[1]

In 1878, the Hong Kong Post Master General’s Postal Guide contained a notification: “Box holders may mark stamps. Box holders (but box holders only) are at liberty to mark their postage stamps on the back or face, or by perforation, so as to prevent their being stolen. If a mark be on the face it must be such as not to interfere with the clean appearance of the stamp. Stamps so marked will not be purchased.”

[2]

See Group V - 6

[3]

Can we all agree that the "hill station" referred to in Webb is an official post office (if not the main Ningpo post office), and not a private company or individual or a governmental agency or entity other than a post office?
The "hill station" would not have been a branch post office, or an official agency (like a Consulate office) working for the British Post Office. The literatures have referred to the Hill Station as a forwarding agency run by F. F. Ferris. If the hill station was an official post office, it would have used an official cancellation chop issued by the British Postal Authorities. The Treaty ports of Amoy and Swatow were each served by more than one post offices. All their offices, including the Consulate office, the main Post Office and the branch office had used official chops for processing the mail that they received, and had applied different index letters in the cds chop to show the identity of the cancellation source. If the hill station was an official post office, it would not have used the rhomboid set of dots, but an official chop from the British Post office Ningpo, perhaps with the Type B, straight line Ningpo with an index letter of "B" or "D" or "E", since the letters "A" and "C" were already in use at the main post office. The presence of the rhomboid set of dots suggests very strongly that the markings had been applied by a private company to serve a specific purpose; prevention of pilferage. This therefore justifies the rhomboid sets of dots to be a security marking, just like the IV-! Seven Pointed Star, the IV-2 Wheel.

Frank

[4]

Le Bon Marché is the name of one of the best known department stores in Paris, France. It is sometimes regarded as the "first department store in the world". Although this depends on what is meant by 'department store', it may have had the first specially designed building for a store in Paris. The founder was Aristide Boucicaut.The store was founded as a small shop in Paris during 1838, and was a fixed-price department store from about 1850. It was a successful business, and a new building was constructed for the store by Louis Auguste Boileau in 1867. Louis Charles Boileau, his son, continued the store in the 1870s, consulting the firm of Gustave Eiffel for parts of its structure. Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, the grandson of Louis Auguste, worked on an extension to the store in the 1920s.

Wikipedia (October 2011)

[5]

See Group I - 60

[6]

HMS Hydrangea was a British Royal Navy Minesweeper of 1,250 tons built in 1916 by Charles Connell & Company, Scotstoun, Yard No 381 fore the British Royal Navy. In 1920 she was sold to Chiu On SS Co., Hong Kong for commercial service. On the 17th August 1936 she was wrecked on Stonecutters Island, Hong Kong in typhoon and sold for breaking.

Allen Tony 17/08/2008

[7]

In the Hong Kong Study Circle Journal number 320, January 2002, there was an article on the use of "Stamped" on late QV issues. I quote the following extract from the publication:

......Government Notice No.397 of 21 September 1889 stated, "Letters, pacels, etc for Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon) and steamers in harbour may be posted in te General Post Office up to 11.30 am anf 3.30 pm. etters from Tsim Sha Tsui may be posted in the letter box which is posted in the Police Station Compound up to 12 and 4 o'clock. Local rates will be charged. To avoid theft, senders of letters from Kowloon are requested to cancel their stamps by writing the word "Stamped" across them.

Frank

[8]

See Group II - 23B

[9]

KER & CO., LTD - one of the oldest British trading companies in the Philippines. Established in Manila in November 1827 through the partnership of Murray and Hugh Syme and known as Strachan, Murray & Co., although Robert Ker was already with the firm together with Mr. James Strachan and John Murray. When the former left the firm in 1832 and John Murray retired 10 years later, Robert Ker continued with Thomas McMicking and the Company became known as Ker McMicking & Co., but by about 1846 simply as Ker & Co. Today, Ker & Co., Ltd. is almost 100% Filipino.

Ker & Co. (October 2011)

[10]

See Group I - 86

[11]

See Group I – 17

Cornabe

[12]

See Group I - 42

[13]

There is a consensus that Customs Kowloon was used as a security marking like the I.M.C. marking. It has been some research articles on this subject.
At my knowledge, there is no consensus or evidence concerning the other Customs cds. When they appear struck on a HK adhesive, I list them for reference purpose until proven one way or another.

Philippe

[14]

With the signing of the Bowring Treaty in 1855, Thailand opened up for foreign trade. The presence of foreign businesses and consulates in Bangkok necessitated a postal service. This was setup in 1867 by the British Postal Service and run by the British consulate in Bangkok purely for communications between consulates.

