A friend of mine in the Sheffield Philatelic Society, Ian Potter, has given me an envelope which he thought might of interest to me. It is attached below. The envelope, with no message inside, is clearly from someone who was associated with ‘UK Forces in Korea’ and is addressed to a ‘V D K Craddock’ of the BBC.
A quick Google search indicated that Craddock was a Second World War correspondent from the BBC. This indicates that the sender was someone who could use UK Forces mail, and possibly someone who could provide information for BBC reporting.
The postmark – to me ! – is illegible, the dealer in Singapore who had sold the envelope to my friend had identified it as British Forces Post Office 376 and in Kure, Japan. Kure is the major Japanese naval base outside of Hiroshima. My friend had done some research on the BFPO number; the results of his research are seen in the scanned message below. He thinks that the BFPO number 376 refers to a now decommissioned ship with a name beginning with ‘R’.
Does anyone know anything about this ship? About Kure? And when this letter may have been sent? My friend Ian Potter would be very interested to know.
British FPO 376 was indeed located in Kure, Japan. It had absolutely no connection to any ship, decommissioned or otherwise.
According to Michael Dobbs’ excellent article in the Forces Postal history Newsletter, no. 246 (Winter 2000), the FPO was established on 27 November 1950.
The addressee is not uncommon on mail from British servicemen on Korea.