on August 26. The base was at
Ismailia, whence the post office corps sent out its branches, planting
advanced base and field post offices connecting the base with the
changing front, between which and the base a daily service was
maintained. In September, shortly after the battle of Tel-el-Kebir,
the Army and the Army Post Office reached Cairo, and re-embarked for
home on October 7. The despatches gave high praise to the efficiency
and useful service of the corps.

Three years later, Major Sturgeon (promoted in recognition of his
services in Egypt, 1882) again commanded a corps of twenty N.C.O.'s
and men, in Sir Gerald Graham's Suakim expedition of 1885. The
corps left England on March 3, and returned on July 28, after a more
difficult experience with the Suakim garrison than they had met with
in the first Egyptian campaign.

DONGOLA EXPEDITION. Of the Dongola Expeditionary Force under General
Kitchener in 1896 we have no record of the use of English stamps,
but Mr. H. H. Harland has shown us an interesting envelope with the
postmark of Wadi-Halfa camp, the letter not being prepaid as no stamps
were available (_Fig._ 23).

[Illustration: _Fig. 23. Dongola Expeditionary Force._]

SOUTH AFRICA, 1899-1902. Major Sturgeon was succeeded in the command
of the Army Postal Corps by his second in command, Captain Viall. On
the death of the latter (1890), Captain G. W. Treble of the London
Postal Service took the command, which he held at the outbreak of the
South African War in 1899, aided by Captain W. Price (now Colonel W.
Price, C.M.G., in command of the Army Post Office with the British
Expeditionary Force in France) and Lieutenant H. M'Clintock, these
latter officers belonging to the Secretary's Office of the G.P.O.,
London. A first portion of the company, with Captain Treble, left
England with General Buller and his staff, and the rest followed on
October 21, and several further detachments went out with later
contingents. In South Africa they had a very wide area to cover. At
the outset Captain Treble established himself with the headquarters
of the Inspector General of Communications in Cape Colony, and moved
about keeping close touch with the movements of the forces, an
important part of his duties being to forward to the various offices
the information necessary to ensure the correct circulation of the
mails. Captain Price was at Cape Town, and Lieutenant M'Clintock at
Pietermaritzburg.

The British military