Great Western Airways - GWR Abroad

GWR (Great Western Railways) AIrmails sent to foreign destinations.

Although most of the GWR was sent internall, there were some foreign destinations. This section gives some examples of these covers.

British Internal Airmails of the 1930’s

Manuscript Teignmouth Cancel to Plymouth to Jugoslavia

Here are three Zeppelin covers which started life at GWR and were sent to Brazil and Uruguay

Cardiff to Plymouth to Brazil by Zeppelin

Plymouth to Birmingham to Brazil by Zeppelin Plymouth to Birmingham to Brazil by Zeppelin Plymouth to Cardiff to India Plymouth to Cardiff to India Birmingham Plymouth to Uruguay by Zeppelin

Zeppelin Covers

Tay covers to India

This is a group of covers sent to India by dealer Brian Tay. There were sent on consecutive numbers, so there were at least ten.

Plymouth to Cardiff to Dehli, India 29th June 1933 plus reciever marks on rear. No 3425.

Plymouth to Cardiff to Dehli, India 29th June 1933 plus reciever marks on rear. No 3426.

Plymouth to Cardiff to Allahabad, India 29th June 1933 plus reciever marks on rear. No 3432.

Plymouth to Cardiff to Jodhpur, India 29th June 1933 plus reciever marks on rear. No 3433.

Plymouth to Cardiff to Calcutta, India 29th June 1933 plus reciever marks on rear. No 3433.

Other Destinations

Cardiff to Birmingham to Burma 20th September 1933 plus reciever marks on rear. No 7609.

Teignmouth to Birmingham to Egypt 20th May 1933 plus reciever marks on rear. No 589.

Great Western Airways - GWR Abroad

Torquay to Birmingham

Acceptance at Newton Abbot. 17th July 1933.

On 17th July 1933, the motor bus service connecting Haldon with Teignmouth and Torquay was diverted so as to connect also with Newton Abbot, and mail was accepted for aerial transport by the Great Western Railway at Newton Abbot and for posting at Newton Abbot. There was a new Newton Abbot cachet for the sending of mail from Newton Abbot. It seems fairly certain that this was a one off service. For what reason is not known. Redgrove states ‘The existence on the market of covers either accepted at or posted at Newton Abbot on the two dates specified, namely 17th July and 27th July, has given rise to the quite erroneous opinion that Newton Abbot was served only on these two dates’. This view was wrong, there was only one service at Newton Abbot and that was on the 17th. A discussion of the covers that were erroneously considered the second date on the 27th are covered below. There are cachets (see below) which say ‘special trip’ which indicates it was intended as a one-off. The dealer A. Phillips wrote in ‘GWR Air Mail’ that “By Courtesy of Dr. J. Wortley-Talbot of Churston Ferrers we have received a cover carried on the first flight over the extension of the Cardiff — Plymouth — Torquay line to ABBOT, which took place on July 17th”. Redgrove talked of an individual involved in the cachet but I do not think it was this gentleman, this appears to be a red herring. I believe the cachets were originated by Sir Henry Jackson, a director of GWR. In the earlier section ‘May 15th’ you will have seen a letter from Jackson to his son. Fortunately for us Jackson had very distinctive handwriting and it looks the same handwriting on the covers where the cachets are used. It makes sense as the cachet sender clearly knew the inner workings of GWR and knew the first date, the 17th, was a one- off, hence the ‘Special Trip’. However, it may have been his writing on the 27th covers which also had a purple cachet. As we will see the 27th covers are a bit of a mystery. We will look at some examples to support the hypothesis. Firstly, Jackson’s letter is printed again for comparison, then another example in the same handwriting and then the full collection of covers sent with an example without the ‘special trip’ cachet and not in Jackson’s handwriting. Jackson lived in Torquay.

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GWR (Great Western Railways) AIrmails sent to foreign destinations.

Although most of the GWR was sent internall, there were some foreign destinations. This section gives some examples of these covers.

New Birmingham Cachet.

Birmingham issued a new cachet for Snow Hill and it was thought that this was to coincide with the first and only Sunday service on the 18th June. In fact, the Snow Hill cachet was introduced earlier than this, the earliest recorded being the 16th June.

New Snow Hill Cachet 16th June 1933.

New Birmingham Hand Stamp

Redgrove notes that a new hand stamp was being used on covers from Birmingham to Newton Abbot on the 27th July. In fact, it was being used much earlier than that in June. Two examples are shown below on commercial covers.

New Birmingham Hand Stamp 26th June 1933.

New Cardiff Hand Stamp. 19th June 1933. To Birmingham. New Cardiff Hand Stamp. 28th August 1933. To Plymouth.

Special Trip. Newton Abbot to Cardiff Special Trip. Newton Abbot to Birmingham

It has always been presumed that acceptance at Newton Abbot occurred on at least two dates, the 17th and 27th July 1933. However, there is no evidence that there was any acceptance on the 27th July. The confusion has arisen by the existence of several covers sent from Birmingham to Brixham which went via Newton Abbot. All the covers were in the same handwriting and all had a ‘Birmingham - Newton Abbot’ cachet. Now this was perfectly logical as Newton Abbot is on a more direct route to Brixham. The trip though is a mystery. The important consideration is that unlike the 17th mail was not accepted at Newton Abbot. It is also unclear that mail would have been accepted for Newton Abbot at GWR offices.

Teignmouth

As has been previously explained, the route originally consisted of 3 Airports and 5 offices. After the 22nd this was four airports and six offices. Of the six offices, mail from four Plymouth, Torquay, Cardiff and Birmingham is common. Official mail from Newport is not known to exist and Teignmouth is highly elusive. Teignmouth was not geared up to sending mail, as the office appears not to have had a stamp. However, mail from Teignmouth, though very scarce is not non-existent. Since the official sending of mail from the 15th May, mail given in at Teignmouth or Newport was stamped with the Torquay or Cardiff handstamp respectively. The exceptions were the manuscript cancels shown below. The history of this is not known.