Sarawak First Air Service 1930s

at 3:03 PM Posted by Marcel |



Sarawak First Air Service, 1930s

I recently stumbled onto this curious, yet amazing document from the Postmaster General of Sarawak to presumably a collector in airmail philately. It first appeared in ebay with an opening bid of  £199.99 on 26 December 2011, and ended with a jaw dropping price of  £515.67 on 3 January 2012 after 5 bids.

We know that in 1930, there was a seaplane expedition to various cities in British Borneo including Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo. The plane started their voyage in Singapore in 26 May 1930 to Kuching. From there they flew to Sibu and Miri on 30th May 1930 before continued on and reached Kuala Belait and Brunei capital on 1st June 1930. They landed in Jesselton on 2nd June 1930.

The Document

The document is written by the Postmaster General of Sarawak as an Officer in Charge of the new Sarawak Airmail chop. There are three marks in the middle of the letter, the left one bears the Seal of Baram, Sarawak circular mark with the PMG's signature and "o-in-c" below it. The middle aspect is affixed with Sarawak's 4c stamp of Brooke and is cancelled with the circular "Air Service" postmark, the left side then bears the air service mark alone.

The document reads:

"I got yesterday, the new air postmark stamp of Sarawak which is left by the o-in-c [officer in charge?] to stamp such letters, official, as he wishes to send by airmail. The services consist of two months and is the first ever run in Borneo. Though it has not really started yet, I send you a Sarawak chop as in future(?) it may be of interest as the first air service in Borneo. It is put on with my own fair hand and I'm not sure if it isn't against the law?! "
This is certainly a great document and surely it's an illegal one? :)


 Related reading:
North Borneo First Airmail 1930
Brunei First Airmail 1930