Philatelic Museum Bangkok
the history of Thai postage stamps (2011)

[15]

Harbour Office.—His office was, originally, as were all Government offices, on board a ship in the harbour. I consider it very probable, though there are no records to show it, that a temporary harbour office was erected
on shore very early in the history of the Colony ; certainly there are indications that there was such a building in 1841, but its nature and site are unknown. In 1843 it appears that a room in Mr. Pedder's house, built at his own expense on the hill named after him, was used as a harbour office. Later, about 1845, a brick building was erected on the site of the present City Hall, and this was occupied by the harbour department until 1866. In that year a permanent building of brick and stone, erected upon reclaimed ground some 1,400 yards to the westward of the old office, was opened. This collapsed in 1873, and the staff of the office took up their quarters in a temporary wooden erection close to the Sailors' Home, another 1,300 yards west, until the office was rebuilt and re-occupied in 1874. There the work continued to be done until 1906...

Source: p 188 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[16]

First established in 1844, the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai reopened in 1980

[17]

First Official Diplomatic Interaction, 1833.
The United States and Thailand engaged in their first official diplomatic interaction on March 20, 1833, when they signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce. Edmund Roberts, who negotiated this treaty during a mission to the Far East as Special Agent of the United States, received instructions dated January 27, 1832, that directed him to negotiate treaties with Cochinchina, Siam, and the powers of Arabia on the Red Sea.

Consular Presence
Establishment of Consular Relations, 1859.
John Hassett Chandler became the Acting Vice Consul in Charge on January 25, 1859.

Diplomatic Relations:
Establishment of Diplomatic Relations and the American Legation in Siam, 1882.
Diplomatic relations and the first U.S. Legation in Thailand (then Siam) were established on October 23, 1882, when John A. Halderman presented his credentials as Minister Resident and Consul General.

A GUIDE TO THE UNITED STATES' HISTORY OF RECOGNITION, DIPLOMATIC, AND CONSULAR RELATIONS, BY COUNTRY, SINCE 1776: THAILAND

[18]

1- We have not been able to identify a commercial company named Barfleur in HK or elsewhere.
2- A British Warship was named Barfleur.
3- This British warship was operating with HMS Centurion in South China
4- HMS Centurion was in HK waters in 1898 as evidenced by one of my covers.
5- Therefore HMS Barfleur was in HK water in 1898.
6- Harmon's cover is dated 1898.

Therefore there is a strong possibility that BARFLEUR was the security marking of HMS Barfleur.

Philippe

HMS Barfleur was a 14-gun twin-propeller British Royal Navy battleship, launched at Chatham Dockyard in August 1892 and commissioned on June 22, 1894. She displaced 10,500 tons and could reach a top speed of 18.5 knots (34 km/h). Her length, beam, and draught were 360 ft (110 m), 70 ft (21 m), and 25.5 ft (7.8 m). HMS Barfleur was named for the decisive Anglo-Dutch victory over the French off Cape Barfleur in May 1692. She was the fourth British naval ship to carry the name Barfleur.

HMS Barfleur, along with two sister ships, HMS Centurion and HMS Renown, was part of the Centurion class of battleships. They were designed for long-range patrolling on the China Station. Their draughts were designed to be shallow enough to allow passage through the Suez Canal and the navigation of rivers in China. Barfleur carried up to 1,440 tons of coal, giving her a range of 6,000 nautical miles [11,000 km] at 10 knots. She had a compliment of 620.

On 6 February 1898, she left Malta for China. While at Hong Kong, on 1 October 1898, she became the Flagship of rear Admiral James Andrew Bruce on the China Station and took an active part in the allied operations in the third China War [Boxer Rebellion] in 1900. Twenty-one men from the Barfleur were killed during these actions in China in 1900.

The HMS Barfleur departed Hong Kong for England on November 11, 1900. She never returned to the Far East. On July 12, 1910, she was

The Mrs. Cromie, to whom the cover is addressed, was Mary Cromie the mother of F.N.A. Cromie a 16 year old midshipman onboard the HMS Barfleur at Hong Kong in 1898.

Michel Houde

[19]

HMS Aurora was a ship of the Orlando-class of first-class cruisers built in the yards at Pembroke Dock and launched on 28 October 1887. She was sold for scrapping on 2 October 1907 to Payton of Milford Haven.
This ship took part in the Boxer rebellion in 1901, under the command of Captain Edward Henry Bayly, RN.

Wikipedia (October 2011)

[20]

HMS Immortalité was a ship of the Orlando-class of armored cruisers of the British Royal Navy built in the yards of Earle of Hull and launched on 7 July 1887. She was sold for scrapping on 1 January 1907 to S. Breaking Company of Blackwall.

