U-boats, and spotting and and

Paul Farrimond: attacking U-boats with that charges.

Paul Farrimond: and I don't have any mail from this guy or to this guy, but I just like the photo of flight Sergeant Tucker, a Jamaican fighter pilot on the cowling of his. I think that's a spitfire, but I can't see enough of it to be absolutely certain.

Paul Farrimond: It doesn't really belong here, but I didn't want to make a separate section. There were other local volunteers who didn't have to go overseas to join the Raf. They could join the the local infantry volunteers, which was a local militia for guard duty, and so on, and they were retitled Jamaica Battalion in 1944. Here's a piece of mail

Paul Farrimond: from 1945, by which time they'd taken over parts of the Gibraltar camp because the Gibraltarians had left it and the the numbers were thinning out, so it was used for military purposes, or parts of it were later in the war.

Paul Farrimond: So this is. This is quite scarce as well.

Paul Farrimond: and that's forces air mail. So it's sent sent free

Paul Farrimond: free of charge.

Paul Farrimond: Okay? Moving on. I think the last section

Paul Farrimond: we'll look at the American forces in in Jamaica during the Second World War.

Paul Farrimond: and this all came about through the destroyers for bases. Agreement.

Paul Farrimond: Which some of you will know about. I'm sure it was approved in September, 1940, and this is a bit from the Daily Mirror on that on that couple of days later, Sept. Of September, 1940,

Paul Farrimond: and, as it says, Britain got a whole load of relatively elderly destroyers from the United States to help in convoy duties.

Paul Farrimond: In exchange for permission and land to build 8 bases mostly in the West Indies. These are the countries here, Newfoundland and Bermuda, British Guyana, and and so on. But Jamaica in here.

Paul Farrimond: and in March, 1941. Well, it was, I think, signed formally signed off in early 1941. If I remember correctly, and the us marines arrived in Jamaica in March of 1941.

Paul Farrimond: They're always the 1st in, I think, quite famously, the Us. Marines.

Paul Farrimond: It seems important to perhaps remember that the Us. Weren't they? Were. They were neutral at this time.

Paul Farrimond: So the United States joined the war on 7th of December, 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, of course, and but they were building started building these bases

Paul Farrimond: well in advance of that, as you'll see.

Paul Farrimond: They

Paul Farrimond: Main. Contractors were civilian contractors. They were overseen by the Us. Navy, Civil Engineer Corps and Frederick Snare Corporation was the main contractor. There were others.

Paul Farrimond: This is a postcard sent in May, 1941 from a member of the the Frederick Snare Corporation, who just arrived in in Jamaica

Paul Farrimond: and was staying in a South Camp hotel and

Paul Farrimond: and writing to a friend, I think it was back in the United States.

Paul Farrimond: The Us.

Paul Farrimond: These contractors were there to build 4 sites, so a naval headquarters and barracks at Paul and Byte which is here just West, or well west of Kingston. Really so Kingston is here, Palisados, by the way you might not see is this little spit of land now here? So I mentioned a few minutes ago.

Paul Farrimond: There was to be a Us. Naval Air Station at Little Goats Island.

Paul Farrimond: an Army training base at Fort Simmons out here to the West and Army Air Force Base. The Us. Didn't have a Separate Air Force. At that time it was the Army Air Force, and that was Vernon Field, and they were next to each other. Which is why there's a single spot. On this this map

Paul Farrimond: the Us. Marines established their post office straight away. So 15th of March, 1941, there's a unit post office, and you start to see. Typically, I haven't shown actually. But typically 1st aid covers. A lot of philatelic mail went from the United States post offices, the Army Post Office and the Naval or the Marines post Office.

Paul Farrimond: this is philatelic with this hand. Stamp us marine detachment, and and this is the very common and date stamp. This is commercial. There is a fair bit of commercial mail, because there are a lot of Us. Troops in in Jamaica eventually. So a lot of mail going in and out and see, you know, I'm pretty sure this was. This is probably

Paul Farrimond: commercial. I certainly have plenty of commercial mail.

