1898 OFFICIAL MAIL: BEN DUFF FACSIMILE SIGNATURE authorising free postage on printed OHMS envelope from Cape Town (cds AP 12) to Standerton (backstamp 15 APR). The envelope front additionally signed"C Bell MOB" (Charles Bell, Money Order Branch). VF, very scarce. Lt-Col Benjamin Michael Duff D50. VD., of the Cape Town Highlanders (Commanding Officer from 1895 to 1900) was the secretary of Posts & Telegraphs to the GPO. Interestingly the first telephones in the colony were imported in 1878 by Adolph Boettger, the owner of a watchmakers shop at 9 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town. These telephones were used on an experimental basis to link the S? Georges Street PO with the house of Benjamin Duff who at that stage was Chief of the Telegraph Department.
