Governors

McCARRON, STEWART & Co., PRINTERS & STATIONERS, LETTER to GOVERNOR of SAMOA

This advertising cover of McCarron, Stewart & Co., Printers & Stationers, 44 Pitt St, Sydney had a blue 2½d New South Wales stamp canceled with a SYDNEY/ 9 JA 07 11–AM/ 20 postmark. The addressee was very faint but it was confirmed that it was sent to His Excellency, Dr. Solf, Samoa (Figure 1). The addressee’s name and address is shown more clearly in Figure 2. The reverse shows McCarron,

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AN INVITATION from BERT HAWKE to MISS CLANCY to MEET BILL SLIM

I recognize that this mundane cover is just an excuse for me to meet two men whose backgrounds were not dissimilar, whose careers were considerably divergent, yet both had a significant impact on Australia, during the same decade. I have no clue as to whom Miss Slim was, but I am sure that she was honoured by the invitation. In fact this cover was one of two separate invitations that

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GOV. PHILLIP & CINDERELLA STAMPS for AUSTRALIA’S 150TH ANNIVERSARY 1937-38

Two covers appeared on Ebay displaying in total, on the two covers, the 15 different designs of the cinderellas stamps that are derived from a sheet of 30. The format of the sheet was six horizontally and five vertically, with the same order repetition of the first and last three stamps in each horizontal row of six (Figure 1). The first cover has nine of the 15 cinderella stamp designs

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LORD BRASSEY, VICTORIAN GOVERNOR & R. FULLARTON, NAVAL BRIGADE

An undated On Her Majesty’s Service cover was addressed to Lord Brassey, Govt. House Melbourne by R. Fullarton, Commanding, Naval Brigade, and the MINISTER OF DEFENCE, FRANK STAMP, VICTORIA was applied in blue. This letter would have been sent during Thomas Brassey’s term as Governor of Victoria in the years 1895 to 1900 (Figure 1). Thomas Brassey,1st Earl Brassey was born in England on February 11,1836 at St. Mary’s Stafford,

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SIR MATTHEW NATHAN G.C.M.G., DIPLOMAT, GOVERNOR OF QUEENSLAND

This unusually addressed O.H.M.S. cover to Captain Nathan R.E., Secretary Colonial Defence Committee, Horse Guards, Whitehall, London, England does little justice to a man who gave three decades of service to many countries in the British Empire. It is postmarked with the Victorian ENGLISH MAIL T.P.O./ JA 25/ 98, which is partly obscuring the black MINISTER OF DEFENCE, FRANK STAMP introduced probably in 1884 (Figure 1). There is a printed

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GERTIE MILLAR, LONDON THEATRE QUEEN & WILLIAM HUMBLE DUDLEY

The postcard has a red 1d ‘Pictorial’ stamp of Tasmania which has a BISHOPSBOURNE/ OC 17/ 05/ TASMANIA postmark. It is addressed to Miss Heyes, “View Bank”,Evandale, Tasmania, and the message is of no special interest (Figure 1). The reverse shows a picture of Gertie Millar who was regarded as a Queen of the London stage, and she was a ‘Gaiety Girl’(Figure 2). Gertie Millar was born in Bradford, Yorkshire,

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LADY RODWELL, WIFE of a FORMER GOVERNOR of SOUTHERN RHODESIA

This envelope was addressed to Lady Rodwell, C/o The Forum Club, Grosvenor St., London, W.1, England and was readdressed to 82 Avenue Rd, Regents Park, NW 3. The sender was The Melbourne Little TheatrE. There was a manuscript ‘ALL AIR ROUTE’ and the 1/ 6d ‘Hermes’ air mail stamp was postmarked SHIP MAIL ROOM/ 1-P 8 DE 34/ MELBOURNE as well as by a LONDON arrival postmark. The reverse was not

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COUNTESS of GOWRIE, NORMAN TOWER, WINDSOR CASTLE, WINDSOR G.B.

Four airmail covers were found on Ebay addressed to the same person, probably sent from four different individuals, all postmarked in N.S.W. in the latter half of the 1940s. On one of the covers she is addressed as The Lady Gowrie (the originating postmark was Moss Vale, N.S.W.), but in the remaining three covers she was titled The Countess of Gowrie (all three posted from Sydney). The full address of

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CAPTAIN J.C. WICKHAM, GOVERNMENT RESIDENT, MORETON BAY

This interesting 1855 blue paper outer was addressed to “J.C. Wickham Esqe, Government Resident, Moreton Bay”. It has the imperforate Plate I blue NSW two pence (margins just touching to large) Laureate tied by the so-called ‘piecrust’ obliterator of Sydney (Figure 1). The ‘piecrusts’ appeared in 1855 (not 1856 as stated by J.S. White [1988]) and they were used on incoming loose ship letters, and as in this cover on

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C. J. LA TROBE (1801-1875), SUPERINTENDENT, LIEUT.-GOVERNOR, VICTORIA

Several entires addressed to the above have recently appeared on auction sites, all addressed to La Trobe as the Superintendent, with or without his name, and addressed either to Port Phillip or Melbourne. An O.H.M.S. entire was sent per ‘Colina’ to His Honor, C.J. La Trobe Esqre with a red boxed ‘FREE/ ALBERTON’ and an on the reverse an unframed ALBERTON / [Crown]/ OC *25/ 1848/ N.S. WALES plus an

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