ANGLO-ZULU WAR OFFICER's CONCESSION RATE COVER EX TINY 'LONS...

Hammer

£550

ANGLO-ZULU WAR OFFICER's CONCESSION RATE COVER EX TINY 'LONSDALE's HORSE' UNIT AT FORT PEARSON; [c.6] June 1879 stampless env. to Sussex endorsed "On active service, Zululand" above the address and countersigned "Free E.I. Linwood, Lieut., Lonsdale's Horse" at left; it was treated as an Active Service cover and so the 6d Packet rate was not doubled; there is a very fine Plymouth h.s. "6d" in circle on the front and transit backstamps of Durban (12 June) and Plymouth (12 July). The writer's unit was at Fort Pearson (a few miles up the Tugela River near Mandini) at the time; the tiny “Lonsdale’s Horse” Colonial Unit of just 236 men was largely made up of NCO survivors from the disastrous 22 Jan. 1879 Battle of Isandlwana. The writer was the Anglo-Swiss Alfred Moilliet (1858-1927) and he sent this letter to his mother in England. [With detailed research notes.] Cross Reference: MILITARY, NATAL, DEVON, POSTAGE DUE MARKS