In their famous book "The New Hebrides Postage Stamps and Their History" (Collectors Club Handbook No. 20, New York 1967) the authors Nathan Hals and Phil Collins show a forged postmark as type 9u of Goyns-Klinger type PM2 and wrote "A certain Sydney jeweler, Alavoine, is credited with having made forgeries" of this cancel and "sold them through a stamp dealer."

Alavoine on Ballande cover

Hals/Collas 9u 1967

Comparison

Samples of the fake postmark

Alavoine cancel

Alavoine cancel

Alavoine cancel

Alavoine cancel

Alavoine cancel

Alavoine cancel

At the left side of this page I placed the older articles about Alavoine by Martin Treadwell (NZ) , Sheryll Ruecker (USA) and myself (D) together with Jim Crompton (GB) for yur information.

The main problem was that we did not know much about Lucien Alavoine from the time before his life in Australia. I am trying to find out some facts so that we could be a little smarter about his fakes.

Lucien Prosper Alavoine (this was his full name) was born on 17 March 1876 in 192, rue de la chapelle, Paris, Arr. XVIII, Ile de France. His father was Joseph Antaoine Alavoine, gas worker and his mother Isabelle Raverat, housewife.
 
This certificate carries also an entry that he married in Noumea Marie Lagrange (* 10.12.1895) on 9 July 1912. Marie was the daughter of Jean Lagrange and Ismérie Euphrosine Rousselle from the Ile des Pins (about 50km southeast of New Caledonia and 100 km southeast of Noumea). Another source I have says they married on 20 July 1912.
And his death is noted Sydney, 2 September 1962.

Alavoine birth certificate

Now I had to find out what the reason was that Lucien Alavoine showed up in New Caledonia. I had in mind that this Island was a Convict Isle for the French besides other places like devils island in Guyana etc. So I tried to find papers in this area and found his military logbook in the Paris Archives which started with his mobilisation in 1897.

Alavoine in prisons

At the time the file was created Lucien Alavoine lived in Bayonne, (Basses Pyrénées) as office worker. And he already had a lot to answer for:
 
Sentenced on June 2, 1893 (Paris?) to 2 month in prison and a 25 Fr. fine for fraud.
Sentenced on October 6, 1894 (Touluse) to 20 days in prison for vagabond.
Sentenced on January 5, 1895 (Bordeaux) to 3 month in prison for fraud.
Sentenced on May 26, 1895 (Bayonne) to 15 days in prison for mendicity.
 
Besides this I found a notice somewhere that he was in the prison at Tours, dep. Indre-et-Loire.

Alavoine military sentence

On 22 August 1898 in Bayonne Alavoine volonteered for four years for the 3rd Battalion, light infantry, in Africa and arrived at his corps on 8 September 1895. On 4 March 1896 he was sentenced by the division's permanent court martial for occupied Tunisia to 10 years of forced labor and demotion without a ban on return for aggravated robbery and embezzlement of money. (Which means that he could return to France at the end. - Thanks! "SeSi") Judgment enforceable on March 11, 1896.

In the meantime I found another document about Alavoine's stay in penalty. In the first few weeks in the French prison he received a few short sentences of 1 to 3 days with "dry bread" and 4 days of solitary confinement for gossip, arrogance towards the guardian and task failure. "His behaviour was mediocre at the beginning. His behaviour has improved a lot, he has been behaving very well for nearly eight months. Good evidence due to the improvement of his behaviour. He was night watchman in the depot and workshop acountant."
Embarked on 7 January 1897 on "La Calédonie" to New Caledonia. --- This is not correct as Australian papers say that the ship left France on 19th December for New Caledonia with 382 convicts for the French penal colony.

Alavoine report p.1

Alavoine report p.2

Alavoine report p.3

office intermediaire

And the next proof is the notice in The Daily Telegraph" from 8 January 1915. The PACIFIQUE arrived on 6 January but detained in Watson's Bay for the night owing to a suspicious case of sickness amongst the crew.
And very shorly after coming to Australia he placed an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald offering the French Newspaper (from New Caledonia ?) "L'Éclaireur" and books etc.

8 January 1915

18 August 1915

1 August 1917

Their son Napoleon Lucien Louis Joseph was born in 1921 in Australia. Some sources say he was born 1917 in Nantes but on his grave there is written that he was born in 1921 and died on 6 March 2013 aged 92 years. His naturalisation notice (8 July 1952) says that he had lived in Australia for 30 years.
So Lucien Alavoine must have been back in Australia by spring 1921 at the latest. I don't know if directly from Fance or via Noumea.
 
According to the Sands directory we can find him and his wife at 41 Ferndale Street, Newtown, Sydney from 1924 to end of 1928. In December 1928 the place was to let.
Later they lived in 239 Longfield Street, Cabramatta, N.S.W., Australia from about March 1929. He died on 1 September 1962 at Cabramatta, Australia, buried on Liverpool Cemetery. His wife, Marie Alavoine (Lagrange) was born 1894 and died on 22.6.1948.

