By Angus Jones
Ex 42 Commando R.M
After fighting in Port Said in Nov 1956, I managed to acquire a block of six mint Egyptian postage stamps, commemorating the nationalization of the Suez Canal. earlier that year. In 2004 while surfing the net, I discovered that there were five Egyptian stamps connected with the Suez Crisis. My objective then became to acquire these stamps, and to include them in my story. The chances of success at first seemed rather remote, but finally I tracked them down in places as diverse as the USA, Canada, England and Scotland.
The first three of the stamps I managed to locate were in Scotland. The bonus was that they were on first day covers. These were:-The Nationalisation of Suez Canal, Port Said November 1956, and lastly the second stamp overprinted 'Evacuation Dec 22 1956'.
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The Nationalisation of Suez Canal
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Port Said November 1956
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Evacuation Dec 22 1956
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I was curious as to the history of these envelopes and requested information. At the same time I advised the seller of my connection with the topic of these items, and referred her to my earlier stories on this site. This in part is the very interesting reply I received :-
"I am so pleased that you
are going to purchase my stamps. I have very little history about them
except they belonged to an old aunt, who for many years worked for UNICEF
in Uganda .In her day she was acquainted with Idi Amin. At that time he
was a private and 'harmless ?'. It was only after he rose to power that
the killing began. She traveled the World so I can only assume that the
stamps were picked up on her travels. She died at the ripe old age of 88
years and had lived a very full and sometimes precarious life...... Your
story about why Port Said meant so much to you, was extremely interesting.
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I was then able to track down these three stamps in mint condition. These were located in England. A fourth stamp depicting a column of British troops heading towards a ship for embarkation, I located in Virginia, USA. It was part of a set called 'Egypt Tomb of the Agressors 1957'. This stamp was labeled Port Said 1956. The other stamps in the set were Avaris 1580 BC, Saladin 1187 AD, Mansourah 1250 AD and Ein Galout 1260 AD. The last stamp I was looking for was 'Reopening of Suez Canal 1957'. With this came another stamp commemorating 25 years of the Egyptian Air Force 1932 to 1957. This is of interest as it appears to show Egyptian Soviet built aircraft, current at the time of the assault on Port Said. These appear to be an Il-28 twin jet bomber flanked by two Mig jet fighters. These last two stamps were located in Quebec, Canada.
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Egypt Tomb of the Agressors 1957
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Reopening of Suez Canal 1957
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25 years of the Egyptian Air Force
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Finally I have obtained a United Nations Airmail Envelope. It is from W.H.O. Egypt to W.H.O Geneva. It is of interest as on the back it has a Suez Crisis postmark - SUEZ CANAL IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF EGYPT, also Cairo 30 Dec 1956.
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W.H.O. Egypt to W.H.O Geneva.
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Angus with his youngest daughter Katy,
and grand daughter Paige, 2002
© 2005 Angus Jones. All rights reserved.
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