Wikipedia (October 2011)

[21]

HMS Rattler was a composite screw gunboat launched in 1886. She was used for harbour service from 1910, and as a training ship from 1919, when she was renamed HMS Dryad. She was sold in 1924.

Wikipedia (October 2011)

[22]

HMS Tamar (Chinese: 添馬艦) was the name for the Royal Navy's base in Hong Kong from 1897 to 1997. It took its name from HMS Tamar a ship that was used as the base until replaced by buildings ashore.

The British Navy arrived during the First Opium War to protect the opium traders. Sir Edward Belcher, aboard HMS Sulphur landed in Hong Kong on 25 January 1841. Possession Street still exists to mark the event, although its Chinese name is 水坑口街 ("Mouth of the ditch Street").

Naval Dockyard buildings (centre), Queen's Road, 1894
Commodore Sir Gordon Bremer raised the Union Jack and claimed Hong Kong as a colony on 26 January 1841. Naval store sheds were erected there in April 1841.[2] The site had been referred to as the "HM Victualling Yard" in the Navy's own register. The first naval storekeeper and agent victualler, Thomas McKnight, appointed on 21 March 1842, served until October 1849. Early maps show that major construction was also carried out at another, slightly more westward site, between 1845 and 1855.[2] In fact, the naval authorities demolished the West Point store sheds and surrendered the land to the colonial government in 1854 in exchange for a plot of land where the Admiralty station of the Mass Transit Railway stands.[4]
The Second Opium War in China (1856–1860) caused a military build-up, in which the yard expanded westwards in April 1858. A victualling yard was added at what was then the North Barracks. Two officers were initially appointed as responsible for the machinery and spare parts, respectively, needed to maintain and repair ships in the dockyard, and for dry goods and foodstuff in the victualling yard.

HMS Tamar, was a 3,650 ton British troopship launched in 1863. She first visited Hong Kong in 1878 with reliefs crews, returned once in 1886.[4] She finally arrived in Victoria City on 11 April 1897.[1] She was stationed permanently in the harbour from 1897 to 1941, when she was scuttled during the Battle of Hong Kong during World War II, to avoid being used by the invading Japanese Imperial forces.

Wikipedia (October 2011)

[23]

Class and type: Majestic-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Name: HMS Victorious
Ordered: 1893-1894 Naval Estimates
Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Laid down: 28 May 1894[1]
Launched: 19 October 1895[1]
Completed: November 1896[1]
Commissioned: 4 November 1896[2]
Decommissioned: 28 March 1920[2]
Fate: Sold for scrapping 9 April 1923[2]

In February 1898, Victorious detached from the Mediterranean Fleet for service on the China Station. According to a report in the New York Journal on 16 February, she ran hard aground while entering the harbor at Port Said in route to China. Her coal had to be taken off before she could be floated free. In 1900, she returned to the Mediterranean and underwent a refit at Malta.

Wikipedia (October 2011)

[24]

Division OF THE PHILLIPINES,
OFFlCE OF THE CHIEF ORDNANCE OFFICER,
Manila, P. I. June 30, 1901.

Under orders from the War Department; Captain William Crozier' sailed for China, on July 15, 1900, there to report for duty as chief ordnance officer.

Annual Reports of the War Department
For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901
Report of the Chief of Ordnance

[25]

In the archives of Jardine Matheson, (June 1890-July 1897), we find the names of:

Colonel F.E. Mulcahy (Senior Ordnance Store Officer)

Captain Maconbrey; Naval Storekeeper; Senior Ordnance Store Officer;

Philippe (October 2011)

[26]

{James Frederick Lewis} was born in 1846 and in 1864 he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers. He spent the next 18 years in the Fortifications Branch of the War Office- for five of which he worked under the direction of the Indian Government on the design and defences of Aden.

In 1893, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and three years later he went to Ascension Island to plan new batteries and to generally overhaul works there. Service in the Falklands and a spell in the United Kingdom followed and in 1898 he was sent to the newly acquired British territory of Wei Hai Wei, on the north-eastern tip of Shantung province of China, to report on the proposed defences. This assignment involved a visit to Peking to report to the British Ambassador and Colonel Lewis returned via Japan and Canada.

Shortly after his return he was promoted to substantive Colonel and appointed Commander, Royal Engineers, Gibraltar. The four years in this command were extremely busy and he retired, at the age of 57, in May 1903.

