Prisoner of War Mail

"The Far Eastern Prisoners of War suffered dreadfully in captivity. To say that their treatment was inhuman is to underestimate their experience. It was brutal in the extreme. To be a captive is bad enough but to be a captive under the conditions that these men endured is virtually unthinkable." Terry Waite CBE

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Ref. Number	Description	Price $US
ThaiPh0145	THAILAND. 1917. Prisoner of War mail cover written by Civil Internee addressed to Germany with hand-stamp ‘Concentration Camp,Siam / Prisoner of War Letter’ cancelled by bilingual Bangkok date stamp with ‘Controle Postal Militaire/Controle/346’ double ring in violet and vernacular ‘Prisoner of war Camp/Censor by the Colonel/Bangkok’. Very Fine and Rare.	$1975.00
POW029	THAILAND. 1944. Prisoner of War Air Mail card 3d violet cancelled by Walton on Naze double ring addressed to ‘P.O.W. in No 2 camp, Thailand’ with boxed ‘Crown/Passed P.W. 7770’ British censor, routed via India with ‘F.P.O. 305’ hand-stamp in red with boxed instructional ‘Returned in Undelivered Mails / From Territory Formerly Occupied / By Japanese Forces’ and boxed ‘Return to Sender’ hand-stamp. Scarce item.	$450.00
IEF0025	INDIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE (POW / EGYPT): 1919 Registered cover f.w. India Geo. Fifth I.E.F. stamps tied by FPO 116 (dtd 31 DEC 19) used at POW camp Sidi-Bishr Egypt & sent to POW Camp @ Malta; with boxed “ALIENS INTERNMENT CAMP / SID BISHR ALEXANDRIA” handstamp in violet and “R No. 3 / I.F.P.O. 115” handstamp also in violet. RARE & ATTRACTIVE cover!	$1075.00
Gurkha012	1944 NEPALESE PRISONER-OF-WAR MAIL, Airmail, Germany to Nepal: Lettersheet sent by a Gurkha soldier from the German P.O.W. Camp STALAG XII A (Limburg der Lahn) via Baghdad to Dailekh, Nepal. P.O.W. mail was carrid free, 25pf. Hitler stamp covered the Airmail fee. AIRMAIL (manuscript “Mit Louft Post / via Bagdad”. Indian Censor Mark & KATHMANDU Exchange P.O. datestamp. The letter, in English (dtd 29.7.44) was from the soldier to his father. (Approximately 200,000 Nepalese troops served with the British-Indian Army in World War II, but P.O.W. mail from Germany to Nepal is extremely Rare. (Ex. Hellrigl, Ex. Singer)	$1000.00
Gurkha004	NEPAL’S GURKHAS: Undated (circa 1943) post card sent by a Gurkha Prisoner of War from an unnamed P.O.W. Camp in Italy, sent to Palpa. The message is printed, allowing the Prisoner only minor changes and his signature. The card bears a Red Cross (Geneva) marking and Bombay Censor Mark. There are no postal markings (as usual). (Ex. A. Singer)	$300.00
Gurkha007	NEPAL’S GURKHAS: March 1943 stampless letter card sent by a Gurkha Prisoner of War from an unnamed P.O.W. Camp in Italy, sent to Palpa. Complete letter enclosed. Violet marking of the Italian Foreign Mail Censor Office. The body of the letter also bears an Indian Censor Mark. (Ex. A. Singer)	$300.00
POW017	AUSTRALIA TO MALAYA 20th December 1942 Pte G H Brown from Australia addressed to Air Observers Corps POW Malaya. The cover from his wife is Australian Red Cross type Ae 3 (with c/o OFFICIAL PRISONERS OF WAR INFORMATION BUREAU totally obliterated and replaced with C/o JAPANESE RED CROSS SOCIETY in red). It has no Australian postal markings and the inscription indicates it was mailed on 20th December 1942 and received on 17th July 1944. 19 months later. There is an oval Japanese censor seal of Obana in orange- red measuring 10mm by 8 mm. The square 3 PASSED BY CENSOR 267 in violet is the Australian censor mark with the 3 Opened by Censor resealing tape in red on the reverse. The cover has no location markings.	$275.00
POW018	ENGLAND TO THAILAND Card dated 16th May 1944 to Private Eric Palmer-Gowing, British POW, Thailand No 1 POW Camp, Thailand. This 3d POW card was sent by his mother and has a Westerfield, Ipswich circular date stamp. It has a UK PASSED PW 3178 octagonal handstamp in red. The inscription indicates it was received at “Nakwan Pathong”, (Nakon Pathon) a hospital camp near Non Pladuk on 24th October 1944, only 5 months after mailing. On the message side there is a rectangular Japanese censor mark in violet measuring 20mm by 15mm with Ken’etsuzumi (Censored) and an indistinct censor seal in orange. The card is marked in pencil manuscript AVO and M/C.	$335.00
