KINGSTON AND DISTRICT PHILATELIC SOCIETY
IN OUR NEW, VERY COMFORTABLE, HOME IN CLAYGATE!
OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON FRIDAY 17 JUNE
"HOLIDAY DESTINATIONS"
THE MEETING WILL COMMENCE AT 8 PM AND END AT 10 PM WITH A BREAK FOR TEA AND COFFEE MIDWAY.
GUESTS AND VISITORS WILL BE VERY WELCOME.
"STAY SAFE AND WELL, AND CONTINUE TO ENJOY COLLECTING!"
We are a "Philatelic Society" or "Stamp Club" for collectors of postage stamps, postal history, thematic philately, aerophilately, postcards and ephemera: in Kingston-upon-Thames, Claygate, East & West Molesey, Esher, Ham, Hersham, Surbiton, and Thames Ditton.
During our last season (ending in June) we managed to hold a series of Zoom meetings during the Covid restriction . Brief summaries of these meetings are
shown below.
Our face to face meetings recommenced in September and are now ongoing.
We also held a joint auction with Epsom and Ewell P.S. in October and are planning our own auction for next March.
Meanwhile the number of packets is increasing as Members employ the time available to review their collections and look to trim or vary their collecting interests.
If you are interested in joining our circuits then please contact Ian Amy (ianamy@btinternet.com or 01372 466337)
WHO WE ARE AND OUR WEB-SITE
From September we plan to revert our traditional schedule of two meetings a month in the New Hall at Surbiton Library: on the first Thursday and the third Friday of each month commencing at 8 pm.
In addition we are planning to continue with less frequent but regular on-line meetings using "Zoom".
We hope to announce details of the programme within the next two weeks.
THIS DEVELOPING WEB-SITE CURRENTLY HAS 15 PAGES.
From the top Menu
* This page: an outline of the Society and what we offer Members, Guests and Visitors
* Our future programme (currently under review)
* Useful links
* Annual Competition
* Stamp Collecting (a miscellany)
* Events (that may be of interest)
* Philately (articles and snippets from the 1880's and up to the present )
* Details on membership of our society
From the button at the right of the menu ("MORE"):
* A brief history of our Society
* Extracts from Fiction which features stamp collectors, and stamp collecting.
* Some historical tit-bits about stamps from around the world
* Philatelic Journals
* Notes on our meetings in the 2018/19 Season
* Some famous people who collect (or collected) stamps.
* Kid's Stuff; for the smaller and bigger kids who collect stamps
OUR ACTIVITIES
Exploration, Research, Discussion, Enjoyment, Companionship.
"I conceive of a stamp being a fragment of history, a word in the annals of human experience, a picture of an ideal fresh from the human heart. The design impressed upon it signifies what the nation may be at the moment."
(Harold LeClair Ickes; United States Secretary of the Interior, 1937-1946)
REGULAR MEETINGS
AUCTIONS
PACKET EXCHANGES
LONDON 2022 INTERNATIONAL STAMP EXHIBITION
Finally, after postponement last year due to the Covid 19 restrictions we were able to attend this spectacular exhibition.
Three of our members exhibited and all were awarded high marks:
Brian Sole "Go by Cycle" was awarded a Large Vermeuil in the Thematic Class
Stan Challis "Irish Registered Mail 1841-1922" was awarded a Large Vermeuil in the Postal History Class
Peter Wood "The Road to Independence: Ireland from the Act of Union to the Irish Free State" was awarded a Vermueil in the Open Class.
We have been privileged to see elements of these exhibits at our Club meetings over the last three years, but it was nice to see them laid out in full at London 2022.
A very impressive contribution from a small club!
FRIDAY 20 MAY: NIGEL GOODING
The Phillipines under Spanish Occupation
A SIMPLY STUNNING DISPLAY AND EXPOSITION OF THE EARLIEST STAMPS FROM THE PHILLIPINES
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FROM THE VERY FIRST ISSUE
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WHICH ATTRACTED OUR LARGEST GATHERING OF THE SEASON
THE PRESIDENT'S EVENING
Thursday 7 April "The Faroe Islands"
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18 ISLANDS
Susan gave a scintillating display of material from her "beloved Faroe Islands"; complete with little details of the problems of travel between islands in ensuring lunch, and, on other occasions, seasickeness.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF POSTMARKS
With the Islands using Danish stamps until 1975 Susan explained how most material has to be recognized by the postmarks - easier on covers but not for individual stamps.
