British Diplomatic Bag sent to HM Ambassador, British Embassy, Berlin, with the original On His Britannic Majesty's Service fabric label stamped "Expedition Officiale" on both sides and with the remnants of the original lead seal still attached. The contents of the bag are included - an empty OHBMS envelope addressed to the Military Attache, British Embassy, Berlin.

The Military Attaché who received the bag was Colonel Frank Noel Mason-MacFarlane, later Lieutenant-General Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane. From January 1938 he served as British Military Attaché in Berlin, also covering Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and Denmark. He reported on German rearmament, the Anschluss, the Czechoslovak crisis, and the risk of German aggression. The attribution to Mason-MacFarlane is supported by the accompanying family archive context described below.

Included in this lot:
• Original canvas British diplomatic bag 50 x 34 cm
• Original OHBMS fabric label stamped “Expedition Officiale” 18 x 6.5 cm
• Remnants of original lead seal
• Empty OHBMS envelope addressed to the Military Attaché, British Embassy, Berlin 38 x 25 cm

Condition:
• The bag is in good original condition overall with staining to one side
• Label and envelope creased
• Remnants of original lead seal present
• Please review all photographs as they form part of the condition description

Provenance

The bag comes from a large family-retained archive associated with Lieutenant-General Sir Frank Noel Mason-MacFarlane and several related British Army families. The archive was found in a Second World War officer’s footlocker and appears to have descended through the Mason-MacFarlane family to Noel’s son, Ian Will Mason-MacFarlane, and Ian’s wife, Muriel Paterson Hall, known as Mona.

The archive includes a 1969 handwritten note from Mona Hall to the Imperial War Museum concerning the private papers, photographs, and film records of Lieutenant-General Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane. Mona Hall, died in 2016. The later chain of custody is not known, but the footlocker and related family/military papers were subsequently rediscovered during a house clearance.