From the book:
TEN UNDER CAT
by Cecil Rose (as told to Edward Lanchbery)
Copyright 1958 by Cecil Rose and Edward Lanchbery.
First Published in 1958 by Cassel & Company Limited, London

Cecil Rose grew-up in Salford (Lancs) in the Edwardian era. From an early age he traded in postage stamps, not as a collector but as a commodity trader. His book is full of interesting anecdotes about his own activities and about aspects of the trade; there is just a little about stamps of Cyprus.

The book title, Ten Under Cat, derives from a price of ten per cent below that in catalogue listings. Pre-war, Cecil Rose had a shop in Oxford St. and, post-war, a shop in Eton (Berks) which operated into the late 1950s.

He enlisted in the Army at the beginning of the war (1939-45) where his linguistic skills were recognised and he was posted to the Army School of Languages. Eventually, he reached the Middle East as a Warrant Officer in the Field Security Police. Throughout the war, he invested in sound material remitting it to the UK where his Oxford St shop stock had been placed in a bank.

He spent some time in Cairo, where he cultivated a friendship with a sergeant in the South African Troop post-office. He was allowed, on occasion, to frank his own mail in order to ensure clear postmarks. He did visit Cyprus but has nothing to say about it. His anecdote about Cyprus stamps is as follows:

"Once, I am ashamed now to confess, I took advantage of this irregular privilege of franking my own stamps. It was after I had returned from Cyprus where I had bought a stock of unused stamps.

Suppose, I thought-- prompted by that imp of devilment or misguided sense of humour to which carefree Service atmosphere seemed to give full rein -- suppose I franked some of these Cyprus stamps with the Middle East Field Post Office Cairo number. That would cause some head-scratching amongst the dealers and collectors at home.

I stuck some high-value Cyprus stamps on pieces of brown paper that looked as though they had been torn off parcels. The next time I had some envelopes to send home and was given the date stamp, I waited until the sergeants attention was elsewhere and postmarked the Cyprus stamps as well.

‘These freaks of Cyprus stamps with a Cairo field post office number have come into my possession,’ I wrote, sending them to a dealer in London. ‘Are they of any interest?’

Back came a cheque for fifty pounds.

It was a wicked thing to do, but much as I love money, it was not done for the thirty pounds profit that I made. The temptation, irresistible in those less responsible days, was the thought of those stamps becoming a rarity, changing hands throughout the years to come, and ultimately, no doubt, taking their place in the catalogue and inspiring theses on why and how these Cyprus stamps should have a Cairo postmark."

One wonders if any of the Cecil Rose specials still survive. Where are they now?