However, the War Office asked Colonel Lewis to travel to Hong Kong and in January 1905 he arrived to review the defences of the colony and to adjudicate the land dispute. He delayed his return home to go to Port Arthur, which the Japanese had just captured from the Russians and his report created much interest in the United Kingdom. Though he volunteered for the service on the outbreak of war he was not accepted because of his age and he died in 1918.

From the diary of James Frederick Lewis as presented by his grand son Colonel H.M. Lewis

[27]

RN CALABRIA, Italian warship

In 1909, after a few sorties in the national sea, she sailed from Palermo on April 13 to make his fourth circumnavigation of the globe.
The Command of CALABRIA, this time was given to the Captain of Frigate Mario Casanuova
...
Going up the Pacific, touched Valparaiso, Callao, Panama and San Francisco continued in November 1909, Honolulu and Yokohama in Japan. From December 24, in Shanghai, took on the task of "Stationary ship" in China.
…
On 30 September 1911, the Calabria left the Far Eastern Seas, to return to his country and participate in the war against Turkey. Deployed in the Red Sea, took part in the naval bombardment and artillery against camps of Turkish troops

GREETINGS FROM THE RN "CALABRIA"

Source: article of C. Adm. Aldo Gabellone (Partner Group of Taranto)

[28]

Report of the Committee appointed by His Excellency the Governor to Enquire into and Report on the Best Organization for a College of Medicine for Hong Kong.

Hong Kong July 15^th, 1896

The Committee appointed by His Excellency the Governor to inquire into and report on the best organization for a College of Medicine for Hong Kong have the honor to submit to His Excellency's consideration the result of their deliberations. They respectfully offer the following recommendations:
1- That the title of the proposed College be “Hong Kong College of Medecine”.
2- That a Governing Body be appointed, consisting of seven members:
- The Colonial Surgeon.
- The Principal Medical Officer of her Majesty's Forces.

Etc..

Apparently the above suggestions were acted upon.

Philippe (October 2011)

[29]

Some historical background for this military handstamp: In 1897, the Royal Artillery Regiments was split into Horse, Field, and garrison branches, and the units in Hong Kong were titled Royal Garrison Artillery. This division came to an end in 1924, when the three units were reunited again as the Royal Regiment of Artillery.

Frank Drake

[30]

See Group IV – 28 HSM Tamar

[31]

In the Hong Kong Study Circle Journal number 320, January 2002, there was an article on the use of "Stamped" on late QV issues. I quote the following extract from the publication:

"In 1892, twelve pillar boxes were ordered through the Crown Agents. In bringing these into use, Government Notice No. 351 was issued on 15 August 1892, which suggested that persons posting in these boxes should cancel their stamps by writing the date across them. This measure to guard against theft. We can therefore assume that if an adhesive bears a Post Office cancel plus a manuscript date, it would have been posted in a pillar box"

Frank

[32]

Could be W. BREWER & Co
Publisher in Hong Kong

Philippe (Oct 2011)

[33]

See Group I - 33A

[34]

See Group I - 68

[35]

See Group I - 34

[36]

See Group I - 63

[37]

See Group I-86

[38]

Could be

- Zung Tuck Van
Or
-Yung Tuck Sing

Who were both executives in Hong Kong at the turn of the century

Philippe (October 2011)

[39]

See Group II - 4

[40]

Wang Hing - "The visitor to Hongkong who passes along Queen's Road Central for the first time cannot fail to be attracted by the number of well-equipped and tastefully arranged Chinese silver and jewellery shops. Among these, none has been established longer or enjoys a higher reputation than that owned by the firm of Wang Hing. The business was founded by the father of the present proprietors in 1854. It occupies a central position, but, notwithstanding this advantage, the large measure of public favour which the firm enjoy would not have been secured unless the articles offered for sale had always been of first-class quality and workmanship. The firm supply every year numerous cups and trophies for local races, and are entrusted with a great deal of the silver work required by local societies. They may always be relied upon to execute commissions with good taste and dispatch."

Source page 230
Wright, Arnold, Editor-In-Chief and H. A. Cartwright, Assistant Editor: Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Michel Houde

[41]

A consignee letter was simply a letter containing shipping documents. It was sent with the cargo on the ship on which it travelled, and the recipient of the cargo also was the recipient of the letter. Consignee letters normally were given to the ship’s master immediately before departure. To show to the postal authorities that such mail, being delivered without going through the postal system, was not to deceive or avoid payment of stamp postage fees, some of these consignee letters would have the correct postage stamp amount be adhered to the cover and for such stamps to be then franked by the sender with the firm’s security marking as an indication that the postal requirements was being complied with.

Frank Drake
9-30-2011