1955 Aden Protectorate issue
Qu’aiti State (القعيطي al-Qu‘ayṭī) Mukalla passport.
Some of the rare and sort after passports are those issued in former colonial territories that once belonged to the vast British Empire . At one point the ’empire’ span from Pitcairn in the far west to Western Samoa in the Far East.
After the end of World War Two much of the territories gained their independence and one of them was the British ruled colony of Aden.
The Colony of Aden was a British crown colony from 1937 to 1963; and was located at what is today Yemen: before that year it was part of British India and once detached, it became a separate colony also known as the “Colony & Protectorate of Aden“.
In the 1960’s Qu’aiti declined to join the Federation of South Arabia, under British sponsorship, but remained under British protection though. The Kingdom was forcibly integrated into what would become in 1990 the Republic of Yemen.
Passport number 8708 was issued on March 31st 1955 by the British Agency at Mukalla to 26 year old trader named Khalid Ahmed Salem Balahmar Banagaitah.
The passport was used to enter and exit Saudi Arabia with several extensions made by the Pakistani diplomatic mission on behalf of “Her Britannic Majesty’s Government”.
Hope you enjoy the images of this very rare document with added samples of an earlier Protectorate issue from 1940.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
