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Uganda And Zanzibar

16th October 2008

By John Griffith-Jones

Introduction

Back in 1974 I was winding down a management consultancy posting in Dar es Salaam and, for once in my professional life, had a bit of time to kill. My idle musings led me to re-kindle my childhood interest in stamp collecting. By virtue of my location I chose East Africa as my subject and put together a starter collection based on the limited, mainly post independence, material that I was able to find locally. On my return to London other commitments intervened and my collection lay fallow for some years. It was only in the late 1980s that I embarked on my philatelic adventure in earnest.

I had no idea in those early days how compelling the adventure would be. With growing familiarity with the material, as many collectors find, came the desire and the need to narrow my focus. Again as so many collectors find, I became increasingly engaged by the postal history alongside the stamps. The result of this evolution is the three specialist collections that form this display:

The three collections have a common theme. They are all about local initiatives taken in response to needs as they arose at formative stages in the postal development of the region. The empires of that era had their distinctive personalities, of which their stamps and postal arrangements were a consistent reflection. The French Empire was Paris-centric and the German systematic and orderly, qualities mirrored in their stamps. The British Empire was marked above all by pragmatism and improvisation. Albeit with occasional - and usually unwelcome - bouts of micro management from Whitehall British colonial administrators, including postal administrators, were by and large expected to get on with it. A consequence of improvisation was an exceptional richness, distinctiveness and variety of philatelic material, which I hope viewers feel is evoked in the display that follows.

The Missionary Stamps Of Uganda 1895-99 (frames 1 to 23)

Primitive stamps may lack elegance, but they reflect the often difficult circumstances of their production and hold a special appeal for some collectors. Such are the 'missionary' stamps of Uganda. No printing facilities were available in Uganda when it became a British Protectorate in August 1894. Needing a postal service, the embryonic administration looked for help to the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), which had long since established a presence. The first stamps, ready for the launch of the postal service on 20 March 1895, were created by Rev Ernest Millar on his typewriter. He produced four further such issues over the ensuing 15 months. By now the CMS had imported a hand press from England to support its rapidly expanding mission. Two printings of typeset stamps were produced on this machine under the supervision of Rev Frank Rowling. The first De La Rue definitive issue was introduced in November 1898, but typeset stamps remained in use well into the following year.

The great auctions of the 1980s - Rossiter in 1983, Dunstan in 1985 and Isleham in 1987 - had been and gone by the time I became deeply embroiled in the missionary stamps. For a number of years I had to be satisfied with incremental gains here and there, including a number of items from the 1980s auctions that came back on to the market. Several years ago I was fortunate to acquire the Uganda postal history collection of Dr David Trapnell (of which more in a moment). Thereafter Peter Chantry's extensive collection came on to the market. This year the sale of the Scott collection in Zurich gave me the opportunity to fill some important gaps.

Uganda (frames 1 to 8)

Freed from the constraints of competitive displays, I make no apologies about introducing an unusually long contextual section. The missionary stamps are inseparable from the life and times of the missionaries who created and used them. For most surviving covers it is possible to identify the sender or the recipient or both. Behind the covers are living, breathing people about whom much is known from documentary records. The missionary stamp period was a bridge between the pioneering times of the early missionaries (for whom conditions were extremely challenging and martyrdom was a real risk) and the more settled colonial environment that prevailed by the turn of the 20th century.

My acquisitions from David Trapnell included a fascinating collection of contemporary letters, diaries, photographs and other memorabilia passed down through his family. Archdeacon Robert Walker (to become 'Uncle Bob' within the family) was David's great uncle, a committed letter writer over many years and one of the protagonists of the missionary stamp era. He knew that David's grandmother was a stamp collector and used to send her items of interest. David gathered in several boxes of material found in the lofts and garages of other family members.

Extracts from this material form the core of this part of the display, supplemented by maps and other items acquired elsewhere. I have ordered the material as follows:

The typewritten stamps (frames 8 to 12)

The typewritten stamps are known colloquially as the 'Millars' after their creator. They were of very simple designs of letters and figures, the typewriter's hyphens and apostrophes serving to delineate the borders. Millar did not have the technology to apply perforation to the stamps or to gum them. They were applied by means of natural gum available locally, with the result that used examples of the stamps are quite often badly stained. Millar denominated the values in cowries (shells), the local currency in use at the time. The stamps were intended for use just within Uganda, external mail being carried privately by CMS bag to Mombasa and charged back separately to the sender's account.

