It's been a couple of years since I last updated this site, which has now been around for 16 years. After 38 years of running a business as my day job, I've just recently become "semi-retired", meaning that I should finally have some more time to devote to updating this website.

Here's the first update, with hopefully more to come. This 1882 J.C. Wilson & Co. cover was used from Montreal on August 8, 1882 to Collingwood Ontario, with a Collingwood August 9 1882 cancel on the reverse.

This cover was mailed from the Boer War to Belgium on July 5, 1900. It appears to have been from the same prolific writer who mailed several other J.C. Wilson covers from O’Okiep, CGH during the war.

This OHMS cover, postmarked October 11, 1901 at the Toronto Army Post Office, was on the occasion of the Royal Review at Exhibition Park Camp. It was addressed to L.H Irving, Esq., “Overbrook”, Mineral Springs, Ont. via T.H.&B. Ry.

The tour in 1901 by the Duke & Duchess of Cornwall and York included South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the Colony of Newfoundland. Its primary goal was to reward the dominions for their participation in the South African War of 1899–1902.

While in Canada, the Duke presented newly minted South African War medals to veterans of the Boer War in a Royal Review ceremony in Toronto on October 11, 1901. The Canadian leg of the tour started in Quebec on September 16th, and also included Halifax, before departing from Newfoundland.

A cover has been added from J.O. Labrecque & Cie. The company specialized in the sale of “Diamant Noire” coal from their premises at 83 Rue Wolfe, Montreal. The image on the cover, by A.S. Brodeur, who had also illustrated the company’s 1898 ad in Le prix courant, Volume 22, Numéro 1, Page 10, shows a polar bear holding a black diamond over the heads of a gathering of South Africans & Boers with the caption ‘Les Boers en extose devant le “Diamant Noire” (célèbre charbon)’.

The cover was mailed December 16, 1901 with a Montreal Flag A postmark to M E.S. Parker, Bethlehem, P.A. US., with a Bethlehem receiving cancel on the reverse.

A copy of the Hotel Carslake use of the WLS-E12 “The Queen” design has been added. As is consistent with other examples found of this business use, the cover is the E-3 variety, with the uncoloured beaver on the front and song back 16, with the lyrics of “God Save the Queen” on the back. This example has been used from Montreal, with a Montreal flag cancel dated December 22, 1900. The back bears a December 24 receiver from the destination of Haydenville, Mass. USA.

I’ve also updated the WLS-E11 “Tattered Flag” page to the current format.

A new J.C. Wilson patriotic cover of the What We Have We’ll Hold design, WLS-E07 Type II, has been added. The cover bears a Toronto split ring cancel on the reverse that was used briefly between July 1, 1900 and December 6, 1901.

The page on the WLS-E02 Type II, “The Flag That Braved” design, patriotic envelopes produced by J.C. Wilson & Co. have been updated to reflect the current site format.

I’ve expanded upon the WLS-E08 Type I, Maple Leaf For Ever listing with its conversion to the latest site format. I continue to tweak some of the other pages as I go.

This example of a J.C. Wilson patriotic cover front shows a use from Ookiep, Cape of Good Hope, to Cornwall England on April 23, 1900. This is another of the series of J.C. Wilson covers used by the same sender to the same recipient over the course of several months during the Boer War.

A section on overseas use of covers from the old web site format has been reimplemented under the current design, with an update added.

This J.C. Wilson business cover was mailed on May 8, 1903 to Kilgour Bros of Toronto with a 2¢ Provisonal (a 3¢ QV Leaf stamp surcharged with a “2 CENTS” overprint).

This example of a J.C. Wilson business cover has been used from Montreal to E.B. Eddy Co. Ltd. of Hull, Quebec on May 7, 1897, with a 3¢ Small Queen stamp cancelled with a Montreal B Flag cancel. It could have contained correspondence regarding Wilson’s purchasing of paper from E.B. Eddy. The E. B. Eddy Company was a Canadian pulp and paper company at that time. It was originally incorporated in 1886 as The E. B. Eddy Manufacturing Company with Ezra Butler Eddy as its president. Eddy had begun business in 1854 making and selling wooden matches out of his home in Hull, Quebec. The company expanded into pulp and paper and in 1891, it was renamed to the E. B. Eddy Company.

This WLS-E08 Type II cover has been overprinted by L.H. Betts & Co. of Wallace, Nova Scotia, for business use. What makes this cover distinct is that reverse, which carries Song Back 11, “The Land of the Maple”, lacks the printer’s attribution normally found on the standard song back printing. As part of this update, I have updated and expanded the page showing WLS-E08.

One of the better known business use covers from the J.C. Wilson patriotics series is the use by Hotel Carslake of the WLS-E12 “God Save the Queen” patriotic cover. This particular cover comes with the Hotel Carlake letterhead enclosed with the envelope when it was mailed from Montreal on November 9, 1900 to Afton, New York, USA.