You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (January 2015)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the Russian article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,242 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:История почты и почтовых марок острова Мэн]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|ru|История почты и почтовых марок острова Мэн}} to the talk page.
The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. The island is about 32 miles (51km) long and, at its widest, 14 miles (23km) wide. It has been inhabited for over 8,500 years. The capital is Douglas. English is the main language spoken but the island has its own Manx language which is of Celtic origin. The Isle of Man parliament, known as Tynwald, is believed to be the oldest continuous parliamentary body in the world.
The postal history of the island pre-dates introduction of the first postage stamps in 1840. The island used British stamps until 1958 when regional issues began. The Isle of Man Post Office was founded in 1973 to secure postal independence and, since then, the island has issued its own stamps.
Postal history
An Isle of Man Post Office employee with a sheet of stamps issued in 2015 to mark the 175th anniversary of the issue of the Penny Black.
It is known that there was an official packet boat service between Whitehaven and Douglas after 1765 when the island was reclaimed by the British Crown, having been in private hands previously. The post office in Douglas was established as a sub-office of Whitehaven until 1822 when Douglas became a postal town in its own right after the packet boat service was transferred from Whitehaven to Liverpool. The earliest known handstamp from Douglas is dated c.1767. Handstamp markings were similar to those used in Great Britain except they were worded Isle of Man. A local Penny Post system was introduced in 1832 with additional receiving offices opening in Castletown, Peel and Ramsey.[1]
Like the rest of the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man began using British postage stamps on 6 May 1840. The island's postmark was a Maltese Cross to 1844 when Douglas office was allocated the numeral 407. In 1851, numerals 036 and 037 were allocated to Ramsey and Castletown respectively. During the two World Wars, the Isle of Man housed several prisoner-of-war camps and one of these, at Knockaloe, had a post office. The others all had cachets for transmission to Knockaloe.[2]
The Isle of Man was included in the North West Postal Region and continued to use British stamps until the first regional stamps were issued by the Royal Mail on 18 August 1958.[3] They were a red twopence halfpenny and a lilac threepence, both featuring a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II encompassed by a Celtic ring chain. In common with UK practice, the stamps were not inscribed with the country's name but did depict the Manx triskelion to enable identification with the Isle of Man. Similar regional stamps for the same values were issued in Guernsey and Jersey. Other regionals were issued in each Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales but for a wider range of values.[4]
On 5 July 1973, postal independence was granted. The Isle of Man Post Office was created and began issuing its own stamps from that day. The first issue was a fifteen pence commemorative which depicted the Vikings landing on the island in 938.[5]
Campaign for postal independence
The island's first stamps were issued approximately 50 years after campaigning for them had started. They had been perceived as promotional tools for the Manx identity. In the absence of stamps, postage labels – some measuring 2 by 1+1⁄2 inches (5.1 by 3.8cm) – were affixed over the rear flaps of envelopes. Campaigning for stamps in the 1920s led to the first official approaches to the General Post Office between 31 May and 5 June 1930 when the GPO laid the Island's first submarine telephone cable. The idea was rejected because of fears that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would want their own stamps too. To promote the fact that the Isle of Man was no longer isolated telephonically, therefore, Tynwald’s Publicity Board produced a postage label depicting a girl making a telephone call; the slogan, 'A Holiday Call from the Isle of Man'.
The Island's first experimental airmail service was started by a Railway Air ServicesDragon Rapide on 20 August 1934. This operated between Manchester and Belfast. Letters weighing less than 2 ounces (57g) were carried at no extra cost. The first regular airmail service from Liverpool was started on 1 February 1935 by Blackpool and West Coast Air Services Ltd.
British postal strike
The Island's first officially authorised postage stamps were issued during Britain's first postal strike (20 January – 7 March 1971). Tourist souvenir supplier, Gordon Quirk, launched Post Manninagh on 20 January and was authorised on 27 January, though restricted to deliveries within the island. He adapted illustrated match box covers as stamps, guillotining from their edges words such as 'Foreign – Average Contents 30'. Quirk's first authorised mail deliveries outside the island began on 1 February. His first specifically designed stamp was produced on 15 February. Others followed. Post Manninagh's first airmail service started on 1 March, six days before the strike ended.
After several years of negotiation, the Isle of Man Post Office Authority was launched on 5 July 1973. Spink and Son Ltd produced the first stamp essays but the Authority preferred to initiate its own designs. The Manx design was inspired by Isle of Man Art Society chairman, Victor Kneale, who had produced 18 designs to show what could be done. His membership of an advisory committee meant exclusion from being the official designer but when self-taught artist John Nicholson was appointed as designer what he produced reflected Kneale's proposals. Subsequently, Kneale would be the first chairman of Isle of Man Post and Nicholson would design the latter's first stamps.
Sources
Gibbons, Stanley (1985). Stamps of the World (15thed.). London: Stanley Gibbons Publications Ltd. ISBN0-85259-088-1.
Gibbons, Stanley (2012). Collect British Stamps (63rded.). London: Stanley Gibbons Publications Ltd. ISBN978-0-85259-822-1.
Rossiter, Stuart; Flower, John (1989). The Stamp Atlas. London: MacDonald & Co. ISBN0-356-18043-3.
Further reading
Collect Channel Islands and Isle of Man Stamps: a Stanley Gibbons checklist. Originally issued annually, there were no issues from 2017 to 2021, with a new issue produced in February 2022, which included the issues up to the end of 2021.
