Page 9 - Sutclifffe-APD_CanadianForces

MILITARY CENSORSBIP HANDSTAMPS
OF THE CANADIAN ARMY.

Because of ihe pending withdrawal o£ the ~ritish
Infantry Battalion, The King's Shropshire Light In£an~ry,
on the 27th May, 1940, ihe Canadian Army assumed garrison

duty in J"amaica. 'this force was known as "Y Force"
anq comprised a ~achine gun regiment, The Winnipeg

Grenadier~. Like its British counterpart this
Regiment also provided a Company for duty in Bermuda, such
Company arriving there on the 18~h ~une, 1940.

As mentioned under the Section dealing wi~h the
~ritish Army, the auxillary units of the British Army
remain~d in ~amaica, and as ~he Canadians did not at that

time possess a~ Army Postal Units,postal facilities for
the Canadian Army were provided by the British Army and the
~amaican Post Office.

~he Canadian Army followed the same pattern as ihe
British Army for censorship~ that is, ~he letter was

censored at Unit level and also by ihe Canadian Base Censor .
It is therefore necessary to refer io both ~ypes of
censor marking, especially as the second type, M-CAC 2,

the "Y Force" bandstamp.s~ appear -to have been handed down
:trom Unit to Unit. Again, al-though reference has been
made to the Canadian :Base Censor, -this officer did not take

up duty until early 1942, following 1he establishment of
-the .British Army :Base "Poai O:f:tice at Up "Park Camp ..

Whilst the formats se-t by 'Iom .Foster in hi.s articles
on this aspect of ~amaican Postal History have been
»reserved wi~h bis referencinc, ~o eomple~e the pos~al

markings three :fur-ther hands~amps are included in th.is
Sec-tion.
The firs~ of these is the two line handstamp with the

wording "CANADIAN ARMY/OVERSEAS" in seri:f type 4i mm high.