Railway Air Services - Isle of Man

The Isle of Man was served by Ronaldsway airport in the South West of the Island. During the 1920’s airplanes occasionally landed in a field at Ronaldsway farm, Derbyhaven, near Castletown and in June 1928 Capt. Gordon Olley landed there with a Handley Page W9, but it wasn’t until July 1933 that Blackpool & West Coast Air Services established a regular service, linking Liverpool (Speke) which had just opened, via Blackpool (Squires Gate). In October 1934, Capt. Olley obtained landing rights in this area and adjoining 20-acre field and founded Isle of Man Air Services to run the aerodrome. The area was levelled, drained and extended in 1935. After further improvements in the 1940’s Ronaldsway became the main Isle of Man airport and is still open today. It was used by RAS from the 20th August 1934. The Isle of Man was not on the direct Glasgow to London route, instead it was accessed via a feeder service run by Gordon Store and running from Belfast to the Isle of Man and to Manchester and returning. The reason the main plane did not land at Douglas was the insufficient size of the runway. Store’s smaller plane was able to land where larger planes would struggle. In order to not delay the main plane which went direct to Manchester from Belfast, the handover times were incredibly tight. The Glasgow plane landed at Belfast at 10.05 and the feeder service departed at 10.07! The feeder service arrived at Manchester at 12.00 and the main plane left at 12.10. Even today such accuracy would be difficult, but back in 1934 when the weather frequently played havoc with schedules it must have been nigh on impossible. On the 20th both planes left Belfast, the main plane arriving in Manchester. The rest of the mail drop was a disaster. The mail to the Isle of Man was not unloaded at Belfast as planned, instead it went to Manchester where it had to be sent back to the Isle of Man by boat. The feeder service arrived at Douglas but most of the commemorative mail was not ready and the plane left Douglas with little mail. All mail that came out of Douglas that day had a date and time stamp of 10.00 a.m. All the later mail, which was most of it, had a time stamp of 4.30 pm. Ironically apart from mail for Manchester the other mail (Birmingham and London) with a 10 a.m. post mark was only part flown whereas the later mail was totally flown on the 21st which had a full service. Flown 20th - Manchester (10.00 am postmark) Flown 21st - Belfast, Glasgow (20th and 21st postmarks), Manchester, Birmingham, London (4.30 pm postmark), Bristol, Southampton, Cowes (21st postmarks) Partly Flown - Birmingham, London (10.00 a.m. postmark), Cardiff, Surface 20th - Liverpool. Redgrove mentions that an error was made by RAS officials to whom was entrusted the job of posting the bulk of the souvenir mail at Douglas. It was all posted in the afternoon after the plane had left and bears the 4.30pm postmark. it was held over to the next day. First flight covers to Manchester bearing the 10.00 a.m. postmark are genuine first flight and scarce. Ironically 10.00 postmarked mail to Birmingham and London is also very scarce but only partly flown so not nearly as desirable. The real first flight covers are the much more common covers with 4.30 pm postmarks. The following three covers confirm what Redgrove said, as they all are all plain envelopes. I have only seen one 10.00 am postmark on souvenir mail and that arrived in London on the 21st. The first example is a genuine first flight cover from Douglas in the Isle of Man to Manchester, with a Douglas 10.00 am postmark. For confirmation, the cover had a Manchester backstamp of the 20th confirming it was a flown cover.

RAS Railway Air Services Covers flown from Southampton 20th August 1934

The next example is interesting. It is a cover that is sent from Douglas in the Isle of Man to Birmingham. It has a 10.00 am postmark so would have been flown to Manchester on the 20th. Covers sent to London as can be seen from the third example when they have backstamps are backstamped with the date of the 20th, showing that they were taken by rail to London from Manchester. This however has a backstamp of the 21st! Surely if it was sent down by rail it would have a backstamp of the 20th. So, was it held over for some reason and is it a genuine flown cover of the 20th? Unfortunately, there is no timestamp which would help understand what had happened. Just to add to the mystery it also has a backstamp of Rotterdam of the 25th. Now where that has come from it is impossible to say. Nothing on the cover suggests it was going abroad.

The final of our three covers of plain envelopes with 10.00 am postmarks is sent from Douglas on the Isle of Man to Westcliff-on sea. Westcliff on sea is about forty miles east of London on the East coast. This would have gone by train into London and then onward to its destination. This clearly has a backstamp of Southend-on-sea with the date of the 20th. This confirms it was partly flown and partly sent by rail. In reference to the above cover it poses the question, if this cover can be sent to London, sorted and sent onto Southend and still have a 20th mark, if the Birmingham cover was sent on the 20th by rail, why does it not have a 20th mark?

20th IOM to Westcliff. 10.00am postmark

20th IOM to Westcliff. Southend 20th backstamp

The next two examples are also mail sent to London. The first cover most unusually has a Castletown postmark rather than Douglas. It is difficult to make out the time, but it has an A of AM. I think we can presume it flew on the 20th and went by train to London. The second cover is a souvenir mail sent from Douglas to London with a 4.30 pm postmark which actually makes it a genuine first flown cover.