West Africa Study Circle       

 

The stamps and postal history of Sierra Leone: Airmails

Pre-stamp mail

First Stamp Issue

Later issues

Airmails

QE2 and early independence

Postmarks

Figure 6
Air mail cover from Freetown par avion de Dakar à Toulouse onward to Bath, England, franked with 1921–7 King George V 1½d scarlet, 3d bright blue, and 7d purple and orange tied by Freetown code C (Walton Type 035.35) c.d.s. and showing deep blue air mail etiquette and Bath arrival datestamp. The earliest recorded air mail letter from Sierra Leone.

Air mail from Great Britain to Sierra Leone was accepted for carriage by the French West African Service of the Compagnie Générale d'Entreprises Aéronautiques (CGEA), which operated daily from Toulouse to Casablanca and once weekly from Casablanca to Dakar, while the launch of the northbound service from Freetown via Dakar was announced in The Sierra Leone Royal Gazette on 16 December 1926. The mail would have been transported by sea either to Dakar directly or to Bathurst then onward to Dakar for conveyance on the air service to Toulouse. The earliest recorded air mail letter on this route is dated 21 January 1927 (Fig. 6).