Lot 60956 – 1896 (Feb 1) envelope incl. original contents, sent from Arthur Smith at Rabai during the Mazrui rebellion to England with 1895 2 1/2a on 1 1/2a sepia provisional

1896 (Feb 1) envelope incl. original contents, sent from Arthur Smith at Rabai during the Mazrui rebellion to England with 1895 2 1/2a on 1 1/2a sepia provisional tied by Mombasa squared circle ds, reverse with Wolverhampton arrival, some foxing, a very rare usage, this being one of only 7 non-philatelic covers recorded with this provisional issue.

Extract from the letter: at Rabai we are quite out of touch with postal matters….Some stamped envelopes were misprinted Bretish EA. I only heard of this when they hall been sold. All these issues are rapidly bought up by the 50 or so Europeans in Mombasa…I expect by this time you have seen that Freretown was attacked by the rebels last week. The Zanzibar troops repulsed the in capital form and no one was killed on our side. I hear that about ten of the enemy were slain. Most of our people who have been sleeping in the woods have now retuned to their homes. »