Paul Farrimond: mainly husband and wife. Communication

Paul Farrimond: or family communication, I should say

Paul Farrimond: the naval air station was built at Little Goat Island, and that was the unit for again, anti wolf submarine warfare. And they used inflatables, blimps. But also these, these catalinas

Paul Farrimond: and to to

Paul Farrimond: spot and destroy yeah, U-boats. Basically.

Paul Farrimond: and again, you see, mail to this, to this station, incoming and outgoing. This is certainly not philatelic. This is commercial. It's from the Jamaica weather service to the commanding officer, as you can see, and I just rather like this. This hand stamp for the for the Goat Island

Paul Farrimond: Naval Air Station.

Paul Farrimond: and a lot of the Us. Mail has is covered with handstamps, but that is how they did it. It's not necessarily philatelic. If it has, you know, 4 or 5 of these different hand stamps on this. This is what what happened to the mail.

Paul Farrimond: The Army Training Base was established further west. As I as I described earlier Fort Simmons. It was a training station for tropical and jungle warfare, so the hotter climate was used for that.

Paul Farrimond: And again, I have a couple of examples of of mail here, and it was handled by Army Post Office 8 0. 4, initially, and then later on, as I'll show you on the next slide. It was replaced by Army Post Office 8, 61. So if you see those numbers there, they're Jamaica. They tend, not to say Jamaica on them. The the actual postmarks, and they'll say they'll give the Apo number just like British

Paul Farrimond: and

Paul Farrimond: forces Post office numbers instead of giving a location.

Paul Farrimond: And again, I don't think these are

Paul Farrimond: philotellic mail. I think these are both commercial

Paul Farrimond: commercial map. You do see philatelic mail, but I've tried to show

Paul Farrimond: commercial by and where possible.

Paul Farrimond: and these are censored by Us. Army Examiner. So this is one attached to the to the army. On the next slide we have the Army Air Force Base, Vernon Field, which is next door, and these are different sensor numbers, and these were attached to the Army Air Force. These higher numbers 1, 2, 2, and 1, 2, 5. There's a whole range of numbers of censors in Jamaica, about 20 or so.

Paul Farrimond: Vernon Field had a pretty large runway, 6,000 foot concrete runway, and it operated the 18 and B. 24. These these things be 24 liberated bombers during the Second World War, and from 1942 for both the Army and the Army Air Force. The mail was handled by, as I mentioned the Apo. 8, 6, 1. And here are some hand stamps for Apo. 8, 6, 1, as you can see here.

Paul Farrimond: and these have both come out of Jamaica. This is less obviously out of Jamaica. Just the Ipo number. But this is more obvious. It's a postcard of Montego Bay, and he mentions something in here about a family swell place called Montego Bay. We must come here for a holiday after the war.

Paul Farrimond: So that's Vernon Field.

Paul Farrimond: airbase.

Paul Farrimond: The Americans got free surface mail from the from the get-go which the Canadians weren't very happy with, which is why they did eventually get concession mail

Paul Farrimond: and again, the same 6 cent rate for the United States.

Paul Farrimond: So that brings us on to the end of the war.

Paul Farrimond: and just a few more slides to go, and running up to the end of the war.

Paul Farrimond: The war in the Mediterranean turned very much in the Allies' favour, and once it was established that Gibraltar wasn't any more really at risk.

Paul Farrimond: the Gibraltarians were repatriated late in 1944,

Paul Farrimond: and they arrived back in Gibraltar in October, 1944. And this is a letter back to the camp adjutant, if you, if you remember all the commandants, I think it is of Camp Gibraltar and Ernest Ray, and this is presumably from a repatriated evacuate.