For each of the five Millar issues the display presents

Many of the items displayed have a distinguished provenance, from Ferrary onwards. Only a handful of examples of most values survives. Items of particular interest include:

Typeset stamps (frames 13 to 23)

By 1896 the demand for mail was outstripping the capacity of Millar and his typewriter. The solution lay through a printing press that arrived at Luba's, 25 miles from Kampala, in March 1896. The first typeset stamps, also known as the 'Rowlings' after the missionary responsible for producing them, were finally issued in November 1896, to be followed by a second printing in July 1897.

The two printings (frames 13 and 14)

Like the typewritten stamps the typesets were imperforate and usually ungummed. This part of the display opens with a description of the format and plating of the two printings through a series of panes and sheets (including a sheet of the 1 rupee value with gum, considered unique). Unless badly cut, the plating position of any typeset stamp can be identified by reference to variations in type, sheet margins and/or the alignment of the printer's 'rules' (borders) separating the stamps.

Usage (frames 14 to 18)

Until datestamps were introduced at the end of 1898, Uganda mail continued to be cancelled in manuscript or was left uncancelled. I have organised typeset mail from this period into three groups:

The 'L' overprints (frames 18 and 19)

At this point in the story we need to pick up the parallel thread of the so-called 'L' overprints. They were produced in mid 1897 by Robert Racey, then a young postal official in Kampala, in response to an administrative instruction from London and were intended to differentiate local and external use of the typeset stamps. In practice, their application was inconsistent.

The display includes single and multiple examples of the 'L' overprint stamps, with the exception of the 5 rupees 'L', of which the only known copies are held by a dealer in Los Angeles. I have also included the original of a letter by Robert Racey, written many years after the event and explaining the origin of the 'L' overprints, which had previously been obscure to collectors.

The display follows with a representative selection of the 17 recorded covers and cover fronts showing the overprint. My favourite among these is a cover to Archdeacon Walker with the 'L' overprint applied to the gummed envelope flap on the reverse, presumably in the absence of local glue. Examples also exist, of which two are illustrated, of attempted use of the 'L' overprint' on external mail. I have also included a notable late 1898 example of a mixed franking of stamps with and without the 'L' overprint, which was accepted in Mombasa for onward delivery to England.

Special subjects

I have followed the 'L' overprints with studies of specialist subjects that fall outside the mainstream of CMS missionary mail, but all contribute to the early Uganda story:

Transition (frames 21 to 23)

In the final episode of the missionary stamp story, three concurrent developments at the end of 1898 combined to bring Uganda from the pioneering into the then modern era:

The Zanzibar Postage Dues 1884-1964 (frames 25 to 38)

Early in my collecting life my curiosity was aroused by the locally produced postage dues of Zanzibar in use between 1926 and 1935 - plain to the eye, but full of character. I acquired stamps, sheets and a few covers, including an important lot that came to Stanley Gibbons from the collection of E M Trueman, an official of the Eastern Telegraph Company at the time of the stamps. Some eight years ago I was able to acquire the bulk of the outstanding collection of these issues built up by Gary DuBro.

My interest extended to the periods before and after the local issues. I came to realise that Zanzibar presents a unique tapestry of different approaches to postage due treatment:

Zanzibar (frame 25)

I have not indulged myself with contextual material in the same way as for Uganda, but some orientation is helpful. The display begins with some maps. I am rather fond of the first, a beautifully engraved item which was published in the 1850s and thus pre-dates our period. Zanzibar's location on the African side of the Indian Ocean seaboard is key to understanding the cultural and commercial forces that influenced the island.

I follow with a small sample of the more than 200 picture postcards of Zanzibar that were produced at the turn of the 20th century. This was the great age of the postcard. If one considers the small size of the territory and the paucity of local demand their range and sheer numbers are astonishing.

The Indian handstamps (frames 26 and 27)

A post office was permanently established in Zanzibar under Indian administration in 1875. The stamps used were those of India. In the early years compulsory prepayment of both inbound and outbound mail was the official rule. Arrangements for charging postage due on unpaid and underpaid mail needed to be put in place when compulsory prepayment was lifted in 1884. Postage due, charged in Zanzibar as elsewhere at double the payment deficiency, was marked by means of Indian-style handstamps. Three handstamp types were to be applied during the 30 plus years of their use.

