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One of my favourite Units " Messrs C.Dhanji Bhai and Company's Tonga Train"
This envelope is posted from the Advance Depot, Pretoria on the 2nd July 1901 and is addressed to
Mohamed, Servant of Seth Sahile Seth,
Dhanji lehoy tonga agency, Rawalpindi.

More on Messrs C.Dhanji Bhai and Company's Tonga Train here

angloboerwar.com/forum/5-medals-and-awar...he-indian-contingent

At last a "named" envelope sent by Postmaster Aladin to India. On the roll for a QSA with 3 clasps and a KSA. Sent from Bloemfontein to India

Another letter from Aladin .........with a story.





Sir Charles Stewart Wilson KCIE, to whom both items are addressed to,, as well as being Postmaster General was a prominent Indian Philatelist ( founder member and a signatory of Prominent Philatelists of the Royal Philatelic Society of London).

STEWART-WILSON, Sir Charles KCIE 1864-1950. Director General of Indian Post Office, 1906-12. Original member of P.S. of India, and President for many years. Edited Philatelic Journal of India, 1898-1905. Council Member RPSL, 1915-39. Wrote 'British Indian Adhesive Stamps Surcharged for Native States' [1897-98] (revised edition with BG Jones, 1904). Joint author with CSF Crofton and LLR Hausburg of RPSL handbook on 'The Postage and Telegraph Stamps of British India' [1907]. RDP 1921.


Looks as if he sent his man, Aladin off to war with a brief to send him rare items for his collection.

I hope Aladin was able to secure some great items for Sir Charles' collection. The 1st item I thought might have been correspondence or returns between one postmaster and another. Might well have been a package of collector's postal items sourced during the war. An interesting side line for Aladin - our modern day "knocker".

I purchased this cover to "prove" the IPMT was based for some time at Fort Napier, Pietermaritzburg.

More on the Indian Pack Mule Train here

angloboerwar.com/forum/5-medals-and-awar...n-contingent?start=6

and here

angloboerwar.com/forum/5-medals-and-awar...gent?start=168#45793

Despite the name being cut out I was able to identify the recipient and find out that his medals were sold in the auction rooms of Messrs Dix, Noonan & Webb from whose catalogue the following is taken.







William Bell was born on 18 July 1881. Served in the Boer War initially as a Conductor attached to the Indian Pack Mule Train. Subsequently commissioned into the A.S.C., he served with No. 13 Company and was awarded the Queen’s medal with one clasp and the King’s medal with two. Prior to the war he lived at ‘Coombe Cottage, Vale Road, Claygate, Surrey’. With the outbreak of the Great War he applied for a commission and was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the A.S.C. on 31 August 1914, being promoted to Lieutenant in October 1914, Captain in October 1914 and Major in May 1915. Bell served in France, 20 May 1915-4 May 1916 and Salonika and Anatolia, 20 September 1918-4 February 1921. For his services in the latter theatres, he was awarded the Greek War Cross 2nd Class by the King of the Hellenes (London Gazette 16 January 1920).

David
Thank you for sharing with us another tremendous addition to your collection. I doubt that anyone else realised that there was such a good story to be told about the 'man behind the postcard'.
Regards
Brett

Postmaster Aladin, the sender of the mail in my previous posts.