Sikkim Postal History: Those early years-iv

  [It has been a wonderful response from different places in the state, including Darjeeling District, regarding my findings on the Postal History of Sikkim. I am happy that my readers found information that they have heard less. Continuing the previous article, I share the Postal System of the British Expedition of 1888, which played an important role in turning Sikkim into what it is today.]

Geoffrey Flack, in “Sikkim Field Force 1888-89; Precursor to the Younghusband Expedition,” published in Postal Himal (No.78, 2^nd Quarter 1994) writes ……. on March 20^th 1888, Brigadier General T Graham was sent with a force of 2000 men to retake the lands of Sikkim that were invaded by the Tibetans. The Tibetans offered little resistance, crossed the Jalepla, and attacked Gnatong; the British men forced the Tibetans to drive them to the frontiers.

Brigadier General T Graham requested the extension of the telegraph line towards the Tibetan side of Jalepla, which was later sanctioned, allowing Arthur Edmund Sandbach to enter the land of Sikkim. Sandbach was a Royal Engineer to the Bengal Sappers and Miners. The arrival of Sandbach to Sikkim played an important role in the early development of Sikkim's postal systems. It was due to his letters sent from the frontiers of Sikkim and Tibet during his 11 months staying with the British Field Force that a new addition to the long-forgotten postal history of Sikkim.

Sandbach and his unit arrived in Sikkim and immediately made it to the Tibet frontier, camping at a place called “Byutan,” an unknown place name until now, east of the Jalepla frontier near the Bhutan border on November 9th, 1888. Sandbach and his unit stayed in Tibet for three weeks before returning to Gnatong on December 3rd, 1888. Along with the telegraphs, EXPERIMENTAL P.O. C-7 of the British Forces was also with Sandbach’s unit in Tibet.

EXPERIMENTAL P.O. C-7 was established at Gnatong, and it might have traveled with Sandbach’s unit to the Tibetan frontier, which cannot be denied. The website Invaluable.com states the description of an auctioned Post Card as “1889 (3 Dec.) 1/4a. brown stationery card from Private John Sullivan of the Connaught Rangers at Sikkim to Bombay, canceled with a good strike of the "experimental po/c-7" c.d.s. and with Market Bombay arrival c.d.s. alongside the contents requesting the addressee to send a catalogue to the writer at Sikkim, which is most unusual. The card had a couple of small faults, though it was a rare item of mail from this obscure military operation.”

Sandbach’s correspondence provides a great deal of information about the postal history of the Sikkim Field Force. Other remarkable cancellations received from Sandbach's correspondence used inside Sikkim are the ‘EXPERIMENTAL P.O C-3’ and ‘EXPERIMENTAL P.O C-22’.

‘EXPERIMENTAL P.O C-3’ is the rarest of the cancellations of the Sikkim Field Force of 1888-89. Only 3 covers had been found dated October 3^rd and 5^th, 1888, used most probably at Rangpo, where Sandbach had stayed on his visit. Ten covers from ‘EXPERIMENTAL P.O C-22’ had been found canceled at Rhenock Ridge. The covers were used between December 16^th, 1888, to late May 1889.