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"238"
Apart from recognizing the names of the post offices - such as Torshavn (the main town) - The Faroes had a unique numerical cancellation: 238 in a triple circle; and Susan showed some fine examples.
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SHIPS, WAR, AND THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Over the two halves of this superb presentation Susan displayed a wealth of material: ship letters (including from "Ruth" one of the local steamers), letters to and from India, the USA and of course Scotland; censored wartime mail, and one envelope which was found to contain some pressed flowers from The Faroes!
THURSDAY 3 MARCH: OUR AGM, AND ONE SHEET COMPETITION
Details of the meeting will be published in our Newsletter
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Chris Oliver
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Russell Hill
WINNER!
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Roger Niven
3 FEBRUARY: POSTCARDS
The subject was postcards and we were entertained by a wide variety of fascinating displays.
Some pictures will be added to this web-site next week but to wet your appetite we saw postcards of old Claygate; historical and amusing bicycling; South African regional pictures; the Faroe Islands; and early French cards.
In addition Brian Livingstone treated us to a hard copy of his fascinating research into why King Edward VIII and King George VI are portrayed on some Commonwealth stamps sporting medals that should not have been worn!
A very entertaining evening was the view of those attending! More details to follow.
21 JANUARY: AIR MAILS AND CINDERELLA'S
A larger gathering although still with some apologies for absence due to non-Covid seasonal illness.
FABULOUS CINDERELLA'S
Brian Sole displayed some stunning Cinderlla's from The National Trust, The National Postal Museum and other British providers. Many of which were of a design and print standard that made some of the official GB issues look a little tame.
RARE AIR MAIL COVERS
Russell Hill lacked relevant material from his own collection so he brought a creative approach born of our experiences on "Zoom". He showed a series of images of rare covers taken from the Internet and in addition to the interest of the covers themselves we were invited to estimate the asking prices - with some hilarious results.
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ATHENS TO AUSTRALIA 1956
PARAGUAY TO GERMANY BY ZEPPELIN
GEORGE V INDIA AIR MAIL STAMPS
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SOUTH AFRICA WWI
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Ian Amy delved into his collection which does not feature air mails or cinderella's and showed the beautiful George V air mail set of stamps and also the Jubilee issue.
Chris Oliver displayed some attractive South African Christmas labels, and also air mail covers designed for troops in the First World War explaining how to complete air mail cards to send home.
Roger Niven displayed the French air mail stamps issued between 1927 and 2008 showing the movement from the early fine line engraved issues to the more photographic and philatelic issues of this century. Roger also showed some French cinderellas from the first world war, and some Christmas labels from Denmark.
ROYAL OCCASIONS
January 21
A smaller gathering than usual as the weather and Omnicrom had an effect. But we still had a fascinating evening.
Russel Hill showed 16 sheets with examples of GB Royalty stamps. He included First Day covers that his grandfather had sent to him from the time Roger (his father) was born.Roger's father had continued to send FDCs to Russell.
He also showed Newspaper cuttings of Billy Butlin meeting members of the Royal family at Butlins.
Chris Oliver included stamps in blocks and strips etc issued by South Africa when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth carried out an extensive Tour of Southern Africa in about 1948. They travelled to and from South Africa by sea on board, the Vanguard. Chris showed a selection of covers with postmarks which indicated the specific temporary 'post office' set up on the trains, ship etc.
Chris also showed a letter sent by a Royal aide, apologising for not being able to send stamps issued during the Royal visit because so many other collectors had made the same request!
Brian Sole showed Jersey Royal issues for QEII's birthdays, wedding anniversaries with Phillip and years since her accession to the throne; and also included issues for anniversaries for Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Friday 17 December
The subject was GB Stamp Booklets and Miniature sheets.
