Montgomery, Malcolm (2012). Fines on Trans-Atlantic Mail between Canada and the United Kingdom 1859 – 1899.

In the period from 1970 through 2000 many BNA philatelists, notably the late Jack Arnell, the late Allan Steinhart and Malcolm Montgomery, studied the many aspects of nineteenth century mail to and from British North America and England. This latest BNAPS handbook, Fines on Trans-Atlantic Mail between Canada and the United Kingdom 1859 – 1899, is intended to be the first of a trilogy of books. The second volume of the trilogy will feature Malcolm’s exhibit, “Transatlantic Mail between the United Kingdom and British North America 1759-1851,” which was awarded an International Gold at the London 2010 exhibition, followed by Gold and the Allan Steinhart Reserve Grand Award at BNAPEX 2010 in Victoria, BC. The third volume will be an update of Jack Arnell’s 1987 Handbook on Transatlantic Mail, due to the large amount of information that has been gathered since its publication and especially since he and Allan Steinhart passed away close to fifteen years ago.Fines on Trans-Atlantic Mail between Canada and the United Kingdom 1859 – 1899 has been prepared in the same format as Malcolm Montgomery’s and the late Dr. Dorothy Sanderson’s 2010 book on Cross-Border Mail, with separate sections on rates and markings, plates showing covers with full explanations, and text of legislative acts and post office regulations governing trans-Atlantic mail. While the rates paid and routes taken by many, if not most, trans-Atlantic covers are straightforward for students of the subject, this is not the case for letters that accrued additional charges because they were underpaid for one or more of several possible reasons; in ‘Fines’ Malcolm treats this aspect of the study exclusively. Malcolm Montgomery is a retired British Army officer who served in the Middlesex Regiment, with tours of duty during his latter years in the Army at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and the Ministry of Defence, identifying users’ requirements for computer support in Command and control. For his Army service to his country he was made a member of the Order of the British Empire. While a schoolboy in Austria, where he lived when his father was stationed there, Malcolm formed a collection of stamps, first Austrian, and then Canadian. Later in life the stamps of Canada took over as his main interest until he realized that, on an Army Officer’s salary, he would never complete the collection. Instead he began to study postal history, mainly the postal history of the trans-Atlantic services between the United Kingdom and British North America. His interest led to his becoming the Editor of the newsletter of the TransAtlantic Mail Study Group of BNAPS during the 1900s.