I recently acquired this interesting post WW2 Builders invoice and receipt for building works. The Builder was C. J. Solway of St Sampsons, his client was Miss Peak of Delancey and the date of the invoice was July 1946. The value of the invoice was £19.6.0 (approximately £800 in today’s money) and both the invoice and receipt have appropriate Sales and Revenue Tax stamps attached. To the bottom right of the invoice a circular cachet has been applied in purple reading “WAR DAMAGE DEPARTMENT. 3 MAR 1948” and it is this hand stamp that is of particular interest shown more clearly below in this enlargement of the covered lower part of the receipted invoice.
While I am aware that the States of Guernsey did set up a Rehabilitation Compensation Scheme in 1946 and terminated the scheme in 1953, I was unaware that a formal War Damage Department existed to deal with such claims. It appears likely that the purple cachet was applied to the invoice to confirm that it had been seen by the States Department and that it was agreed as a War Damage Claim. I would be very interested to know if this assumption is correct, if other Members have similar receipts with this cachet and any knowledge concerning the hand cachet itself. For example, was the cachet produced and used exclusively on the Island or was it provided by the British Government as part of a wider post war Compensation Rehabilitation Scheme in which the British War Department was involved?
