This J.C. Wilson Maple Leaf For Ever Type I E-3 (Nelson Lodge inscription) cover was postally used from G.P.O. Capetown, Cape Colony on July 11, 1900 to C.E. Willis, Bank of Montreal, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and has a Halifax August 6, 1900 cancellation on the back of the cover. It has been franked with a Cape of Good Hope one penny stamp, Scott no. 62.
The cover was sent by Lieutenant Robert Billopp Willis, a member of “H” Company of the 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment of the First Canadian Contingent, from Cape Colony to his father C.E. Willis, in Halifax. R.B. Willis was born in Petitcodiac, N.B., and was aged 23 and single, working in an insurance office and serving in as Lieutenant in the 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers of Halifax, N.S., at the time he signed his Agreement for Military Service in South Africa.
This cover comes from the collection of the late William G. Robinson, OTB, FRPSC, FRPSL, and is illustrated on page 22 of Robinson’s exhibit “Canadian Participation in the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902”, as first published in September 1996 by the British North America Philatelic Society. It is shown on page 23, and, as perhaps the most picturesque of the material in Robinson’s collection, on the cover of the revised edition released in January 2011.
In his exhibit, speaking of Lieutenant Willis, Robinson notes “Whether he was in Capetown on duty, on leave or in hospital at the time is not known. Lieutenant Willis received the Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasps for Cape Colony and Orange Free State for his service”.
Right, the reverse of the cover.
The cover was sent by Lieutenant Robert Billopp Willis, a member of “H” Company of the 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment of the First Canadian Contingent, from Cape Colony to his father C.E. Willis, in Halifax. R.B. Willis was born in Petitcodiac, N.B., and was aged 23 and single, working in an insurance office and serving in as Lieutenant in the 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers of Halifax, N.S., at the time he signed his Agreement for Military Service in South Africa.
This cover comes from the collection of the late William G. Robinson, OTB, FRPSC, FRPSL, and is illustrated on page 22 of Robinson’s exhibit “Canadian Participation in the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902”, as first published in September 1996 by the British North America Philatelic Society. It is shown on page 23, and, as perhaps the most picturesque of the material in Robinson’s collection, on the cover of the revised edition released in January 2011.
In his exhibit, speaking of Lieutenant Willis, Robinson notes “Whether he was in Capetown on duty, on leave or in hospital at the time is not known. Lieutenant Willis received the Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasps for Cape Colony and Orange Free State for his service”.
Right, the reverse of the cover.
