On 21st January our club was entertained by Julian Bagwell who talked on the subject of the British Levant from 1857 to 1923. Julian explained that the British Levant was not an old British colony but instead a postal service operated by Britain in the Turkish empire. He explained that by the 19th century the Ottoman Turkish empire had entered a period of decline often being referred to as “the sick man of Europe”. Predatory European powers sough to obtain Turkish territory and to prevent this happening Britain and France allied with Turkey to fight the Crimean war against Russia. This led to the establishment of British postal services for military use.
After the war ended in 1857 the military post offices were handed over for civilian use and Britain operated 5 post offices in the Turkish empire in the cities of Constantinople (now Istanbul), Smyrna (now Izmir), Beirut, Salonika and Stamboul, a suburb of Constantinople. Initially these post offices sold British stamps but because the stamps were sold in Turkish currency it became profitable to buy them in Turkey and send them to Britain where they could be redeemed for sterling cash. In order to stop the post office losing money British stamps were overprinted in Turkish currency or simply with the word “Levant” which meant they could only be used in the British post offices operating in Turkey. Members were shown examples of early material and examples of these overprinted stamps in both mint condition and used on mail.
Julian explained that many other powers as well as Britain had post offices in the Turkish empire and that they had many more post offices than did the British. He was able to show letters from each British post office and examples from other countries including a very attractive set of stamps issued by Russia.
With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 Turkey closed all foreign post offices but the country’s defeat in 1918 resulted in them reopening until finally closed in 1923 when Turkey finally defeated invading foreign troops which they celebrated by issuing a rather attractive set of stamps featuring their leader Mustapha Kemal Ataturk.
Finally, we were shown examples of stamps with forged overprints supposedly from British Levant. A particularly glaring example was of a set of King George V stamps overprinted “Constantinople”. The stamps were not issued until 1926, 3 years after the last British post office in the city had closed. They were clearly produced to fool stamp collectors.
Members agreed that they had enjoyed a very entertaining evening and thanked Juian for travelling to see them.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 4th February when members are asked to display their own material related to the letter “M” if they would like to do so. Meet at 7:30pm at Hanwell Fields Community Centre. The Banbury Stamp Society is on-line at ‘www.banburystampsociety.co.uk’, or contact John Davies on 01295 255831. All are welcome.