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Headlines - Austria annexed by Germany.... Munich Agreement between Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini.... German troops march into Sudetenland.... Kristallnacht begins as Nazis attack Jewish businesses and 91 Jews killed.

Royal Events

During the year, the King made many visits to the armed services and armament factories, but always with the hope that his Prime Minister, Chamberlain, would succeed with his peace negotiations. When Chamberlain returned from Munich, George led him onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace to receive the relieved cheers of the people gathered outside.

3 May - King George and Queen Elizabeth officially open the 1938 Empire Exhibition at Ibrox Park, Glasgow, and then go on to tour the exhibits (see below).

27 September - Q Elizabeth launches liner 'Queen Elizabeth' while the King remains in London due to the international crisis.

Philatelic Events

Definitives : Booklets : Coils : Airmails : Postage Dues : Postmarks : Other

Definitives -

18 January - The Postmaster General was presented with colour essays for the next batch of stamps over 3d with a 'dark on light' design. The profile head has been redrawn by Edmund Dulac to balance the new lighter tones of the background. Further colour trials are carried out through the year.

31 January - Definitive issue of 2d and 3d

21 July - essays for the 7d to 1s range were approved by the King, though further colour trials occurred after this.

12 August - final essays for the 4d and 6d values are approved. The 6d stamp ran into printing problems with the inks being used and was not issued until 30/1/1939. [For details see Philatelic Bulletin, September, 1973]. 

25 August - final essay for the 5d approved.

12 September - Post Office approval of final colour essays for the 9d, 10d and 1s values.

21 November - Definitive issue of 4d and 5d

Booklets -

January - 6d (series 6A) booklet issued

17 February - 6d (series 6B) booklet issued

7 April - 2/- (series 4) booklet issued

21 April - 3/- (series 3) booklet issued

May - 5/- (series 5) booklet issued

Coils -

January - ½d green coil stamps with sideways watermark first issued.

5 January - Coils of Edward VIII stamps recalled.

February - coil stamps for 1½d and 2d with sideways watermark first issued.

February - black labels replace green 'poached eggs' for testing labels by the Post Office machine testing department. Printed on E8R watermarked paper with central inscription on front 'FOR TESTING PURPOSES ONLY'.

Month? 1938 - first 3d coil stamps available

Existing Imperial Airways airmail service from Karachi to Madras now extended to/from Columbo, Ceylon. The first westbound flights were: CW1 on the Carpentaria, VH-ABA from Calcutta, arriving in England 5 March; and, the Corinna, G-AEUC from Singapore, (service IW631 from Karachi).

28 February - first 'all-up' mail from Ceylon.

1 March - first 'all-up' mail from Egypt - arriving in England 3 March. ['All-up' mail TO Egypt started 23 February, as above - return mail delayed as decree not signed until 28 February]. 

1 March - first 'all-up' mail from India carried by flying boat Carpentaria.

2 March - first 'all-up' mail from Malaya / Singapore carried by flying boat Corio - arriving in England 9 March.

4 March - Scottish Airways carry out emergency mail flight from Inverness to Stornoway, Outer Hebrides and back due to stormy weather.

10 April - 'accelerated timetable' begins for airmail routes - 2 days to Karachi, 3 days to Calcutta, 4 days to Bangkok, 5 days to Singapore and Hong Kong, 9 days to Brisbane. First accelerated flight left Southampton, Centaurius flown by Captain J.S.Shepherd. The England to South Africa now flown in 4 days instead of 6, starting 13 April.

2 May to October - faster airmail service between London and Glasgow, (see below).   

23 May - Sir Walter Womersley (Assistant Postmaster General) informs parliament that; 'Mails are at present being despatched by air from the United Kingdom by services provided under the Empire Air Mail Scheme at the rate of about 730 tons a year, as compared with a rate of about 160 tons a year immediately before the inauguration of the scheme.' [HC Deb 23 May 1938 vol 336 c844]

4 June - Aer Lingus re-start the Dublin / Isle of Man summer service with mail carried. Service ends 19 September.

22 June - First All-air service to Sierra Leone via Germany.

August 1938 - as a consequence of the all-up scheme it was no longer necessary to have special blue air-mail post boxes and an announcement was made to end them....

'The blue air-mail posting boxes, which, since they first began to be introduced in 1930, have become a familiar sight in the streets of London and the large provincial towns, will shortly disappear.

In their early days they served to popularise the facilities for sending by air urgent letters marked with a blue air-mail label to certain overseas countries on payment of a special air-mail fee in addition to the ordinary postage. Posting in a blue box was not essential but, as more and more blue boxes were provided, quite a high percentage of air-mail letters were posted in them. This partial segregation of air-mail letters at the posting stage helped the Post Office and was of advantage to the public because, in some cases, the blue boxes offered a slightly later posting time than the ordinary boxes.

The position has been radically changed by the rapid development during the last three years of 'all-up' air-mail services to Empire and European countries. and the culminating point has been reached by the recent extension of the Empire Air-Mail Scheme to Australia and New Zealand.

First class mail is now... leaving the United Kingdom by air on an 'all-up' basis at the rate of approximately 2,000 tons a year.....

