Opened by censor

Download this image


Love this? Please support us and...

More from this collection

Related by Where

Research Help!

Where: Unknown

Try to find the spot where the photographer was standing.

When: 01 January 1944

Try to find the date or year when this image was made.
Description: "Postal and Telegraph Censorship Department worker checks the content of a letter". During the Second World War personal correspondence was routinely censored.

Date: World War Two

Our Catalogue Reference: DEFE 1/332

This image is from the collections of The National Archives. Feel free to share it within the spirit of the Commons.

For high quality reproductions of any item from our collection please contact our image library.

Info:

Owner: The National Archives UK
Source: Flickr Commons
Views: 10755
thenationalarchivesuk censorship letters post ministryofdefence correspondence secondworldwar tna:piecereference=defe1p332 tna:subseriesreference=defe1ss9 tna:iaid=c302012 tna:subsubseriesreference=defe1ss9sss3 tna:seriesreference=defe1 tna:divisionreference=defed3 tna:departmentreference=defe

Add Tags
  • profile

    D1v1d

    • 24/Mar/2010 17:07:59

    This is fantastic historical material. Thank you for sharing your collection!

  • profile

    eilyshaw

    • 14/Nov/2010 13:33:46

    Course this kinda thing doesn't happen nowadays.... perish the thought. Blimey my giro's a bit late. Mind you you'd have to have command of quite few languages.

  • profile

    ww2censor

    • 03/Aug/2012 00:56:58

    This style of censor label was used from the beginning of the war in September 1939 until the War Office responsibility for censorship passed to the Ministry of Information in April 1940. This censor label also has a reference number "PC66" at the top right, barely seen in the image, and at that time the text on the labels reads "OPENED BY CENSOR" but this was changed to "OPENED BY EXAMINER". The very latest use I have seen of this type of label is July 1940, so this photo must have been taken before then. Most of this info can be verified in the Torrance & Morenweiser UK censorship book published by the Civil Censorship Study Group, British Empire Civil Censorship Devices WWII: Section 2 (pub 1991): Civil Censorship in United Kingdom.