Brian Sole showed a series of retail stamp booklets beginning with 12 X 1st class stamps made up by 10 stamps of cats and dogs and 2 definitives
The series continued with 6 First Class stamps each time i.e. a block of 4 definitives separated by 2 commemorative stamps current at the time of issue.
The stamps are described as N.V.I.s – no values indicated. The first booklet of 6 X 1st class stamps was sold for £1.62 in April 2001 and the price had increased to £3.84 for the 50th booklet in the series in April 2016, an increase of 137% in 15 years..
See attachment Illustrations of
S.G. cat type PM1- 10 dogs and cats plus 2 orange-red 1st Class stamps issued 13 Feb 2001
S.G. cat. Type PM2 – 2 Submarine stamps plus 4 orange-red definitives, issued 17 April 2001
S.G. cat. Type PM50 – The Queen’s 90th Birthday stamps of QEII and Prince Charles, issued 21 April 2016 plus 4 mauve definitives.
Chris Oliver showed several sheets of South African stamp booklets plus a fully illustrated catalogue of South African booklets, of which he was the author. It was published by the South African Collectors’ Society.
Autumn Stampex 2021
Some of our members ventured to Autumn Stampex 2021. Several commented that the event was a little quiet compared to previous years - but for understanadable reasons.
The leading Society was the British Thematic Association, of which our Honorary Secretary, Brian Sole, was and I was a founder member.
We were therefore delighted by the results achieved by Brian for his five entries. The time afforded to us by the enforced lockdowns of last year may have helped in his prodigious output!
Thematic philately: “Go by cycle!”, which gained 89 points - Gold award.
Postcards “Cycle past by Postcard”, 86 points – Gold award
Traditional Philately “The story of the British Greetings Telegram Service”, 90 points- Large Gold
Philatelic Literature “Newsletter Insurance & Banking P.S. of G.B.”, 75 points – Vermeil
Philatelic Literature “Bicycle Stamps Magazine”, 80 points – Large Vermeil
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PREVIOUS MEETINGS
"Sideline collections that grew" (and continue to grow). A smaller gathering than usual, but we had a fascinating evening exploring some of the highways and byways that open up when one collects stamps!
Each of the displays represented but a small sample of the material that we all seem to accumulate in bits and bobs about a topic that interests us - and suddenly is consuming a lot of space and time; but is rarerly 'displayed' as it is not our main interest! A mosy enjoyable and thought provoking meeting, and full details will be in the next Newsletter.
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GREETINGS TELEGRAMS
Brian Sole presented some fascinating, and very attractively designed, greetings telegrams from the high days of this Post Office Service.
HOLIDAYS ON THE SOUTH COAST
Russell Hill took us back into the fifties with the development of this south coast village, from caravans to Butlins, and up to date.
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THE ISLE OF PURBECK
Chris Oliver presented further fascinating documents, postal history, and cards, from his beloved Isle of Purbeck.
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HISTORY IN THE POST
Susan Oliver displayed an amazing pot-porri of documents and ephemera with such highlights as this guarantee of safe passage signed by Fairfax in the Civil War.
HAMPTON COURT
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Roger Niven demonstrated how his "collection" about Hampton Court had not only grown but was totally out of control. This letter of 1855 was to the Honorable Miss Sophia O'Grady.
BACK TO CHILDHOOD
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Russell Hill took us back some years with his exhibit of some of his "Beano" Albums, and cartoons.
ROWLAND EMETT
Brian Sole showed us some of the art work associated with Greetings Telegrams - including some amazing concoctions by Rowland Emett.
FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
Susan Oliver kept grounded - after caravans, Beanos and palace domestic squabbles, with material such as this letter from the Archbishop of York; Robert Hay Drummond.
THURSDAY 4 NOVEMBER
"AN ISLAND COUNTRY"
We were hugely entertained by a wide variety of material and explanations. Full details are in our recent Newsletter to Members.
