Good evening all.
At our local flea market yesterday I came across this interesting little cover (amongst a few others!), and would appreciate any help with it. As you can see it carries no stamps, and is postmarked Versailles SRP. I understand this to refer to the current Paris-Saclay-Versailles airport which is 6km south-west of Versailles, used by the French air force as Toussus-le-noble aerodrome from 1907.
So first puzzle, why does the postmark read as it does?
The cachet is another puzzle - is it free postage for servicemen? The wording is 1er Groupe Aeronautique, Le Conseil Administration. The figure on the cachet does appear on various official cachets on google.
Problem with all this guesswork on my part is that the postmark date of 1/8/14 is prior to embarkation of the British Expeditionary Force, which happened two weeks later. So, is this a blank cancelled envelope given a pencilled English address at another date, or could it be right? If so, what British involvement might it reflect?
As I say, any light that can be shone on this little find will be gratefully received.
Regards
DavidR
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