Paul Farrimond: I don't have the contents. And on the left here. This is part of a letter from the Governor of Gibraltar that was published in the Jamaica. The David gleen of the Jamaican, one of Jamaica, main Jamaica newspapers, expressing thanks for the

Paul Farrimond: Refuge that Jamaica provided to Gibraltarians during the war.

Paul Farrimond: So so they evacuated or repatriated and left Gibraltar camp in late 1944

Paul Farrimond: postal censorship continued, for

Paul Farrimond: beyond the the end of the war, so Germany surrendered in May

Paul Farrimond: Vj. Day was August, 1945, 14, th and it wasn't until the 24th of August. The Daily Gleaner reported that censorship regulations are now off with the conclusion of the Japanese war, and this is the last piece of censor mail I can find which is the 20th of August.

Paul Farrimond: It's the 1st day cover for this issue. New Constitution issue. You find lots of these 1st aid covers. Not many, if any, are sensible, at least one is censored. Most all the others I've got aren't. And I think it's because it was going to Colombia and not to Canada, or the Us. Or Great Britain, or wherever most of them would go to. So this is the latest example of sense of mail I can find in

Paul Farrimond: in Jamaica.

Paul Farrimond: The internees had a bit longer job of it. As I mentioned earlier, the pows and internees. So some left in May, 1946, about 300, another 500 in November, and that left 220 internees in the camp in 1947,

Paul Farrimond: and the last these last 200 odd were repatriated in February, 1947. This is the latest piece of camp mail that I can find, and Christmas, 1946

Paul Farrimond: by which time there was no censorship. Of course there's no camp markings or anything, but it was still using the letter sheets the the prisoner of war

Paul Farrimond: stationary, but stamped. It went by air mail, so it had to be stamped anyway. But the Free Mail was long rescinded by this stage, anyway.

Paul Farrimond: And this, this poor guy was obviously interned very early in the war. He's got a low number. It was one of the merchant seamen in the Caribbean

Paul Farrimond: would have been in turn probably March, 1940.

Paul Farrimond: So he was in Jamaica for nearly 7 years.

Paul Farrimond: After the war the various sites military sites were were used in different ways, so the internment and Pmw. Camp site was used to the national Stadium.

Paul Farrimond: and they hosted various games, including the Caribbean games in 62, and the Commonwealth games in 66

Paul Farrimond: Gibraltar camp was as I've mentioned earlier, gradually wound down. It got used by various military groups towards the end of the war.

Paul Farrimond: and the the family camp for the internees, and it was transferred to public works in 1947, and eventually a year or so later became a campus for the University of the British West Indies, the Jamaica campus at Mona, in in Jamaica, and that opened in 1948. You'll all be familiar with this

Paul Farrimond: set of stamps

Paul Farrimond: for the various islands, not just Jamaica

Paul Farrimond: and the fleet air on base at Palisados. It. It had actually been a small airport just before the war. It had opened, I think, just before the war started and got commandeered if that's the right word straight away and converted into the Royal Naval Air Station. It closed at the end of 44. It was returned to civilian airport and developed as the Norman

Paul Farrimond: Mainly International Airport and that airport, and the others on on Jamaica have, have helped enormously, of course, with what must be Jamaica's main industry now, which is, rather more happily than the things I've talked about tourism. And those of you who've been to Jamaica will no doubt mostly have been there for holidays rather than any more sombre reason

Paul Farrimond: just to finish up a few references. So I'd like, Thank Ray Murphy, who co-authored this book with me on on the military mails of Jamaica. It's a West Indies Study Circle publication, but I must also recognize a couple of other books which have been massively helpful. Suzanne Francis Brown published this book a couple of years ago on the World War, 2 camps in Jamaica, immaculately researched. She's an academic, and it shows in the book.

Paul Farrimond: It's a it's a very seriously research piece of work. I've not even finished reading taught yet.

Paul Farrimond: And and then also, Harold, who is with us today. Thank you very much for a copy of your monograph, and on the American aid for German war prisoners that I mentioned earlier on.

