Ram Gopal & Co. Cover #3
1922 reg. cover between #stampdealers Ram Gopal & Co., & Messrs B. Gordon Jones of London. The reg. slip (R54) is an R-10 type, introduced in Jan 1909 to selected HPOs which were not allotted R-9 slips with a pre-printed PO name.
#philately #postalhistory

Rear shows total franking of 5A, tied by Alwar-City circular date stamps (6 SEP 22), paying the 2A first-weight (1oz) surface mail rate from India to England (1 Jan 1921 - 30 Nov 1931) + 3A foreign mail reg. fee (1 Sep 1921 - 31 Mar 1948).

The addressee, #philatelist Bertram Gordon Jones was born 15 Mar 1872, in Serampore, Bengal, India; to Francis Weston Jones & his second wife, Harriett Sophia. As a young man he est. in 1891 a stamp dealing business in Calcutta, and introduced stamp auctions to India in 1894.

In Feb 1894 Gordon Jones helped co-found the Philatelic Society of Bengal, and from Jul 1894 to Mar 1897 published it's official monthly journal, Philatelic World, until the emergence of The Philatelic Journal of India, the official organ of the new Philatelic Society of India.

Jones edited The Philatelic Journal of India from Apr 1907 to Jun 1908, and co-authored several publications, published by the Philatelic Society of India. After a brief spell in the UK, Jones returned to India to est. The Calcutta Philatelic Co. & the journal Stamps (1897-1906).

By 1911, Jones had returned permanently to the UK. The 1911 census shows him living in Islington with his 26-year old wife Evelyn Kate (née Arnold), whom he married in 1905 in London. This was his 2nd marriage. His first wife, Ethel St. Clair, (b. 1873), died in Calcutta in 1903.

Bert, or Bertie, as he referred to himself, had one son by Ethel: 2Lt. Eric Gordon Jones (b. 16 Sep 1897, Calcutta), of the 2nd Bn. Middlesex Regiment, who died of wounds in WWI on 1 Aug 1917. Bert was living at 23 Rosemont Ave. at this time.

By his second wife, Evelyn, Bert had two children, Arnold (b. 27 Aug 1906, Simla, India), & Irene (b. 1909, London, UK). B. Gordon Jones died in 1957.

The family information in this thread is based on personal research, and I apologise if there are any errors.

Images in post 3 & 4 are from "Early Indian Philatelic Literature, 1875-1900", by Abhishek Bhuwalk; presented at Stockholmia 2019.
https://www.philaliterature.com/uploads/9/0/4/6/90467591/eipl.pdf