VICTORIA FALLS
EARLY POSTAL HISTORY AND BSAC PERIOD
EARLY POSTAL HISTORY AND BSAC PERIOD
VF6

REVEREND AUGUSTE COÏSSON 1899 (October), BSAC 1½d dull orange postal stationery card addressed to Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony. The message is headed ‘Victoria Falls via Bulawayo’ and is dated the 28th October 1899. The impressed stamp was cancelled with a very fine strike of the KAZUNGULA / RHODESIA double circle datestamp on the 9th June. At this time, Mafeking was besieged and the mail was routed via Salisbury to Beira and Durban. Backstamped with Bulawayo (22 Nov), Durban (13 Dec) and Port Elizabeth (19 Dec) transit / arrival datestamps. If this card entered the mail at Victoria Falls post office, which at this time was situated on the north bank of the Zambesi, then it represents the earliest record of the office.
 
Note: Reverend Auguste Coisson was a missionary with ‘Societe des Missions Évangéliques de Paris’ (Paris Evangelical Missionary Society)

£500