Items of particular interest include:

The French Post Office (frame 27)

The French Post Office was open in Zanzibar between 1889 and 1904. Postage due stamps were provided from Paris in 1897. These do not belong to the main thread of Zanzibar postage due development and sit best as part of the wider story of the postage dues of the French Colonies, in which David Herendeen is the leading expert. Nevertheless, they add to the richness of postage due treatment in Zanzibar and for the sake of completeness I have included in the display the stamps, some of the principal errors and varieties and one of the nine recorded covers of the issue.

The locally produced issues (frames 28 to 36)

Although the Indian handstamps went out of use, keeping track and collecting the revenue due on insufficiently prepaid mail continued to present a headache. Zanzibar was a small territory with correspondingly modest mail volumes. The postal authorities opted for a simple low-cost approach. The postage due stamps were an entirely local initiative, produced on a treadle platen press at the Government Printing Office. On a visit to Zanzibar a few years ago I was delighted to discover such a press, of which I have included a photograph in the display, under layers of dust at the back of the modern government printing works.

The stamps were produced in sheets of ten, perforated but without gum. They certainly did not win any prizes for elegance. A government official at the time referred to them disparagingly, but not inaccurately, as "something akin to price tickets". I consider the stamps as three issues rather than the conventional two. The first design was applied in two distinct phases, the first on a range of coloured papers produced in 1926 and the second only on orange paper produced in 1929 and 1930. The second design (third issue in the parlance of this display) was introduced towards the end of 1930.

The plating and production sequence of each issue are presented in turn. For the first two issues I have had to go back to first principles in the absence of contemporary records or any meaningful philatelic research. Plating is illustrated by reference to complete sheets, except for those values that do not survive in sheet form.

For each issue the plating analysis is followed by a chronological display of covers to illustrate usage. 59 covers are displayed out of a total of 247 recorded in my census of these issues. Great Britain apart, many of the covers come from India and the other colonies of East Africa, illustrating the pattern of Zanzibar's trading and social ties. All values are shown on cover, except for the 12 and 25 cents of the second issue, which have not been recorded in this form. All items on cover are plated.

First issue (frames 28 to 30)

Production of the first issue was in or before August 1926, the month of the first cover. I open this part of the display with a sheet of the 18 cents on salmon, which shows the distinctive 'cent.s' error in position 4/1. Noteworthy items include:

Second issue (frames 30 to 33)

13 values of the second issue were produced in seven printings between February 1929 and mid 1930, all on orange paper. While the same forme remained in use the 'look and feel' of the second issue is entirely different from the first. Features of the issue suggest much less care and consistency than previously. The 'cent.s' error survived until corrected towards the end of the issue.

The evolution of the issue through its various printings can be demonstrated by analysing changes in box rules and perforation rules, variations in print impression and other production characteristics. The dates of covers and used examples help to establish an approximate production chronology.

Items to note include:

Third issue (frames 33 to 36)

The stamps produced from August 1930 onwards used a fresh design. Five values were printed on paper of different colours, the 25 cents coming in two separate colour versions. This third issue has been more extensively analysed by previous collectors than the first two. Building on the work of others, the display presents a structure of six settings, with five printings of the sixth. Detailed study of earliest recorded dates has helped to establish chronology and sequence. The relatively intensive of the smaller number of values resulted in successive re-printings.

Items of interest include:

The De La Rue issue (frames 36 to 38)

A new De La Rue definitive issue was launched on 1 January 1936 to coincide with the replacement of the rupee by the shilling in Zanzibar's currency. A new issue of postage dues, also printed by De La Rue, was introduced on the same date. Zanzibar was now in the mainstream of postage due application. Inevitably the De La Rue issue lacks the distinctiveness of its predecessors, but it was part of the Zanzibar story for nearly 30 years.

The die proofs are presented and the major ordinary and chalky paper printings briefly identified. A range of covers (17 out of a modest 35 recorded to date) demonstrates the changing patterns of usage. Covers are particularly scarce from the early 1950s onwards. Items to note include:

The display concludes with a reference to the handstamp overprints that followed the declaration of the Republic.

