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Capt. T.A. Smye

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:00 pm
by Robinr
Dear All,

I have been trying to find any kind of reference for Capt. T.A. Smye - a name that must be very familiar to anybody interested in maritime and airmail of the 1920's and 1930s. You'd think such a name might be unique, but it seems there were several of them! Or maybe just the one? Born in 1866, an army officer who relinquished his commission on account of ill health, but retained his rank, in 1920.

All the covers I have seen addressed to him were either to an APO of the British Army on the Rhine in the late 1920s9Which doesn't square with him retiring earlier) or to his home in Gosport - throughout the 1930s.

And the addresses were invariably made with a rubber stamp in slightly purplish blue ink. The man must have been utterly dedicated to collecting covers with paquebot cachets, since it seemed as though every ship that sailed in the 1930s carried covers addressed to "The Renowned" collector.

What an incredible collection he must have had. And presumably it eventually was sold and broken up, and the hundreds, if not thousands of covers scattered throughout collections everywhere.

Can anybody pass on a link to any information about the man? Who, what, where, when he was? Any little clue would be interesting, not just to me but I'm sure to many members.

Cheers, Robin R.

Re: Capt. T.A. Smye

Posted: Sat May 20, 2017 4:20 pm
by MurrayGellatly
Robin,
The Francis Kiddle Congress Collection which is now held by the RPSL includes a reference that the "Captain" became a "major dealer in Aerophilately".
From my knowledge he produced one "spurious" First flight cover (in quantity) for a flight from Cairo to Karachi with covers issued from the BPO in Tangier dated 27 MR 1927
whereas Fields book records the actual first flight being on 12 January 1927.
I tend to look at Smye items with a jaundiced eye

Regards
Murray Gellatly