Great Britain Philatelic Society

I picked this cover up on eBay and there is a pencil marking on it that says that it is from the" Postal Strike of 1971; no date". The CDS does not bear a date at all, date or year.

I can't say that I recall a GB postmark without a date and none of my sources at home are helping me and was hoping to get some help here.

I know some offices were open during the strike, but I cannot image that an office in SW16 would have been open and the slogan on the postmark was machine, wasn't it?

The location of the addressee also looks odd. Center top of the cover? The franking I got [(2d+2d)=1.5p + 1/2p=2p therefore 0.5p shortage for 2nd class plus additional 0.5p penalty for the 1p postage due.]

Some help here would be appreciated.

thanks,

Larry

Larry - I think this is probably from the first few days after the end of the strike, when the Post Office requested that people only post first class mail to help them clear the backlog.

In the 1964 strike/work-to-rule a number of offices left out the date slugs for printed paper collections (referred to as "second class mail" at the time) which could be delayed for some days, and if I remember correctly a few did this in 1971 too.

An underpaid item would be treated as second class and delayed more than normal anyway.