Bob Holmes displayed material from the West Indies including Bahamas War Tax overprinted stamps; a distinct value shift on the first K.G.Vl stamps, the Tercentenary of the settlement of the Bahamas, and a number of Key Types.
Stan Challis displayed Ireland’s mail) to and from the island of Ceylon including underpaid items; a 48 cent rated cover; a curious cover from Slave Island, near Galle; WWll censored mail; a surface rate registered letter and some missionary mail.
Ian Amy also showed Ceylon but his display was of the stamps issued 1904-1960.
Susan Oliver produced part of her Faeroe Island collection to display including a cover from Sweden addressed to Faro which was diverted to Portugal before reaching its destination; censored mail using Danish Postage Due stamps as the Islands did not issue any.
Russell Hill displayed some interesting souvenirs of Butlins in G.B. and Ireland and described how the Skegness camp was opened in 1935 and burnt down after a few years; Clacton opened in 1938 with the largest ever heated outdoor swimming pool; during the war years Skegness became HMS Arthur and Filey was a naval base for 6000 personnel.
Brian Livingstone displayed K.G.VI Hong Kong essays produced in Hong Kong to designs by Wynn Jones before he was interned by the Japanese invaders. He designed the Phoenix, Centenary of Hong Kong issue, on behalf of the Hong Kong Philatelic Society, and the frames for the first pictorial definitive stamps of the colony.
Brian Sole’s display was of Jersey and featured the Europa issues. Endangered fauna 2021; Ships 2020 and Birds & Symbolism 2019. All shown in miniature sheets of 10 stamps with attractive borders.
RECENT MEETINGS
In our comfortable new home in Claygate
OCTOBER 15TH
THE LETTERS "U", "V" OR "W"
BRIAN SOLE, FRESH FROM HIS SUCCESSFUL DISPLAYS AT STAMPEX FASCINATED US WITH HIS STAMPS AND CANCELLATIONS FROM THE WASHINGTON EXHIBITION OF 1996
OTHER MATERIAL SHOWN INCLUDED BY SUSAN OLIVER (FAROE ISLANDS AT WAR); STAN CHALLIS (WARTIME POST TO IRELAND); CHRIS OLIVER AND ROGER NIVEN.
OUR MEETINGS IN SEPTEMBER THE FIRST OF THE OCTOBER MEETINGS
At the moment we are unable to show any pictures of these meetings (technical hitch!)
On the 7th October we commenced meeting in our new home in Claygate.
Bob Holmes displayed some well-produced facsimile stamps from Gibraltar and, as a divergence, some ancient whisky bottle labels.
Susan Oliver’s display was a potpourri of French stamps showing flowers, red cross booklet panes and some early definitive issues.
Brian Sole displayed Welsh stamps of both pre-decimal and decimal issues including progressive proofs of the latter.
Ian Amy produced an elegant display of the stamps of Monaco with 1919 charity stamps and commemorative and charity issues during and after World War Two. These included panes, produced in 1969, both perforated & imperforate for the original issue and subsequent overprinted stamps.
Chris Oliver then displayed some stamps of wartime Croatia when Ante Pavlic, the head of fascist Ustase movement, was president from 1941 -1945.
At the meeting on 17th September 2021 - our last meeting in Surbiton the topic was the “Olympics and Paralympics”.
Chris Oliver showed mainly U.S.A. stamps in his display. The Games held in America during 1932 saw the first of many U.S.A. stamp issues for Paralympic, Winter & main Olympic ordeals. Stamp issues were made for all of those Games held in America and that in Barcelona in 1992. Chris included slogan postmarks, advertising selvedge and postcards produced for the Games.
Brian Sole’s display included U.S.A. cancellations of 1984 and those of Australia & France in 2000. There was a distinct bias toward cycling in this display. An Australian cyclist of 2006; Sarah Storey’s large medal count in 2012 & 2020; a Chris Boardman commemorative cover of 2011, with a coin included. Brian showed a most interesting dummy sheet produced for the G.B. Olympic Games in 2012 together with the actual gold medal winners stamps now having the name, date and discipline added.
