Serving in Moscow
1948 British diplomat’s passport.
Sometimes what makes a passport rare and more collectible is the location it was issued at or the destination it was used for; in this case, the latter can explain the reason why I decided to add this treasure into my archive of documents.
Originally, the passport was not intended to be used as a DIPLOMATIC travel document, but, after its holder arrived at his place of posting, it was then amended to be so, and this could explain the diplomatic and official visas that were applied into it later on.
British passport number 925859 was issued to 29 year old civil servant Peter Kidson from Yorkshire on June 2nd 1948 at the Foreign Office.
The passport was valid also for travelling to the Soviet Union and this was the actual destination that Peter was heading to; thus his official visa for the USSR was issued at the Soviet consular section of their diplomatic legation in the United Kingdom on July 25th.
His point of entry was to be made from Berlin, via air, to Moscow but on page 6 we can see that this was amended to Leningrad. He reached Finland on August 13th, Helsinki, after receiving his entry visa at their consulate at London on July 22nd. From there he reached the USSR the next day.
Peter stayed for over one year, departing on December 5th 1949 via Finland again, after obtaining the entry visa from their diplomatic mission in Moscow the previous month.
He travelled through Scandinavia all the way to Paris from there to Portugal and Spain as well up to 1950.
From his later issued passports, we can assume that he was a “wireless operator” and that was his assigned job when being sent abroad.
Have added sample images of this Cold War passport.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