The last blue posting box to be withdrawn will be the one outside the General Post Office in King Edward Street, E.C.1. This box was the first erected.'

[Abridged from quote in The Letter Box - original source not listed].

Extract from 'Flight' magazine, 6 October, 1938, (p307) about the first flight:

"Few days could have been less suitable, since there was a westerly to south-westerly wind of 40-60 m.p.h. blowing in the north of England, and even in the south this wind was strong enough to cause delays. Actually the machine arrived at Croydon only five minutes late—and that after rapid ceremonials had taken place at the various loading centres. The wind was, in fact, so strong that a change of machine was made at Newcastle, where the conditions were such that, as a cautionary measure, the mails were transferred from the comparatively lightly loaded Rapide to one of the company's two Envoys. It was not that the Rapide could not be used — Mr.Naish had already brought it quite safely from Perth —but the Envoy was, in any case, available at Newcastle, and this was flown by Mr. Boitel-Gill to Yeadon (Leeds-Bradford), and Doncaster before proceeding to Croydon.
           Naturally enough, the real interest in this inaugural flight was shown at the various posting centres, and not at the airport of delivery. At all the cities and towns the machine was given a send-off by quite large crowds which were headed by the local notabilities, while at Croydon the mails were officially accepted by two Post Office representatives. The new contract permits letters to reach London by the afternoon delivery after being posted before 8 a.m. in Perth, before 9.45 a.m. in Leeds, and before 11 a.m. in Doncaster.
            If and when the Post Office considers the idea of having a sorting station at Croydon airport itself, these internal mail arrangements will be very much more helpful to correspondents who are writing abroad. As it is the letters must be taken to London and out again to Croydon."

27 November - flying boat Calpurnia crashed near Baghdad with most mail salvaged.

17 December - Scottish Airways make emergency mail flight from Kirkwall to North Ronaldshay on the Orkneys.

Postage Dues -

Month? - ½d emerald, 1d carmine, 2d agate, 3d violet, 5d yellow-brown, 2/6d purple on yellow, postage due stamps issued.

Other -

20 January - centenary of the Travelling Post Office. Exhibition at Euston station.

31 March - the Post Office sold £42,797,000 worth of postage stamps for the 37 / 38 financial year.

21 to 24 June - 25th Philatelic Congress of Great Britain, Cambridge. Special postmark issued, see below.

24 June - In the House of Commons, 'Captain Plugge asked the (Assistant) Postmaster-General whether, to meet the popular wishes, he will consider introducing on some current stamp the portraits of the Queen and Princess Elizabeth?'

'Sir W. Womersley - It has always been customary for the head of the reigning sovereign to be the main feature of the design of postage stamps of this country, and I am sorry that no departure from this tradition can be made in respect of postage stamps of the permanent series'. [Hansard - HC Deb 24 June 1938 vol 337 cc1408-9W].

Postmarks -

Many of the entries below are taken from 'Special Event Postmarks of the United Kingdom' by George R. Pearson. Published by the British Postmark Society, 1991 who give kind permission for reproduction.

Empire Exhibition, Glasgow

Information for this article comes from various sources, but in particular from; The Post Office and the Empire Exhibition - issued by the Scottish Postal History Society.

The Empire Exhibition was held at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow from 3 May to 29 October. It cost the quite considerable sum of £11.5 million pounds. The Exhibition attracted 12.5 million visitors during the six months.

 "...All letters and parcels for addresses within the grounds are delivered from this Office. All classes of Post Office business are transacted, including Money Order, Postal Order, Savings Bank, Telegraph and Telephone.

Twelve posting boxes have been erected at convenient positions and frequent collections are made. All correspondence collected is date-stamped by a stamp cancelling machine equipped with a special Exhibition die. A direct despatch of letters, etc. for England and Ireland is made to the Travelling Post Office each week day."

First day of use for the slogan postmark was 25 April - mainly used by exhibitors/workmen as the exhibition did not open until 3 May. Similarly, the last day of use was 5 November, though the exhibition closed officially on 29 October.

28 and 29 October - 'Exhibition P.O. (town die)' + wavy lines. Used at end of exhibition when slogan was inappropriate. Machine cancel. 

Also issued to the Exhibition Branch were handstamps for - Postage due for ½d and 1d; - a boxed 'Charge not collected/Fresh Label Required'; and a framed instruction 'Undelivered for reason stated'. There are no records of the last two stamps having been used other than for impressions.

2 May - new, faster airmail service starts by Railway Air Services between London and Glasgow. In time for the  Empire Exhibition opening in Glasgow on 3 May - this service ends in October. Faster service by flying direct from Liverpool to Glasgow instead of via Belfast. [Belfast service maintained separately]. No special covers are known from the first flight north-bound. It is believed about 20 covers were flown on the first south-bound service - postmarked with 'Glasgow B 6-AM 2 May 1938' and Empire Ehibition slogan - a few covers were also signed by the pilot, V.W. Glasheen, (flying a De Haviland 86 airliner).  

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Contact : Malcolm Sanders :  kg6gb@hotmail.com