With a fall in the number of residents on the Island and the consequent lack of business to justify its continuation the Sub-Post Office was closed on the 30th November 1938. Herm was to be without a Post Office for some 31 years and correspondence for the Island was again handled by the Post Office in St. Peter Port via a Private Bag Service free of any charge as before.

During 1948 a Neopost Franking machine with the meter value die No.13 was used in Herm. Applied in red ink it is also known with the 2d postcard rate and the 2½d sealed letter rate. Examples are rare.

A Sub-Post Office was not re-opened on Herm until the 1st October 1969 under the newly established Guernsey Post Office and, interestingly, operated from the same Mermaid Cottages as before. New datestamps were issued for use with letters, packets and parcels in the same style as those for use at other offices within the Bailiwick.  

Registration and Recorded delivery services were also available from the new Sub-Post Office and the first roll of registration labels used was a Guernsey Head Post office series GUERNSEY N commencing with the No 1001. These were later replaced in April 1970 with more conventional labels domiciled to HERM ISLAND. The Recorded Delivery label shown was the first used on the 1st October 1969.

A slightly larger letter datestamp was issued to Herm in 1971 and a special commemorative datestamp was used at Herm and the Guernsey Philatelic Bureau on the 11th November 1970. A boxed rectangular special cancellation was only used at the Guernsey Philatelic Bureau on the 1st May 1975.

A new 38mm large circular packet datestamp has recently been seen in August 2008.

A small number of examples are known, on postcards dating from about 1905,  of an unframed ‘HERM’ hand stamp, although this is believed to have been a private mark, possibly applied by a postcard dealer, rather than a Post Office mark.

With the refusal of the GPO to re-establish postal facilities for Herm during the late 1940’s, the then tenant, Mr A.G.Jefferies, decided to defray his costs in carrying the mails back and forth from Guernsey by issuing a set of local stamps and the GPO were insistent that such unauthorised stamps did not bear the word ‘Postage’. Further such stamps, which were unofficial and unauthorised for official postal use, were issued by the new tenant Major A.G.Wood.

A Pigeon Service ran from 26th May to 30th September 1949 between Herm and the Herm Island Office on Albert Pier in St. Peter Port. The service, intended for urgent messages only, was suspended once a radio-telephone was installed in Herm.

26th May 1949 until some time in May 1950, when it was superseded by a second type of single circle that had Herm Island repeated top and bottom. Three hand stamps of this second type were made, differing slightly in detail and size. At the request of the Head Postmaster in Guernsey, the diameter of the date stamp was increased to 31mm in April 1962. The first type was usually struck in violet or occasionally in black, and the second type is to be found struck in green, black, red, blue or violet.

From 1954, whenever letters were delayed because a storm prevented the motor-boat from leaving the island, a single line instructional marking in the form of a cachet reading HERM MAIL – DELAYED BY STORM was applied to letters, struck in blue or black. In the same context a similar manuscript marking was used.

This envelope has the Herm stamp on the back cancelled by the second type of Herm Island date stamp, and it bears the manuscript instructional marking as it was delayed by a storm.

An example of the single line cachet.

Mail from Herm had to be properly stamped with British stamps as well as the Herm local carriage labels. Once the Herm stamps had been cancelled, the mail was put in a locked bag marked HERM ISLAND MAIL and sent to Guernsey on the first boat in the morning.  It was then taken to the Head Post Office and unlocked by a Post Office official. Letters for Herm would then be placed in the bag which was then re-locked and taken back to the island.

Two types of rubber date stamp were used to cancel the Herm stamps. The first type was a half circle with the words Herm Island around the top and the date across the centre.  It was originally made as a single circle date stamp, with the word Postage around the bottom, but this part had to be removed to comply with the GPO instructions. This was used from   

Herm Postal History.
The Official or Sub Post Office Periods.

Herm is one of the smaller occupied Channel Islands with a varying population of around 100 persons and consequently early correspondence was extremely small and surviving examples are very rare. Letters addressed to the Island in the 19th century were held at the Head Post Office in Guernsey to await collection, and those for despatch were handed in to the Head Post Office. Later under the tenancy of the author Compton Mackenzie from 1920 a special locked bag was used for the mails with the large correspondence that he attracted.

A Sub-Post Office under Guernsey was first established on Herm Island on the 1st May 1925 housed in the Mermaid Tavern and Capt. G. D. Attewell was appointed as the Sub-Postmaster. A wall letter posting box was erected just outside. The office was open for just a half hour each morning. A double circle datestamp was issued for use and this remains a scarce postmark due to a lack of letter business. Registration facilities were also available.