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Great Britain's Air Letters Ellengail Beuthel, Librarian Vol. 23 - No. 2 2038 South Pontiac Way, Denver, CO 80224 March-April 2015 www.rmpldenver.org 303.759.9921 Email - [email protected] IN THIS ISSUE Great Britain’s Air Letters: Great Britain’s Air Letters ................ 1 Born in War Election Results .......... 2 By Jeff Modesitt RMPL Videos & DVDs Looking at a once vibrant and purposeful area of philately that is now the equivalent of On line ..................... 6 collecting a “dead country,” makes us recognize how much our world is changing. Board Meeting of In April of 2012, Great Britain announced that Air Letters, aka aerogrammes and air mail Jan 29th Summary ... 6 letter cards, would no longer be available, and that they would be invalid by October of that 3 year. So, what the heck happened? Actually, the UK was late to the withdrawal parade. The RMPL Assets and United States had already exhausted their supply of aerogrammes sometime after 2006, and Liabilities charts ....... 7 they were discontinued when it was recognized that demand for the last five years had been Sergio Lugo: Fourth almost nonexistent. President of the Britain also felt the lack of demand RMPL ....................... 8 as emails, messaging, Facebook, and Twitter eroded the need for paper communication. The once popular Air Letter will no longer grace our Christmas mail with news from a family member or friend, nor will we be reminded Show News ............... 10 of British regional events that don’t Big Changes at the make the grade for postage stamps, RMSS ..................... 10 but were so colorfully depicted on the Coming Soon .. Mark commemorative aerogrammes. While Your Calendar ....... 11 this does not really mean goodbye to Seminar on African aerogrammes altogether, it does put Figure 1. The first Air Mail Letter Card was printed by Iraq Philately ................. 12 a beginning and an end to the issue in 1933. period. It is also a perfect time to take a look back at their development, and the early years. New RMPL Video ...... 12 The balance of this article will focus on the primarily military genesis of the Air Mail Review Letter Cards of Great Britain, also known over the years as Aerogrammes, Air Mail Letter Sheets, Air Letters, and Airletters (without the space between words). THE FIRST CARDS Air Letters were the brainchild of Douglas William Gumbley, born in Guernsey and thus Try a TOPIC a British citizen, but working in Iraq in 1933 as Inspector General of Posts and Telegraphs. Meeting! ................ 13 Given Iraq’s distant location relative to large population centers and commercial activity, 2nd Saturday Gumbley recognized the need for a light weight, inexpensive, and fast communication Programs ............... 14 method. Both KLM and Imperial Airways were developing routes that would bring aircraft New Members .......... 15 through the Middle East, but sending heavy letters and packets by air was beyond the means Donations ................. 15 of ordinary people. His answer was to design a pre-stamped, single lightweight letter sheet, Gene Holgate costing 15 fils, or, in Arabic, the plural is fulus. (1 fils equals a thousandth of a dinar). Receives Award .... 15 The Iraqis ran with the proposal, and the initial Air Letter was issued on July 15, 1933 (Figure 1). Gumbley, however, being a British citizen (Figure 2), had registered the design at Library Calendar ....... 16 Stationers Hall in London on February 15, 1933. This act officially made it a British idea! What’s New on the Shelves will return in the May-June issue. (continued on page 3) Scribblings Scribblings ELECTION RESULTS Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain An election by the RMPL membership for positions on Philatelic Library the Board of Directors was held in January. 213 ballots were cast out of a possible 538 members, making for a turnout of 2038 So. Pontiac Way 40 percent. Denver, CO 80224 Thanks to Brian Kramer for his leadership of the election Phone: (303) 759-9921 committee, for organizing the election and encouraging email: [email protected] candidates to run, and for promoting the importance of Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, Thursday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Closed Sundays & Holidays casting a ballot. Here are the officers and board members for the next Editor three years: Mike Milam Votes [email protected] President: John Sinski 189 Production Manager/ Vice President Jim Kilbane 196 Layout Corresponding Ron Mitchell Secretary Roe Emery 188 [email protected] Recording Copy Editors/ Secretary Brian Kramer 187 Proofreaders Director of Don Beuthel Ellengail Beuthel Operations Howard Benson 183 Sergio Lugo Treasurer Robert Blatherwick 103 VeraLouise Kleinfeld-Pfeiffer (elected) Steve Schweighofer Timothy Heins 87 Librarian Directors Ellengail Beuthel (Top four are elected) Scribblings is published bimonthly by the Rocky Mountain Dalene Thomas 168 Philatelic Library. The RMPL is a chartered Colorado John Bloor 149 nonprofit corporation and an IRS designated 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Membership