The Zanzibar Provisionals 1895-96: A Plating Study (frames 40 to 52)

In my studies of the Uganda missionaries and the Zanzibar postage dues postal history has been a hugely important ingredient. By contrast my investigation of the Zanzibar 'provisionals' has been a largely forensic exercise. Early on I was drawn by the seemingly infinite complexity of the overprints and surcharges (a subject that would leave many postal historians cold!). My list of questions became longer and longer. Unravelling the mysteries of the 'provisionals' became something of an obsession - challenging and occasionally headache-inducing, but always fascinating. Postal history material has been of collateral interest to this pursuit, but not of central importance.

By the time I embarked on my own collection the major collections of the past - Vialou, Danson, Baumann and so on - had all long since been dispersed. With the passage of time I was able to acquire items from dealers and auction houses and gradually re-assemble important pieces. The emergence on the market four years ago of the collection of Terry Sturton, acquired over a period of some 50 years, was an important milestone.

By way of background, Zanzibar became a British Protectorate in 1890, but the Post Office remained for the time being under Indian administration, as it had been since its establishment in 1875. The stamps of India continued to be used and cancelled locally. The Zanzibar Government finally took over direct responsibility for its postal service on 10 November 1895.

As a temporary measure the Indian stamps then in stock were overprinted 'Zanzibar' at the offices of the Zanzibar Gazette, which had been established soon after the formation of the Protectorate and contained the only printing facilities on the island. In the event, due to a succession of bureaucratic delays and communications hiccoughs, the definitive De La Rue issue was not ready for release until December 1896. In the intervening 13 months Thomas Remington, the newly-appointed Postmaster General, had to juggle his limited stamp supplies, for much of this period with competing demand for provisional stamps in British East Africa, for which he was also responsible. The numerous errors and varieties quickly attracted the interest of collectors at that time and compounded his supply problems.

There was a flurry of interest in the philatelic press at the time and a number of useful articles were published over the following few years. The definitive work on these issues was compiled by the noted philatelist Thomas Hall and published in 1906. Hall was later to become Editor of the London Philatelist and President of the 'Royal'. Several important collections have been assembled since then, but without any material additions to the literature.

The study now presented is the first comprehensive re-examination of these issues since Hall. The display is in six sections.

Introduction (frame 40)

The display opens with some illustrative forerunners from the Indian Post Office and a listing of the Indian stamps - and briefly those of British East Africa - used for overprinting.

There follows an introduction to the basic features of the overprints and surcharges. Remington dealt with shortages of the 2½ annas value - at that time the ½ oz foreign letter rate and the value in most frequent demand - by arranging for already overprinted stamps of other values to be surcharged '2½'.

Settings (frame 41)

Hall identified four settings of the overprints, which he referred to as A, B, C and D. I have used Hall's designations, but re-arranged them in the sequence in which they actually occurred I have added a further setting which was not available to Hall at the time of his study, which I have named the 'Baumann' setting, after the collector in whose auction catalogue the setting first appeared publicly. I have deleted Hall's setting B, which on close analysis I found to be incorporated within setting D. The resulting chronological sequence runs thus: Hall D, Baumann, Hall C, Hall A.

To complicate matters the surcharge also appeared in a number of different settings, of which I have identified five.

In the display I have illustrated the setting sequence with five of the 14 recorded panes and half panes of these issues, including one of the two used by Hall to illustrate his 1906 study.

Overprint and surcharge reference list (frames 42 to 44)

Overprints

This next section presents a comprehensive illustrated reference list of the errors and varieties. I have shown 74 thus, compared with the 56 listed in Hall. The list is still growing! I have organised the material into five groups, as follows:

Surcharges

For the seven surcharge types I have adopted a classification from I to VII (described in Stanley Gibbons as 2 to 8). An example is shown of the rare Type VII surcharge (already illustrated in the settings shown earlier). The major rarity shown in this group is the only recorded example of the '2/2' error in type VI. A number of examples are shown of the inverted '1' in '½' and Roman '1' in '½' varieties.

Production sequence (frames 45 to 49)

I have sought to re-construct the likely chronology of the overprint and surcharge printings, of which there were at least 28 all told. The first sheet of this section provides an all-important summary! This is a complicated exercise and involves a degree of speculation, but was not attempted by Hall in his own study. Further examples of rarities are used to illustrate the sequence. Many used examples, including some on cover, provide evidence of chronology.

