Postal Service

The British Postal Museum & Archive have produce this very informative information sheet on The Postal History of India

Related Articles

• India Postal Establishments 1868 - 1900 indicating where employee records might be found.
• Lists of Civil Engineers and European and East Indian Uncovenanted Servants employed in the Public Works, Military and Postal Departments 1884 -1900
• Post and Telegraphs Department

Gallery

• 
  Post Office Tirimulgherry
• 
  Post Office Simla
• 
  General Post Office Calcutta
• 
  The General Post Office Bombay
• 
  Her Majesty's Mail Boat on the Magna

Military Campaigns histories

The following books are available at the British Library

• History of the Indian Army Postal Service by Edward B. Proud. Volume 1, 1854-1913. Volume 2, 1914-1931. Volume 3 1931-14 August 1947

A description of Volume 1 states "exceptional compilation of places, postmarks and illustrations for this highly complicated subject"

• Postal History of Indian Military Campaigns: Sikkim-Tibet, 1903-1908 by Gerald Sattin and D. S. Virk
• Postal History of Indian Military Campaigns: C.E.F. : the China Expeditionary Force, 1900-1923 by Gerald Sattin and D. S. Virk
• Indian Army Post Offices in the Second World War by D.S. Virk.

Stephen H Smith 1891-1951

Stephen Hector Taylor-Smith, usually abbreviated to Stephen H Smith founded, during the 1920s, the Calcutta Philatelic Club and the Aero Philatelic Club of India (which changed its name to the Indian Airmail Society on 19th January 1930). Smith wrote Indian Airways, a work in three volumes detailing the first and special flights within and through India up to March 1930. In 1927, he authored a small book, The World Flyer’s Danger Zone covering the hazards of mail flights south east from Calcutta across the Bay of Bengal to Burma and Thailand.

He was a man of vision and also conducted numerous practical experiments to understand and promulgate the potential of rocket power as a mechanism for transport. Smith launched almost 300 rockets between 1934 and 1945 working mostly unfunded and primarily alone.

External links

• The British Postal Museum & Archive
• Postage stamps and postal history of India - Wikipedia
• The Postal History of India
• History of Postal Communications in India by Sangeeta Deogawanka
• "Stephen H Smith – India’s forgotten rocketeer" by Gurbir Singh. astrotalkuk.org
• Robert S. Cragg’s World Postmarks
  • India and States Pre-Independence India and Princely States. Sourced from English Names for Indian Places; a Coded Index of Indian Post Offices by Marcus F C Martin, published 1966. Available at the British Library
  • Pakistan, Burma
• Sinai & Gaza - Part 3: World War I, British Empire and Allies by Edmund Hall (ESC 239) QC (Quarterly Circular) September Quarter 2012, p156-165. This is a journal/publication of the Egyptian Study Circle, UK (Egyptian Philately)
• Forces Postal History Society: Books in the Library forcespostalhistorysociety.org.uk. Scroll down to India.

Historical books online

• Stamps Of India: Digital Bookshelf. Indian Postal Guide 1869-1875, Indian Postal Manual 1855, 1859, 1873 and Indian Post Office Annual Report 1854-1856
• The Adhesive Stamps of British India Surcharged for Native States by Charles Stewart-Wilson Part I - Chamba Faridkot Gwalior 1897 Part II - Jhind Nabha Patiala 1898. Archive.org. A publication of the Philatetic Society of India
• Indian Postal Guide 1907. Alternative link, same file DSpace, West Bengal State Central Library.
• The Post Office of India in the Great War edited by H.A. Sams 1922 Archive.org Contents