British post office in Bangkok - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The earliest recorded mail from Bangkok

Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

dates back only to 1836 when American missionary Dan Beach Bradley

Dan Beach Bradley

Dan Beach Bradley M.D. was an American Protestant missionary to Siam from 1835 until his death. He is credited with numerous firsts, including bringing the first Thai-script printing press to Siam, publishing the first Thai newspaper and monolingual Thai dictionary, and introducing Western...

sent a letter to his father in a stampless cover. The British Consular Post Office in Bangkok was established by Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

in 1858 as a consequence of a treaty signed between Great Britain and Siam (now known as Thailand) on 1855-04-18, and in response to a demand by expatriate merchants and missionaries. It ceased to provide service on 1 July 1885, the day Siam joined the Universal Postal Union

Universal Postal Union

The Universal Postal Union is an international organization that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration , the Postal Operations Council and the...

and started its own international postal service

Postage stamps and postal history of Thailand

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Thailand .-Pre-stamp era:Before Siam issued it's first stamp, there was a limited mail service, mainly for the royal family...

. During that time most of the mail from Bangkok was sent by diplomatic pouch to Singapore for forwarding. Thus most such mail has a Singapore cancel.

Initially, postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

were used here and throughout the Straits Settlements

Straits Settlements

The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia.Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under direct British control as a crown colony on 1 April 1867...

. This lasted until 1867 when Straits Settlements stamps were first produced. When Honorary Postmaster Gardner complained in 1881 that he should be compensated for the increasing amount of work that was required of him it was agreed that a portion of the revenue for stamp sales would be retained. This led to the overprinting during 1882 of Straits Settlement with the letter B, representing Bangkok, for use there. The Bangkok 30mm diameter circular date stamp postmark

Postmark

thumb|USS TexasA postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service...

was also introduced during this period. Most outbound mails were still sent to enter the postal system at Singapore (for European destinations). Some Hong Kong stamps continued to be used throughout this time for mail forwarded through Hong Kong to Chinese, Japanese and United States destinations. A few British stamps are also known to have been used in Bangkok. Inbound mails from steamboats were kept at the post office for people to come and pick up.

After the closure of the post office in July 1885, the B overprinted stamps were seen used elsewhere. An example is a cover sent from Singapore in December 1887 bearing postage stamps from Straits Settlements both with and without the overprint.

Forgeries of the overprinted "B" stamps are very common.

Further reading