Qatar to Kirkuk - Early covers

Prior to the start of the Post Office in Qatar, most of the in and out mail would have been directed via Bahrain. The only way to identify the covers as being to or from Qatar, would be the address. This is the case for the three covers below.

The first cover is from Nagpur, India to a Mr. Robert Lawson, working for the Petroleum Development (Qatar). As can be seen on the address, the last two lines show that the cover was sent via the offices of the Petroleum Company Bahrain.

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The second cover, is from a well known philatelist to a relative in Surrey, England. Again, the cover shows only Bahrain Stamps and a Bahrain cancellation. The only proof that it was sent from Qatar, is inside where the top line shows the date and Qatar.

Mr. Tonkinson, the sender, clearly was a keen philatelist, in this letter talking about acquiring stamps from far a field.

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As we can read on the previous letter. Mr. Tonkinson was aware that he would be travelling to Kirkuk, Iraq in April, giving him plenty of time to send himself another letter from Qatar (via Bahrain). Completing an interesting story.

In a previous blog, I showed that Mr. Tonkinson, possibly began his Middle East work for the Petroleum company in Beirut, Lebanon. Then moved to Basrah, Iraq prior to being sent to Dukhan, Qatar. Here we see that he also travelled to Kirkuk, Iraq. In a future post, I shall show that he also travelled to Dubai, Sharjah and Muscat. This to show that he was obviously an expert for the Petroleum Company.

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