Army Field Post Office

[Terry Carter]

Could anyone help me with the location of Army Field Post Office 2354 please.

Thanks very much

Terry

[purley]

Could anyone help me with the location of Army Field Post Office 2354 please.

Sorry mate but in WW1 there was no FPO2354 - If you have a piece of correspondence you need to look at the combination of postmark, censor mark, date and censoring officers name.

Field post offices used postmarks with the Brigade or Division etc enscribed plain numbers are Brigade, D numbers are Divisions, C are cavalry brigades etc you need to quote both the prefix number and data as for security reasons units were required to exchange handstamps every 6 months.

You can get down to unit level with the censor marks. First look at the shape - the sequence ran circle, square, triangle, hexagon, vertical oval, vertical rectangle, octagon, shield and they bore a censor number . again for security reasons they reissued battalions with new censor marks every 6 months or so. We can usually tell the unit from the combination of shape and number - better if the name of the officer can be deciphered although the lists of vertical ovals and rectangles haven't been published.

The post offices moved around with the units.

There is a separate series of Base Post Offices which remained pretty static throughout the war.

If you like to provide all the details I might be able to help you

regards

John Chapman

[belgotim]

Hi John,

I have a postcard here that has a censor in "Shield" shape, and the number is 207.

The Field Post Office is

A

10 JA

19

Can you shed light on where it was sent from (location, unit,...)

thanks for all.

Tim