Lot 60623 – 1838 (12.3) cover to Commander in Chief Dublin with the extremely rare usage of the dotted oval ALPHABET / G*P*O/* of Dublin in red

1838 (12.3) Folded letter sheet from Oldham to Lieut General Edward Blakeney, Commander in Chief Dublin, showing backstamps of a framed Oldham PP and MANCHESTER/MR.13/1838 cds and Dublin 4 */MR 15 /38, rated “1/3” single and sent to the Alphabet Office in the G.P.O., with the extremely rare usage of the dotted oval ALPHABET / G*P*O/* of Dublin in red was applied, a wonderful example of this service carried out by the Alphabet Man for the Military in Barracks.

The only recorded example of this handstamp thus far.

Note: Field Marshal Sir Edward Blakeney was a British Army officer. After serving as a junior officer with the expedition to Dutch Guiana and being taken prisoner by privateers three times suffering great hardship, he took part in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799. He also joined the expedition to Denmark led by Lord Cathcart in 1807. He went on to command the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Regiment of Foot and then both battalions of that regiment at many of the battles of the Peninsular War. After joining the Duke of Wellington as he marched into Paris in 1815, Blakeney fought in the War of 1812. He then commanded a brigade in the army sent on a mission to Portugal to support the constitutional government against the absolutist forces of Dom Miguel in 1826. His last major appointment was as Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, a post he held for nearly twenty years.