Paul Farrimond: I think that's really done my acknowledgements. I would like to thank the various people who've helped along the way. Jamaican collectors, many and varied. You all know who you are. Thanks, Paul, in particular, for letting me load up 3 boxes of his albums into the boots of my car, and some time ago, when I was writing that book

Paul Farrimond: and thank you to everyone today who who joined this presentation. I hope it was interesting. Thank you very much.

West Indies Philatelic Study Group: Thank you, Paul. It's very, very good.

West Indies Philatelic Study Group: questions. Anyone. There's there's been no questions I can see in the chat. So does anyone have any questions for Paul on on what he's covered

West Indies Philatelic Study Group: so far today.

Susan Taylor: Paul, would it be helpful if members of the West Indies philatelic study group

Susan Taylor: Paul, did you scans of any covers they have dating from this period that are censored so that you can add them to your survey.

Paul Farrimond: Yes, thank you. It would very much indeed.

Paul Farrimond: Sam, named Cutler. I think it is. Sam Cutler has been sending me records of the covers in his collection. I think Harold probably has his as well. But if and I've got Steve's and Paul's, I think but if there are others then yes, that would be very helpful. Thank you.

Harold Krische: Paul, thanks very much for the presentation. It was extremely well done.

Paul Farrimond: Thank you all.

Harold Krische: And I think I would be remiss if I didn't make a comment about the

Harold Krische: value that has been inherent for me as a postal historian. In working with you and with your collaborative view and perspective on what you do

Harold Krische: and in our hobby, I think that focus on collaboration is essential.

Harold Krische: I.

Harold Krische: One classic example. I think for me, Paul, would be the ability that I've had over the course of the last number of years

Harold Krische: to work with you on the census that you started and set up and developed on the pow mail for Jamaican World War 2

Harold Krische: the ability to bounce things off of each other.

Harold Krische: Results in growth beyond anything an individual could accomplish.

Harold Krische: and you continue to underscore that in how you represent the work you do, and your willingness to engage and work with others. And that's something I've highly appreciated.

Harold Krische: and it certainly brought a lot of additional growth for me.

Harold Krische: not just in terms of knowledge, but just the thinking and approaches that are beneficial for us as philatelists. So thank you for that.

Paul Farrimond: Thank you very much.

Paul Farrimond: Welcome

Paul Farrimond: I on that subject. I do intend to make

Paul Farrimond: more freely available the sensor mail census that I'm putting together as well. I've been doing it for about 10 years. I would say, most of these things are what appear on ebay or

Paul Farrimond: online. you know, dealers who have lists online. But I'm I must miss quite a lot of them.

Paul Farrimond: And it probably is now at a stage where I should make it more more available. So it's something I'm I'm thinking of doing, and maybe just need to tidy up a little bit before it goes out there, but it will do in due course.

Paul Farrimond: and if anyone wants a temp, you know a preview, I'm happy to send copies of it out to people.

West Indies Philatelic Study Group: So. Are there any further questions for?

West Indies Philatelic Study Group: Doesn't look like him, does it?

West Indies Philatelic Study Group: Well, listen, on behalf of everybody I'd like to say, thank you very, very much for your presentation today. It's been absolutely wonderful. A fascinating walk through Jamaica in what was quite a turbulent 6 or 7 years across the world, but particularly so from what I could see in

West Indies Philatelic Study Group: the case of this particular island. So thank you very much indeed for your time and your patience for putting this together and for everyone who's contributing as well. Thank you.

Stephen Jarvis: Thank you, Paul, very, very enlightening.

Paul Farrimond: Thanks, Steve.

Paul Farrimond: Thank you. Everyone for joining.

West Indies Philatelic Study Group: Yeah, on that note I'll call the meeting to a close. I'll stop the recording, and then I'll I'll cease cease the meeting completely. So thank you very much to everyone who's been here today really do appreciate it.

Paul Farrimond: Will it.

(Transcript) Jamaica in WW II

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