In 1922 I found some newspaper offers for a used bike with the Newtown address, in 1924 an offer "a booklet, containing 400 postage stamps, all differen, 22/6 post reg. free" and in 1928 a sale offer for the Newtown house by somebody else.
Between 1933 and 1938 I found a lot of newspaper notices and ads from him offering stamps,

Alavoine 1928

Alavoine 1939

In the 1930s we find the Alavoine family at 239 Longfield Street, Cabramatta, N.S.W. Some covers are know addressed to him. You can find them in Sheryll Ruecker's PDF file at left. In the newspapers he shows up with asking for repairs to the gutter near his property, Canley Vale Road (1929), complaining about straying cows entering his garden and causing damage (1933), offering to teach French conversation or writing 2/- per hour (1933), offering list 52 with cheap sets of stamps foreign stamps also approvals (1937 & 1938).
 
In November 1938 Lucien Alavoine was committet for trial on a charge of having stolen large quantities of stamps valued at £603 and pleaded guilty. He said he had sent the stamps overseas or sold to a stamp dealer.
 
Besides all this he tweaked his résumé to get a better position in society: in 1938 he was quoted as "A Parisian with distinguished service in the French Army during tthe Great War, who came here after the Armistice."

Here is an overview of the letters mostly shown already in the PDF papers at left:

Alavoine 1924

Alavoine 1924

End of June 1928

End of June 1928: Letter from Lucien Alavoine at Newtown sent from Enmore to Budapest, Hungary, ti judge Rampacher, a famous collector of vignettes.
I think the illustration was made by himself as he also made other special covers with illustrations.

Alavoine about 1934

reverse

Alavoine 1934

9 October 1934: letter to the NH land surveyor Roger Desestre who was very interested in stamps according to the letters he sent.

Alavoine about 1934

reverse

2 July 1935

2 July 1935: letter to the NH land surveyor Roger Desestre who was very interested in stamps according to the letters he sent.

2 July 1935

reverse

22 February 1938

19 April 1938

cover to New Zealand with a Luciewn Alavoine cachet.
Source Stamboards Australia

19 April 1938

reverse

24 January 1939

And on to India - he must have had ads in international (Stamp-?)papers.

Alavoine 1939

reverse

April 1939

And he was still busy internationally in 1939. Image thanks to Australian Postal History & Social Philately

Alavoine 1939

reverse

Under the registration label below the cachet it says:
"Designed and Published by L. Alavoine, Cabramatta, N.S.W., Australia.

I don't know how he earned his living during World War II. In 1940 he placed an ad praising himself as "Outdoor Photographer".
 
Also in 1940 a committee distributed gifts to the relatives of "Cabra Vale Soldiers" among others for Lucien's son Napoleon. The newspaper article says: "Alderman Crawford presented the watch to Mr. Alavoine for his son, and referred to the fact that the father of their local soldier had fought on the fields of France where the war was now raging. 'The Marseilaise' was then played.
So Alavoine was still tinkering with his career as a fighter for the French army.
 
On 4 September 1943 Lucien Alavoine got his naturalization.
 
In 1945/46 he tried a complete other method to earn money: selling books
and quacksalver medicine!

9 March 1946

31 March 1945

24 June 1948

Alavoine 1948

Also 1955: letter to Garioult, France with his handstamp on reverse.

Alavoine 1948

reverse: Fr. Bárta, Praha - Alavoine had international contacts again.

As a round-up to the story: some more facts about "Nap" Alavoine, their only son:
On 8 July 1952 Napoleon Lucien Louis Joseph, called "Nap", received his Certificate of Naturalization.
16 July 1951 Engagement of Nap and Shirley Hey. Later her name was Shirley Grace Barter (1928-2020), they married in 1951.
In Juy 1954 a daughter was born: Yvette Maree, then possibly a daughter in 1957 and one in 1966, Camille Grace († 2 March 2011).
On 2. September 1962 Lucien Alavoine died aged 84 and Napoleon Alavoine on 6 March 2013 aged 92.

16 June 1951

And now, last but not least, I'll show that there could be another forged stamp by Lucien Alavoine. In the past few years I've seen two pieces of evidence on the internet that can be linked to him: A postcard "Hôpital d'Ambrym" with a 1910 French 25c overprinted 10c (1920 SG 33a) with a Goyns-Klinger type PM5A, inner ring 30 dots, in use from 1910 to 1915, dated 30 OCT _4 and a cover addressed to Maison Barrau, Noumea with a Queensland 2cd stamp cancelled with the same postmark dated 30 OCT 14.

Alavoine cancel

Alavoine cancel forgery on postcard

Alavoine cancel

reverse Address

Alavoine cancel

blow-up

blow-up

Lucien Alavoine's Newtown address on the post card! This address was correct between 1924 to 1929, maybe even from 1921. The card must have been written after 7 June 1920, the first day of SG 33a. The cancel PM5A was not used anymore after 1915. The forger thought it was a good idea to cover the 1 in the date because a 1914 stamp on a 1920 postage stamp is not going to get much applause.

Alavoine Newtown address

both Alavoine and PM5

You may want to look at the "N" of Nelles, at the line below Nelles, at the distance between the letters of "RVI" in SERVICE, the "H" of HEBRIDES and some others. From a distance, the forged cancel looks pretty good - you have to look at it very carefully to find the errors.
 
I would be very interested to see mor copies of this forgery. Please look at you collection to possibly find one and send me a scan to Roland Klinger.