Lot 10256 – 1920 British official envelope to S.I.Gibbes at th

1920 British official envelope to S.I.Gibbes at the Chinese Maritime Customs Harbin franked on reverse three 50k cancelled VLADIVOSTOK-264-HARBIN ‘a’ 17 8 20 oval datestamp with additional strike on front, received Harbin the next day, slight overall soiling Note: Sydney “Ivanovich” Gibbes was tutor to the children of Tsar Nicholas II. After the assassination of the royal family in 1918 he worked briefly for the British High Commission in Siberia and the British Embassy in Peking before joining the Chinese Maritime Customs in Harbin in 1920. In 1934 he was ordained as a Russian Orthodox priest and became the first English Orthodox abbot in history. Now known as Father Nicholas, he returned to England in 1937 and was active in church and public affairs until his death in 1963 at the age of 87.