Canadian Uses
A copy of WLS-E08 Type I, used from Newport, NS to Halifax on March 20, 1900.
A copy of WLS-E08 Type I, used from St. John North, NB to Bridgewater Massachusetts, USA on February 14, 1900.
A copy of WLS-E08 Type I used as a circular, paying the 1¢ rate, within Halifax.
A copy of WLS-E08 Type I paying double the standard postage rate, ex. Hugh Westgate’s Map Stamp Collection.
Boer War Uses
The most frequently found usage of a J.C. Wilson patriotic envelope related to the Boer War was the Maple Leaf For Ever design, WLS-E08 Types I & II.
Below are some WLS-E08 Type I examples.
These envelopes supplied gratis, for free distribution to Canadian Soldiers in, and going to, South Africa, by Nelson Lodge, Sons of England, Almonte, Ont. Canada.
J.C. Wilson & Co., Montreal, Publishers
This J.C. Wilson Maple Leaf For Ever Type I patriotic cover does not bear a postage stamp. On February 24, 1900, a Post Office Department circular was issued stating that letters sent from South Africa by Canadian troops on which postage was unpaid or insufficiently paid would be delivered to the addresses without collection of deficient postage.
Transiting through London England, the cover was initially marked “T” for postage due, but was corrected by scribbling out the “T” marking based on the Post Office Department circular.
For more on this cover, see this page.
The Maple Leaf For Ever Type I cover pictured above was mailed from G.P.O. Capetown to Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England on March 9, 1901, and received in Kidderminster on March 31, 1901.
Below, the reverse of the cover, with inscription Type vi, with text:
“These envelopes supplied gratis, for free distribution to CANADIAN SOLDIERS in, and going to South Africa, by Nelson Lodge, Sons of England, Almonte, Ont., Canada”
This envelope type, unknown to Henry Gates, has been designated here as type E-3. This inscription has also found on a Maple Leaf For Ever Type II cover.
For more on this cover, see this page.
Below, the reverse of the cover, with inscription Type vi, with text:
“These envelopes supplied gratis, for free distribution to CANADIAN SOLDIERS in, and going to South Africa, by Nelson Lodge, Sons of England, Almonte, Ont., Canada”
This envelope type, unknown to Henry Gates, has been designated here as type E-3. This inscription has also found on a Maple Leaf For Ever Type II cover.
For more on this cover, see this page.
The Maple Leaf For Ever Type I cover pictured above was mailed within Australia in 1904. While not used in association with th Boer War, it is a cover that appears to have been brought from the war back to Australia, as it bears the Nelson Lodge printer’s attribution on the reverse.