Field, Charles. Internment Mail of the Isle of Man. Francis J. Field, 1989 20p.
Kelly, Robert. The Mail of Mann: The Story of the Isle of Man Post Office. Onchan: Manx Associated Publications, 1988 ISBN1871142008, 220p.
Kemp, Nigel P. The Postal Service of the Isle of Man. Batley, W. Yorkshire: Harry Hayes, 1977 ISBN0-905222-34-2, 68p.
Massy, A.J.P. Isle of Man Postmarks: surface and air. Batley, W. Yorkshire: Harry Hayes, 1977 ISBN0-905222-28-8, 119p.
Summers, Howard. Bibliography of the Philately and Postal History of the British Isles. Borehamwood: Howcom Services, 2020 ISBN978-1-7025-2236-6 210p.
Ward, Ronald and Brian Leece. Manx Mail: The Postal History of the Isle of Man from early times to 1867. Bulwell, Nottingham: The Postal History Society, 1969, 85p.
Whitney, J.T.Isle of Man Handbook of Stamps and Postal History. Chippenham, Wiltshire: Picton Publishing & B.P.H. Publications Ltd., 1981 ISBN0-902633-67-8, 309p.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Falkland Islands.
This is an overview of the postage stamps and postal history of Australia.
The Far Eastern Republic, sometimes called the Chita Republic, existed from April 1920 to November 1922 in the easternmost part of Siberia. It was formed from the Amur, Transbaikal, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and Primorye regions. In theory, it extended from Lake Baikal to Vladivostok but, in May 1921, the Priamur and Maritime Provinces seceded. Although nominally independent, it was largely controlled by the RSFSR and its main purpose was to be a democratic buffer state between the RSFSR and the territories occupied by Japan during the Russian Civil War to avoid war with Japan. Initially, its capital was Verkhneudinsk, but from October 1920 it was Chita. On 15 November 1922, after the war ended and the Japanese withdrew from Vladivostok, the Far Eastern Republic was annexed by Soviet Russia.
The Straits Settlements of the Malayan Peninsula have a postal history distinct from the other Malayan areas.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the postal areas Netherlands Antilles as well as its predecessor Curaçao. The area consisted of the islands Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius as well as Sint Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba.
The postal history of the Bahamas begins in the 18th century, with the first post office operating since 1733. The earliest known letters date from 1802. In 1804 a straight-line "BAHAMAS" handstamp came into use. The Royal Mail Line initiated a regular mail service in 1841, and from 1846 used a "Crown Paid" handstamp along with a dated postmark for New Providence.
Country definitives, formerly known as regional postage stamps of Great Britain, are the postage stamps issued for regions of the United Kingdom, reflecting the regional identity of the various countries and islands of the British isles.
Aden is a city in southern Yemen. Aden's location made it a popular exchange port for mail passing between places around the Indian Ocean and Europe. When Captain S. B. Haines of the Indian Marine, the East India Company's navy, occupied Aden on 19 January 1839, mail services were immediately established in the settlement with a complement of two postal clerks and four letter carriers. An interim postmaster was appointed as early as June 1839. Mail is known to exist from 15 June 1839 although a regular postmaster was not appointed until 1857; one of the officials of the Political Agent or the civil surgeon performed the duties of postmaster for a small salary.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Tripolitania, now part of Libya.
Stuart Slack was a racing cyclist from the Isle of Man. He was part of the first ever Manx team to participate in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
The postage stamps and postal history of Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, was linked to its original economic situation until 1993. Mainly ruled by a phosphate production commission, the island was part of the British Straits Settlements colony from 1901 to 1942, then of Singapore from 1946 to 1958. Although it was placed under Australian control in 1958, the island remained postally and philatelically independent until 1993 when Australia Post became the island's postal operator.
Postage stamps and postal history of Singapore surveys postal history from Singapore and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day. Postal service in Singapore began with the delivery of stampless letters whose cost was borne by the receiving person, later encompassed pre-paid letters carried by private mail carriers and provisional post offices, and culminated in a system of universal prepayment that required all letters to bear nationally issued adhesive postage stamps. Singapore is an island country off maritime Southeast Asia, located between the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea.
Postage stamps have been issued in the Turks and Caicos Islands since 1867.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Ghana, known as the Gold Coast before independence.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Cyrenaica, now part of Libya.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Tristan da Cunha.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Egypt.
The first postage stamps marked Jersey were issued during the occupation of the island by the Germans during World War II.
The first postal service took place using mail sent with captains of packet ships, using agents in the England and in the islands for the end delivery. The cost was normally 3d. The first pillar boxes in Britain were introduced in the Channel Islands as an experiment in 1852, to collect mail for the Royal Mail packet boats. The oldest pillar box in use in the British Isles is in Guernsey.
British postal agencies in Eastern Arabia issued early postage stamps used in each of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait, Muscat and Qatar. Muscat and Dubai relied on Indian postal administration until 1 April 1948 when, following the Partition of India, British agencies were established there. Two agencies were opened in Qatar: at Doha and Umm Said. In Abu Dhabi, an agency was opened on Das Island in December 1960 and in Abu Dhabi City on 30 March 1963. The agencies also supplied stamps to Bahrain until 1960; and to Kuwait during shortages in 1951–53.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