POW019	AUSTRALIA TO THAILAND (DUTCH EAST INDIES) Cover dated 16th June 1943 to Pte J Rowley 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion AIF Australian POW Java (Dutch East Indies). The cover is Australian Red Cross has c/o OFFICIAL PRISONERS OF WAR INFORMATION BUREAU totally obliterated and replaced with C/o JAPANESE RED CROSS SOCIETY in red. The contents would have been sent to the Red Cross in Melbourne where this cover was typed, the contents enclosed, and the whole then placed in the mail. There is a Melbourne circular date stamp with a parallel line cancellation. No receipt date is noted. There is a Japanese censor mark in red measuring 18.5mm by 16mm with Ken’etsuzumi (Censored) and an indecipherable seal. The diamond 3 PASSED BY CENSOR 188 in violet is the Australian censor mark with the 3 Opened by Censor resealing tape in red on the reverse. The cover is inscribed OVL 19.1.43 in pencil, indicating he had been sent overland to the southern end of the Thailand-Burma railway via Singapore. This was probably inscribed in Singapore at the BRE, to where the cover had been forwarded. Only the BRE could have known that he was sent overland. (OVL). (Some water staining, but a scarce cover)	$210.00
POW020	ENGLAND TO MALAYA: 3d POW Card to Civilian internee in Enemy Civilians Internment Camp No 1 Malaya. This card was sent to Cecil Fulger from his wife in Croydon England. It has a Mitcham postmark. Addressed to Enemy Civilians Internment Camp No 1 it must have been written after the third card, written in May 1943, had been received by Mrs Fugler. The card has a UK octagonal censor and two Japanese censor seals. The first, applied in the POW camp is that of Nakajima and the orange seal of Suzuki was applied in Syme Road Civilian Camp.	$210.00
POW021	ENGLAND TO THAILAND: 3d card dated 9th October 1944, addressed to Gunner R E Harrison, No 2 Camp, Thailand, from the UK. The card was addressed to Thailand and returned undelivered with the same handstamp UNDELIVERED FOR REASON STATED RETURN TO SENDER and RETURNED IN UNDELIVERED MAILS FROM TERRITORY FORMERLY OCCUPIED BY JAPANESE FORCES. It has a straight-line date stamp of 12th November and has been readdressed to Indrapoera. A repatriation ship that left on Rangoon on 23rd September. The card was readdressed to PO Box 164 London, from where it was returned to sender.	$290.00
POW022	DUTCH EAST INDIES TO U.S.A. Cover from POW NO 23427, 15th Batt Bandoeng addressed to Spokane Washington, USA. This cover was sent free of postal charges by a former POW in Bandoeng Java, It has a circular date stamp of 26th March 1946. It is marked POW mail. Roughly opened.	$75.00
POW023	ENGLAND TO MALAYA (THAILAND): Cover dated 28th January 1943 to Gunner J L Beurrier 7th Coast Regiment RA 11th Battery Malaya British Prisoner of War, c/o Japanese Red Cross Tokyo from England. The cover was sent by his wife or mother and has a Woodford Green, Essex circular date stamp and wavy line cancellation. It has an UK OPENED BY EXAMINER 4990 PC90 resealing label in black. There is a rectangular boxed Japanese censor mark in red measuring 32mm x 10mm with the inscription reading Ken’etsuzumi (Censored) and the oval censor's seal of Kanematsu in red measuring 9mm by 7mm. The card is inscribed OVL 12/10/42 in pencil indicating Gunner Beurrier had been sent overland on 12th October 1942, to Ban Pong in Thailand to work on the railway.	$235.00
POW024	ENGLAND TO SINGAPORE: Cover dated 25th June 1943 to Sgt J P Howard, HQ 53rd Inf. Brigade, c/o APO No 1635, Singapore, British Prisoner of War, c/o Japanese Red Cross Tokyo. This cover is from his wife and has a London E1 circular date stamp and a wavy line cancellation It has a UK OPENED BY EXAMINER 3909 censor resealing tape. There is a Japanese censor box measuring 25mm by 14mm in grey-black with three characters reading Ken’etsuzumi (Censored) with the square seal of Adachi measuring 10mm by 10mm in black. This is a censor mark applied in Thailand. It has B OVL/T 29.10.42 in pencil inscribed by the BRE sorters in Changi. This indicates he had been sent to the Burma-Thailand railway on 29th October 1942 with T Party under Lt Col J Dean. The inscription on the back indicates it was received on 1st September 1944, 14 months after mailing.	$235.00
POW026	THAILAND TO ENGLAND: Undated card from Lance Bombardier Reg Stanborough, No 4 POW Camp, Thailand, to England. This POW card was sent to his family from No 4 Camp, headquartered at Tamuang, the 34km point on the Burma-Thailand Railway. These cards were sent in 1943 and were always undated. There were two issues of cards in most camps. It has preprinted sender’s details and Japanese inscriptions. The boxed preprinted Japanese marking reads Furyo Yūbin (Prisoner of War Post), one reading Tai Furyo Shūyōsho (Thai Prisoner of War Camp) and Ken’etsuzumi (Censored) in the rectangular box. This has a circular censor's seal in red measuring 15.5mm diameter, the seal of Suzuki. The card also has five vertical characters preprinted on the right hand side reading Yūbin Hagaki (Postcard). On the reverse is the preprinted message in English with erasures as appropriate. It has a PASSED PW 2155 octagonal British censor stamp in red. (Tatty Condition, but very scarce.)	$285.00

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