Unusual reflections of a time when South Africa was involved in a World War will be on display in Port Elizabeth later this month, in the form of stamps and envelopes from the collection of a Grahamstown local.
Unusual reflections of a time when South Africa was involved in a World War will be on display in Port Elizabeth later this month, in the form of stamps and envelopes from the collection of a Grahamstown local.
Visitors to the South African National Stamp Exhibition in Bayworld, in Port Elizabeth's Humewood area, will be shown remnants of the difficult days of World War Two in Prof Malvern van Wyk Smith's extensive collection from 18-21 October.
His exhibit features the South African involvement in the war in North Africa during the 1940s when fortunes swung and Cairo was threatened by a German advance, with the Allies eventually gaining the upper hand.
Van Wyk Smith, a Rhodes University professor emeritus who has lived in Grahamstown for the past 46 years, tells the war story on 96 album pages, filled mainly with airmail items relating to the role of the South African Air Force and the Royal Air Force, which had many South Africa members.
To serve the soldiers and the airmen South African military field post offices operated in Egypt and eventually in Libya and Tunisia. These offices are identified only by numbers in the postmark, since for security no place names were given.
The authorities recognised the importance of home contact for servicemen, but there was a dearth of space (or weight) available on the shuttle planes flying between South Africa and Egypt. So the war spawned a postal innovation in the form of a lightweight lettersheet, the precursor of the aerogram.
Van Wyk Smith is showing one of only three examples known of the very first Springbok aerogram for servicemen.
These war letters were subject to censorship, and numerous censor markings were applied to letters and aerograms. Some rare markings on envelopes refer to damage sustained as a result of air crashes.
“One of the interesting aspects of the war philately is that South African stamps were used by our forces in Egypt,” van Wyk Smith said. “Such stamps can only by identified by the numbered and dated military postmark, while some have Egyptian postmarks.”
A wide variety of collections will be on display at Bayworld in the 8 000 album pages of stamps and postal items. A special postmark will be used by the temporary post office at the centre.
Entrance to the exhibition is free.
