This letter is sent by the Royal Over-Seas League that promotes cultural and artistic activities throughout the Commonwealth formed between Great Britain and parts of its colonial empire. The destinator is a lieutenant-colonel in Tanganyika. This protectorate is independent in December 1961, and become the continental part of Tanzania, after the association with Zanzibar.« B.E. AFRICA » stands for British East Africa, former name until the 1920's of Kenya and Uganda. The German Tanganyika became a mandate under British rule after World War One. To place under this BEA name is right since these three territories used the same stamps with their three names. A postal union lasted this link until 1976.
The stamp is a brown two pence (2d) of the Wilding series, issued at the beginning of Elizabeth II's reign in the fifties. It represents a photograph of the Queen by Dorothy Wilding. Around the head, the illustration is a floral composition using national emblems of the four united kingdoms.
But, what touched my eyes when I was looking at many British covers is the pictorial cancellation promoting a postal product : « BUY STAMPS IN BOOKS » and three booklets' covers with prices on them : 3/- for three shillings, 4/6 for four shillings and six pence, and five shillings. We are before the decimalization : 12 pence made one shilling.
Librairy :
In French, here is a useful book to retrieve basic intels about issuing date of stamps by postal authorities : Jacques Delafosse, Dictionnaire des émissions philatéliques, éd. Timbropresse, 2004, ISBN 2-908101-10-6.
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