Although the two authors haven’t met, they share related interests. One collects censored mail, the other Irish postal history. Therefore it was perhaps not surprising that they might connect while researching censored covers from the correspondence of an Irish soldier in World War 1. Items from our collections and one from two recent auctions are combined below to show how the mail can leave a postal record of one man’s experiences in the War. This month is the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Le Cateau where the main part of the story begins.

Lieutenant Albert Victor Olphert, who was born on 10 May 1887, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Irish Fusiliers on 7 November 1906 and promoted to Lieutenant on 15 May 1909.

He sailed for France on 22 August 1914 as part of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers and just four days later saw his first action at Le Cateau where he was badly wounded and captured. Regimental records indicate that from there he was taken to Giessen, near Frankfurt, and then to Merseburg, near Leipzig. Olphert was promoted to Captain on 5 October 1914, but for some reason was treated as a private soldier for more than a year, until his identity and rank were established by the Red Cross. After Merseburg he was moved to Torgau and Neubrandenburg before being repatriated to Holland prior to his return to Ireland. During his days as a prisoner of war, Captain Olphert obviously received and wrote quite a few letters, the covers from at least eight of which have survived and are recorded below.

Two week detention

The first cover (Fig 1) does not have a postmarked date but has a handwritten ‘15-6-16’ on it, probably indicating that it was received on 15 June 1916, By that time Captain Olphert was in Torgau, a camp for Officer prisoners, on the Elbe River in what later became East Germany. The two handstamps are both censor marks, one British and the other German. The latter indicates that the letter had been inspected and released by the Camp Censor. ‘F.a.’ is the abbreviated form of Frist abgelaufen which means ‘Period of time expired’. This refers to the practice of detaining outgoing mail for about two weeks to ensure that any news in the letter would not be too current when it arrived. In this case it also seems to have been applied to incoming mail. As correspondence to a prisoner of war, it went free of charge.

The second cover (Fig 2), addressed in the same handwriting as the first one, is again hand-dated 10 October 1916 also to Torgau. A different handstamp indicates that it was censored by Camp Censor 9. The label shows that it was censored in Britain by ‘P.W. 266’. Prisoner of war mail was dealt with in a special section, as indicated by the ‘P.W.’ prefix to the number.

Official envelope

The third cover (Fig 3) is outgoing from Torgau, dated 19 October 1916. This is an official prisoner of war envelope, handstamped with both censor marks shown in the earlier letters, and with Torgau, London and Blackrock postmarks. It appears that the total time for delivery was about 12 days and, interestingly, it shows no sign of having been examined in Britain. The fourth item (Fig 4) was mailed in June 1917 as the postmark impression is still in the paper of the envelope. The hand-dated 24 July 1917 is presumably the arrival date, by which time Captain Olphert had been moved to Neubrandenburg Camp near Strelitz in the northern part of the former East Germany. It was censored by ‘P.W. 151’ and by a different German censor mark from those used previously.

The British censor label was resealed with a red tab, likely added by the German censor. It is not clear where the stamp was removed but it was probably in London as the censor label covers the space where the stamp had been. This was common practice as the authorities wanted to see if a message was written under it.

There is no sender’s name or address under the censor label but the two different styles of handwriting suggest that it was sent by a friend, or a fellow soldier, to Olphert’s family for forwarding. The postmark, likely of Irish origin, is not in the style of an Army or Field Office handstamp.

Questions to be answered

The fifth item (Fig 5) is an undated cover that was probably also sent some time in 1917. It is censored by British ‘P.W. 198’ and by the German circular ‘P 11’. The British censor label has been opened and resealed with a white tab across the middle. Both the ‘99’, which appears to be an identification number, and the ‘H’, which seems to have been applied with the same blue pencil, are thought to be German marks indicating the location within the camp where Captain Olphert was located.

No explanation is known for the handwritten ‘1495’ across the ‘P 11’ handstamp or for the pencilled letters to the right of the ‘99’. These may be German censor marks. Obviously this cover poses questions which still need to be answered. The sixth item (Fig 6) is a mourning envelope postmarked 19 December 1917 at Ballsbridge, Dublin. Although only shown in black and white in the auction catalogues, it appears to have the same ‘P 11’, ‘H’, and ‘99’ marks and the tabs as in the previous cover. However it also has a pencilled ‘1435’ and an unidentified handwritten marking just below ‘Prisoner of War’. This time it was opened by the British ‘P.W. 620’ censor.

The seventh item (Fig 7) is another mourning envelope mailed on 10 May 1918 from Ballsbridge to Sheveningen on the Dutch coast. Army records indicate that Captain Olphert had been released to internment on 24 February 1918. Since the Netherlands was neutral, repatriated combatants were interned, in this case in the Royal Hotel. Opened by British censor ‘P.W. 535’, it also shows the ‘99’ mark used on previous items. Since this cover does not show any indication of having passed through Germany, the ‘99’ is thought to be an identification number that came along with Captain Olphert’s records.

Transferred

The agreement between the United Kingdom and Germany for the movement of prisoners of war, which was reached on 2 July 1917, provided for the transfer of up to 16,000 of the unfit and those held as prisoners for over 18 months to the Netherlands. Only officers and non commissioned officers were included in the agreement, with the places to be divided between the British, including Dominion and Colonial servicemen, and the Germans.

The first British servicemen were transferred to the Netherlands on 29 December 1917, so Captain Olphert was delayed for nearly two months.

The eighth and final item (Fig 8) was mailed from an Army Post Office on 9 August 1918. Addressed to The Hague which is near Sheveningen, it indicates that Captain Olphert moved at least once in Holland before departing home on 21 January 1919. This departure date was quite late, suggesting that he caught flu and had to recover before being able to travel.

The cover is handstamped by a field censor rectangular handstamp with a Crown, below which is ‘PASSED/BY/CENSOR/ No.’ The censor number has been obliterated, presumably by ‘Censor P.W. 1111’ in London. The signature at lower left is thought to be that of the officer who initially censored the correspondence.

Rejoined regiment

Captain Olphert received the 1914 Star and Clasp, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. His obituary in the Regiment’s journal indicates that he married soon after returning home, and after the War became Chief Instructor of the Cadet Corps at the grammar school in Armagh. From there he rejoined the Regiment, was promoted to Major on 15 March 1929 and served continuously until he retired in April 1935. He was re-employed by the Army in August 1941 as a Lt Colonel to raise the 5th (N.I.) Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers. After playing an active role in the British Legion, the old soldier died suddenly whilst gardening at home in Armagh, on Remembrance Day, 11 November 1967. Some of his service and experiences in World War I can however be remembered by the surviving covers shown above.

Endnotes

1. The authors thank Mr Hans Moxter for putting them in touch with one another and for providing helpful information on German censoring.

2. The item shown in Fig 6 was listed in two of Ian Whyte’s Auctions; Lot 270, 10 November 2000 and Lot 145, 28 April 2001.

3. Information on Captain Olphert is taken from various sources, most of which were kindly provided by staff of The Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Additional information was obtained from the Army List, January 1933.