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Air
Mail Service to Perim and Kamaran
1928-1939
Aircraft from the RAF’s reformed 8 Squadron visited
Perim from Aden on at least four occasions in 1927.
There is no record of mails having been carried,
although this is likely. From 1928 the RAF made regular
training flights to Perim and Kamaran and to
supplement an increasingly infrequent and irregular
steamer service and calls by the Government vessel on
the Aden Station, the RAF agreed to carry mail at normal
postal rates. For two months towards the end of that
year this became a scheduled weekly Air Mail service but
from 3 December this became a fortnightly service.
The Air Mail service to Perim must have been halted for
a brief period as on 18 February 1929 the Commanding
Officer of 8 Squadron RAF reported to the Residency that
he had resumed the fortnightly mail service
between Aden, Perim and Kamaran.
Between 1929 and the closing down of the Perim Coal
Company in 1936 mails were carried fairly regularly in
alternate weeks by steamer and the RAF, although the
latter were not authorised to carry registered or
insured articles. During year of the Abyssinian Crisis
(1935-36) the reinforcement squadrons sent to Aden,
including 203 (FB) Sqn,
took their turn on the mail run.
It is clear that following the closing of the sub-post
office on Perim on 1 October 1936 the mail flight ceased
calling at Perim for a short period and individuals
there had to make their own arrangements to have letters
forwarded. This was clearly not satisfactory and it was
decided that the Air Mail for Kamaran would stop at
Perim and hand the bag over to the Armed Police
Inspector, picking the bag up from him on the return
journey. This practice continued on a fairly regular
basis until 1939.
It was quite normal for a flight of three aircraft to
carry out the mail run, this
only not being undertaken when aircraft were otherwise
engaged in operational sorties over the hinterland. The
normal practice was for planes to fly to Kamaran via
Perim one day, returning via Perim the following day.
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