On Tuesday October 7th Banbury Stamp Society welcomed Kim Stuckey who presented material from the Falklands war.
Kim had a wide range of material on show, and the display broke down into five sections.
We started with the lead up to the war, going back to 1933 when the Argentine Post Office refused to recognise the Falkland stamps issued to commemorate 100 years of British rule. Downgrading of British maritime support for the islands throughout the 1970’s lead to an increase in ties with Argentina, who even built the runway on the islands. Kim suggested that, had Argentina waited, a transfer of sovereignty could well have happened.
Instead, Argentina invaded on April 2nd, 1982. The invasion force was largely young conscripts who quickly became homesick and were all eager to write home. Letter writing material was in short supply and Kim showed letters written on whatever paper could be found. Mail was sent free of charge.
During this period, the islanders were still able to send mail. The last mail out of the islands was March 30th, and mail posted in the few days after this could use Falkland Island stamps but received both a British and an Argentine postmark. After April 6th, stamps were defaced and Argentine stamps were to be used. After total exclusion zone was implemented, no mail was carried and mail sent to the Falklands from the UK was returned to sender.
We then moved on to British forces mail, starting with mail sent en-route to the islands. Many troops travelled on the QEII liner and all troop mail was sent by ship back to Ascension Island and then flown to the UK. A significant amount of the covers shown were sent to ‘Sovereign Roses’ in the Channel Islands for mail order flowers to be sent to loved ones. A range of cachets and postal rates were on display and included examples from other well-known vessels including RFA Sir Galahad, HMS Coventry and Atlantic Causeway (sister ship to the Atlantic Conveyor).
After the war, military post offices were set up on the islands and these were followed by the reopening of the civilian mail service. One interesting service occurred when the runway was being repaired from the damage inflicted by the Vulcan bombing raid. A Hercules aircraft would fly down from Ascension, air drop incoming mail and then using a trailing grappling hook, snag and retrieve outgoing mail to take back to Ascension. Since then, an international standard runway has been constructed, there is a permanent garrison and early warning radar was installed. Argentina continued to deface mail to the Falklands for several years after. In 2013 the islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain British.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday October 22nd: ‘Puerto Rico and Ifni: two contrasting Spanish Colonies’. Meet at 7:30pm at Hanwell Fields Community Centre. The Banbury Stamp Society is on-line at ‘www.banburystampsociety.co.uk’, or contact John Davies on 01295 255831.