subscriptions over that David Weisberg 147 for the regular membership, and donations of appropriate Steve McGill 125 philatelic materials, are deductible for US income tax William Crabbs 117 purposes. The Library is a volunteer organization. Financial donations, philatelic books, stamps, supplies, and donations Richard Palestro 86 of your time, are welcome. Write-In Votes: A basic membership in the RMPL is $25 a year, and John Bloor and Paul Lee received 1 vote each includes checkout privileges and Scribblings. Call for more for President, Don Dhonau received 1 vote for information. Corresponding Secretary, and Andrew Wacinski Knowledge is better when shared. Consider writing an article received 1 vote for the Board of Directors. for Scribblings about your favorite philatelic topic. President .............................................. John Sinski A note from the outgoing President: Operations Manager .....................Howard Benson Congratulations to all who ran for office. Vice President ......................................Jim Kilbane Corresponding Secretary ...................... Roe Emery Your willingness to do so is in furtherance of Recording Secretary ......................... Brian Kramer a more than two decade tradition of RMPL Treasurer ...................................... Bob Blatherwick members standing forth to lead this organization. Directors: John Bloor, Steve McGill, Dalene To those who were not elected, my thanks for Thomas, David Weisberg. Director Emeritus: Don having been willing to do so, and we hope that Dhonau. Ex-officio member, Ellengail Beuthel.. you will remain available for future elections. Officers and Directors may be contacted through Sincerely, the RMPL. Sergio Lugo rmpldenver.org Page 2 March-April 2015 Scribblings Great Britain’s Airletters, cont.. The 15 fils cost was about the same price as a surface letter then, or about 3½ cents in today’s currency. The Air Letters were printed in Iraq, but concerns over losing money resulted in an immediate re-pricing to 20 fils, thereby requiring additional postage. Evidently, very few used letters are known from the period before the price went up to 20 fils. WWII INFLUENCE Despite its being a British idea, it took World War II to motivate Great Britain to adopt the idea at home. As late as 1939, there were no concessionary rates available to British citizens for air mail service. This created a huge problem, Figure 2 as there were many active duty service personnel stationed . Douglas William in the Middle East and the Far East. The cost of air service Gumbley, creator of the was prohibitive, and surface mail was unreliable and British Air Letter. extremely slow. Even so, it was not until 1941 (Figure 3) that an Air Mail Letter Card was made available to service personnel, some two years after authorities first consulted with Gumbley. The delay could also be at least partially attributed to the belief that Airgraphs (microfilm) were the best solution to fast, reliable and affordable communication. The argument was that Airgraphs reduced the bulk of 50 pounds of letters (1600) to just 5 ounces! When adopted, the first batch (70,000) sent between England and Egypt took three weeks to reach their destination! What may have been unappreciated was the time it took to reduce each letter to film, and then, once at the delivery point, print each letter, put it in an envelope, and deliver it. Given that there was a war raging, Airgraphs created a lot of extra work. The process also required batches of equipment and chemicals, when the war effort might use these more effectively elsewhere! Airgraphs continued to be used, but in many Figure 3. The first Air Mail Letter Card made available situations, the Air Mail Letter Cards made more sense. to service personnel was not without controversy. Many The Air Mail Letter Card was initially offered only in authorities preferred microfilm even though it was labor Palestine, Cyrenaica, Greece, and Cyprus, and the only delivery intensive. Also, note the triangle printed on the letter card. destination allowed was the UK. They were also in very It signified that the contents were subject only to military limited supply, with distribution of one per man per fortnight. base censor. Most did not have this “Privilege” feature. THAT WILL BE 3 PENCE, PLEASE Unfortunately, the high cost to families of active service Did I mention that this Air Mail Letter Card was not personnel who were not prisoners was not addressed until pre-stamped, but required the sender to attach a 3d stamp? almost the end of the war in Europe (April 7, 1945), when a Today, these cards or letter sheets are known as formular. It 1½d Air Letter was introduced (see Figures 8, 9 and 10 on was not until 1942 that an Air Mail Letter Card was made page 5). available for families of active service personnel in Great Britain. It was also formular, and required a 6d stamp. Most PRE-STAMPED ISSUES INTRODUCED of the formular letters were produced for the military, and With all the resource demands placed on Great Britain, used by active service personnel and their families.
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