Mark Joseph Jochim

The last Monday in January is marked as World Local Post Day, originally established in 1989 as National Local Post Day.  The Local Post Collectors Society decides on a theme for local posts to design stamps around each year.  The theme for 2014 is the centennial of the start of World War One.

Muang Phuket Local Post will release a single 50-satang stamp in remembrance of the war and marking World Local Post Day this coming Monday, 27 January 2014.  Despite the image above, it will once again be printed imperforate and ungummed in sheets of 20.  The design — a  British Mark V (Male) tank  crossing over a trench — was adapted from a propaganda poster used during the period.  The center of the first day of issue postmark features a remembrance poppy, also included on an unused design for this issue.

At the time of the Great War, Thailand was called Siam and participated by sending a small army to serve on the Western Front with the joint Franco-British forces.  This group of 1200 volunteers arrived in Europe in 1918 and included 95 pilots and a medical unit.  The still-used tricolor flag had recently been adopted (supposedly designed by King Vajiravudh) and the Siamese Expeditionary Force adopted a two-sided war flag based on that — adding the elephant in full regalia seen on earlier Siamese flags to one side and the royal cipher on the reverse.