First overprint setting, 15 November 1895 - May 1896 (frames 45 and 46)

The seven printings of this setting saw a step-by-step evolution of Hall's setting D, later incorporating his setting B.

In the first printing, which had happened by 14 November 1895, the ½ anna and 1 anna values were overprinted experimentally in blue. The ½ anna in blue, of which unused and used examples are shown, is one of the acknowledged provisional rarities. An interesting, also experimental, printing of the 1 anna took place in blue black ink before black ink was adopted as the norm. Subsequent printings of this setting are illustrated with further examples of the 'Zanzidar' errors. Supplies of 2½ annas stamps quickly ran short and the first surcharge setting had been applied by 30 November 1895. Further printings of the overprint followed in early 1896, one of which was surcharged with the second surcharge setting on 11 May 1896. The surcharge settings are illustrated in the display by two rare usages of the surcharge on cover.

Second overprint setting, May - October 1896 (frames 46 to 48)

The nine printings of the second setting evolved in a sequence that started with the Baumann setting and later led to Hall's setting C.

The first printing of this setting was on the ½ anna, 1 anna and 1½ annas of the newly-released British East Africa issue. The second (extensive) printing reverted to the use of Indian stamps. A key transition occurred with the next printing, which was of the 6 annas. The setting had to be adapted from the normal 6 x 10 configuration of stamps on the sheet to the 8 x 10 configuration that applied uniquely to the 6 annas value. This was achieved by adding two columns to the left of the Baumann setting. Thus columns 1 to 6 of the Baumann setting became columns 3 to 8 of the new form of the setting. The new columns 1 to 6 were then carried forward in subsequent printings, columns 7 and 8 of the transitional 6 annas printing having been dropped.

A sequence of further printings, including several surcharge applications, took place from July onwards. Notable among these were a printing with the 'Zanibar' error (July), a second printing on three other values of the British East Africa stamps (August) and a printing with the diaeresis over second 'a' variety (August/ September). As the year continued Remington responded to growing philatelic demand with further issues of the surcharged stamps.

Third overprint setting, October 1896 (frames 48 and 49)

Delivery of the definitive issue was still being delayed and further stopgap measures were needed. The third overprint setting, Hall's setting A, was used in two printings for limited production of the five low values. Several new varieties emerged, including Daun's capital 'Z', the malformed second 'a' and the rare italic second 'z'.

The 'Postal Union' issue (frame 49)

The source material for the so-called 'Postal Union' issue was the remaining stock from the late printing of Hall's setting C and the subsequent printing of Hall's setting A. Having visited the UPU archives in Berne and seen that Remington had supplied earlier examples of provisional stamps to the Postal Union I question whether the late printings were used for any other than philatelic purposes.

The definitive issue (frame 49)

The long-awaited definitive issue was finally brought into use in early December 1896. The surcharges, however, had one final appearance - on the 4 annas of the new issue in a printing on 5 January 1897.

The large format stamps (frames 49 and 50)

Remington used the same overprint design for the large format stamps - the 2, 3 and 5 rupees - as for the small. Information about the overprint of the large format stamps has been threadbare. Hall identified most of the principal errors and varieties, but was virtually silent on their plating.

The stamps come in panes of only 12 each, but no complete panes have, to my knowledge, survived. I have not (yet) been able to re-construct a full pane for plating purposes.

All of the known errors and varieties are presented in the display. Notable among these is the exceptional 'Zanziba' error in the three values. Three copies of each were recorded by Hall at the time of his study. One set is now in the Royal Collection. One value from the third set is missing, believed destroyed.

The postal stationery (frames 51 and 52)

Pre-printed envelopes, postcards, registered envelopes and wrappers were extremely important to the postal arrangements of the time, accounting by my estimation to some 25 per cent of all mail usage in Zanzibar in this period.

In his 1906 study Hall made only cursory reference to the postal stationery. By far the most thorough study to date has been by George Krieger, published in 2003 in the East Africa Study Circle bulletin.

The postal stationery overprints do not display the same varieties as the stamps. It is all but certain that the postal stationery, like the stamps, was overprinted at the offices of the Zanzibar Gazette. A different press may well have been used - possibly (my speculation) the same press that was later to be used for the local production of the postage dues.

My own study of the postal stationery is still 'work in progress'. I have displayed a preliminary classification of the envelopes, postcards, registered envelopes and wrappers. More to follow in due course!

 

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