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East India Post Card used during the Sikkim Expedition, 1888-89

By himalayanreview

The Post Offices in Sikkim is said to have started around the time when Sikkim Expedition 1888 was undergoing (More information on Sikkim Expedition 1888 shall come in days to come), this cancelled post card send from Sikkim to Bombay could probably be one of the first used postcards to had been officially marked from Sikkim Post Office. This postcard is on sale at auction and is priced around 400 to 500 pounds. The place of cancellation shows "EXPERIMENTAL P.O."

As from the Invaluable website:

The Sikkim Expedition, 1888-89

1889 (3 Dec.) 1/4a. brown stationery card from Private John Sullivan of the Connaught Rangers at Sikkim to Bombay, cancelled with a good strike of the " experimental po/c-7" c.d.s. and with Market Bombay's arrival c.d.s. alongside; the contents requesting the addressee to send a catalogue to the writer at Sikkim; most unusual. The card with a couple of small faults though a rare item of mail from this obscure military operation.

Note: In 1886 the British Government discovered that in contravention of a treaty with it, one had been signed by the Sikkim Rajah declaring Sikkim subject only to China and Tibet. In 1888 the Tibetans became aggressive, obstructing the Jelapla Road at Lintu. A Sikkim Expeditionary Force was dispatched in March and with the Tibetans defeated and pushed back to their own side of the frontier in October, active military operations ceased. 

A small force remained in Gnatong after the signing at Calcutta of an Anglo-Chinese convention Three Experimental Post Offices accompanied the expeditionary force. After military operations ended Experimental Post Office C-7 was established at Gnatong

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