Local Cancellations - against the Postal Dept. instructions.
Despite clear instructions to all post offices not to cancel the stamps, and to send all mail for this flight to Bombay G.P.O. intact, some post offices applied local cancellation marks, and the covers still made it on the flight. So, the stamps were cancelled locally, but the boxed cachet was applied in Bombay.
This Air-India Souvenir cover has a COUNCIL HOUSE / NEW DELHI / 31 MAY 48 cancellation on front of the cover.
This cover actually postally not travelled.
This cover actually postally not travelled.
An ordinary cover with a violet hand stamp BY AIR MAIL, addressed to Bavaria, Germany, with the 12 as. stamp tied with a comet cancellation, HYDERABAD RESIDENCY, 4 JUN 1948. Boxed special cachet applied in Bombay in the front of the cover. The airmail rate should have been 14 as. and the cover is under stamped by 2 as., and hence taxed. Clear handwritten T29C endorsement for the same is visible.
Air Mail cover addressed to Southampton, franked with the 12 as. stamp, and tied with WELLINGTON BARRACKS, 5 JUN 48, 10-AM circular postal cancellation. Wellington Barracks is an army cantonment town in the Nilgiris, S. India. The local cancellation mark should not have been applied, and since it was, the boxed cachet was stamped on the side of it. The cover made it on the 8 June 1948 first flight.
Air Mail cover addressed to South Croydon, franked with the 12 as. stamp, and tied with a faint BOMBAY G.P.O., JUN 48, 10-AM circular postal cancellation. The CIRCULAR cancellation mark should not have been applied on the stamp, and since it was, the boxed cachet was stamped on the side of it. The cover made it on the 8 June 1948 first flight. This cover was prepared by C. Hansen, a philatelic dealer in Bombay, and also bears his large square cachet for the event hand struck in violet.
This registered air mail cover is certainly commercial mail; not common on this flight, and the postage stamps are cancelled BALLARD ESTATE / BOMBAY, 1 JUN 48 / 5.15 PM. My conclusion is that the cover was first franked with 2 x 8 A = 16 A KGVI definitives, which was the correct airmail letter rate for registered post to Britain (12 A combined air mail letter rate + 4 a registration fee). Perhaps when the sender went to the Ballard Estate post office, he learned of the special event, and the postage stamp being issued for it, and then decided to additionally frank the cover with the 12 A Air-India International stamp. This too was cancelled by the Ballard Estate P.O. with a similar cancellation, and then the boxed cachet was applied at the Bombay G.P.O., located less than a Kilometre away on 8th June, the date of the flight.
Deviation: The 12 A stamp should not have been cancelled by the Ballard Estate Post Office on 1st June 1948.
Deviation: The 12 A stamp should not have been cancelled by the Ballard Estate Post Office on 1st June 1948.