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Postal History of the Falkland Islands Dependencies1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Richard W. Bagshawe
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Extract

The Antartic continent has been in the limelight during the past year, and it is well known that several countries are claiming parts of the area, which unfortunately overlap. Possessions belonging to Great Britain, but at present disputed, are all islands and territories lying between longitudes 20°and 50° W., south of latitudes 58° S. The islands enclosed by these boundaries are Dependencies of the Falkland Islands consisting of many islands and part the Antartic Continent. South Georgia, the South Orkney Islands, Graham Land, the South Shetland Islands, the South Sandwich Islands, Alexander I Land and part of Coats Land lie within this area, which amounts in all to about three million square miles, and the territories, portions of which are as yet unexplored, extend down to the South Pole. Great Britain permanently occupies the Dependencies, carrying on a whaling industry and scientific research. In addition the Argentine Government has a meteorological station on Laurie Island in the South Orkneys. This was established in 1904 at the request of Dr W. S. Bruce, leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, who had built the station two years earlier. Since 1904 it has been continually manned by meteorologists sent out each year from Argentina. The original party had a post office, the first to appear in Antarctica. This and the more recent ones set up under British administration are marked on the accompanying map. Owing to the impermanence of the population of this part of the world they are naturally not all open continuously.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 5 , Issue 33-34 , December 1947 , pp. 45 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1947

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References

page 45 note 2 Defined in Letters Patent of 1908 and 1917.

page 46 note 1 Conventions et Divers, Bulletin No. 54, Berne, 12 December 1941.Google Scholar

page 47 note 1 The “General Post Stamps” of South Georgia have also been called “Franks”.

page 47 note 2 Mr B. S. H. Grant has a cover incorrectly dated 12 February 1944.

page 47 note 3 Gibbons’ Stamp Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 4, 1946, p. 85.Google Scholar

page 48 note 1 Lowe, Robson, Handstruck Postage Stamps of the Empire. London, 3rd edition 1940–1941, p. 102.Google ScholarGrant, B.S.H., “The Falkland Islands (South Georgia)Frankof 1911–1912.” London Philatelist, Vol. 42, No. 494, 1933, pp. 35–37.Google Scholar

page 48 note 2 Abbreviation for “Stanley Gibbons’ Catalogue Number”.

page 48 note 3 Lawson, W. H., “South Georgia (Falkland Islands). Notes regarding the Unauthorised Bisected Stamp of March, 1923.” London Philatelist, Vol. 33, No. 390, 1924, pp. 150–51.Google ScholarGrant, B. S. H., “The Falkland Dependency of South Georgia.” London Philatelist, Vol. 46, No. 551, 1937, p. 263.Google Scholar

page 48 note 4 Grant, B.S.H., “The Stamps of the Falkland Islands and their Dependencies.” London Philatelist, Vol. 37, No. 442, 1928, p. 223.Google Scholar

page 48 note 5 Grant, B. S. H., “Notes on the Falkland Islands (South Georgia) Provisional of 1928.” London Philatelist, Vol. 39, No. 463, 1930, pp. 164–67.Google Scholar

page 48 note 6 Stone, Dudley, “Falkland Islands. New Data.” London Philatelist, Vol. 43, No. 507, 1934, p. 53.Google Scholar

page 49 note 1 Only two known.

page 49 note 2 Gibbons’ Stamp Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 4, 1945, p. 35.Google Scholar

page 50 note 1 Gibbons’ Stamp Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 4, 1943, p. 35.Google Scholar

page 50 note 2 Ibid.

page 51 note 1 The list of vignette plate numbers is only tentative.

page 51 note 2 Shades. The shades of 4d., magenta-lake and 6d., ochre have been catalogued, but the writer inclines to the view that these are not genuine varieties, but colour changelings, as he has produced both shades from the normal stamps by prolonged exposure to sunlight. Until something more definite is discovered about these shades, their validity must be regarded as doubtful.

page 51 note 3 Gibbons’ Stamp Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 8, 1946, p. 66.Google Scholar Also see Melville's, F. J.Postage Stamps in the Making, London, 1916, pp. 121 and 127,Google Scholar for accounts of lithographic flaws.

page 52 note 1 Although the Peace stamps were issued in the South Orkneys on the date given, some exist cancelled with postmark Type 3c and incorrectly dated 16 February 1946. Mr L. T. Marpole received 200 sets, of which 88 of the 1d. and 64 of the 3d. values were thus postmarked, with the remainder correctly dated 16 February 1947. Those dated 16 February 1946 were postmarked incorrectly by accident; the rubber circle inside the instrument having slipped round.

page 52 note 2 The official date of release is open to some doubt since the stamps were clearly first put into use on different dates at the different post offices in Graham Land. Covers from Hope.Bay exist dated as early as 10 February 1947.

page 53 note 1 Grant, B. S. H., “The Stamps of the Falkland Islands and their Dependencies.” London Philatelist, Vol. 37, No. 442, 1928, pp. 222–23Google Scholar. Grant, B. S. H., “The Falkland Dependency of South Georgia.” London Philatelist, Vol. 46, No. 551, 1937, pp. 261–63.Google Scholar

page 54 note 1 Stone, Dudley, “Falkland Islands. New Data.” London Philatelist, Vol. 43, No. 507, 1934, pp. 53–54.Google Scholar

page 55 note 1 Pirie, J. H. Harvey, “The First Antarctic Post.” South African Philatelist, April 1935, pp. 54–56.Google Scholar

page 56 note 1 Grant, B. S. H., “The Falkland Islands Dependency of South Shetlands.” London Philatelist, Vol 44, No. 523, 1935, pp. 159–62.Google Scholar

page 56 note 2 Ibid.

page 56 note 3 Ibid.

page 57 note 1 Gibbons’ Stamp Monthly, Vol. 18, No. 7, 1945, p. 56.Google Scholar