The 2nd September saw the first meeting of K.D.P.S. since March 2020 at our old venue in Surbiton Library Annexe
Theme for the evening was “Acquisitions or material written up during Covid_19”
Brian Livingstone gave the first display on the designs undertaken on behalf of the Crown Agents for stamps of Edward Vlll. The G.B. stamp was of a simple design, and it was hoped that the Colonies would adopt a similarly simple one. Many of the Colonies relied on postal revenue to aid their balance of payments.
Susan Oliver displayed recent acquisitions of the Faeroe Islands stamps and postal history.
Chris Oliver showed two censored covers of WWl South Africa. One had been cancelled with a mechanical “Passed by Censor” cachet of Cape Town. This was only used for one day before being abandoned.
Alan Tyler had been sorting out some stamps and ephemera relating to the Singapore Stamp Club. He brought along several maps of Malaya and Singapore of 1970’s and letters, publications and year-books of stamps which had been produced by and for this cosmopolitan Club which embraced all sections of the community in its membership.
Brian Sole had used lockdown to write up some postcards on cycling. He displayed nine sheets from this collection showing early cycles produced by Lawson of London & by MacMillan. We saw the Parisienne tricycle and various penny-farthings used by postmen and by ladies.
THE PRESIDENT'S EVENING
June 29: Our last meeting of the season.
Our President, Susan Oliver, entertained us with a fascinating display of letters, covers and postcards related to the historic village of Ham: on the banks of the Thames below Richmond Hill.
These few illustrations give a taste of what was a very detailed and interesting display. A full account of the meeting will be given in the next edition of our Newsletter soon after the start of our next season in September 2021 - the Newsletter is distributed free to Members.
After the display we discussed our experience of on-line meetings and how people viewed continuing with these should we encounter further Covid Restrictions at the end of the year), or as an occasional addition to our 'face to face meetings in Surbiton once we are able to restart these.
A variety of views were expressed highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of Zoom gatherings; and the hope for many that we would be able to resume physical meetings in order to chat more freely, and inspect philatelic material more closely.
We will take these views into account as we plan for our next season: and monitor the still changing Government advice on meeting safely indoors.
FROM HAM TO ABERDEEN: 1848, SHOWING THE HAM 1D PAID STAMP APPLICABLE UNDER THE UNIVERSAL POSTAGE REGULATIONS.
THE HIGH STREET - VERY LITTLE CHANGED TODAY
AN EARLY USE OF THE 1D BLACK AND WITH A VERY RARE HAM HANDSTAMP
TO THE POST OFFICE THEN BASED WITHIN THE "STAR AND GARTER" HOME: SHOWING THE SCARCE "STAR AND GARTER" CDS (1903)
PREVIOUS MEETINGS
15 June 2021: "The Letter 'U' or 'V'?
A subject that initially had our members scratching their heads as few collected stamps from countries whose initial letter was U or V, and then produced a very entertaining and varied evening of material that we rarely see.
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AIR MAIL STAMPS FROM THE USSR
Roger Holden, who presented Andy's material as he was on holiday, illustrated the developments in air mail stamps from simple overprints to sophisticated designs
PERFINS FROM VYSE AND COMPANY
Melvyn Green gave us an engaging display of perfins (an area of collecting that we do not often see) focusing on the issues of Vyse and Co, a celebrated manufacturer and supplier of straw hats and boaters. In addition to examples of the stamps we were shown covers and postal history relating to the business.
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MOROCCO AGENCIES
Michael Pitt-Payne offered us two displays from his Queen Victoria albums. The overprints of the Morocco Agency showed how these had to change as the currencies changed.
VICTORIAN GIBRALTAR
In a second display by Michael Pitt-Payne he delighted us with some mint stamps from Queen Victoria's reign - which he started collecting years ago because they were then cheaper than used copies!
UNDERPAID MAIL
Chris Oliver showed us a whole series of letters and cards where the correct postage rate had been underpaid - resulting in postage dues, and a variety of handstamps and postal marks. as one Member commented it seemed that the people on the Isle of Purbeck had problems in working out postal rates.
VIETNAM
Chris Oliver surprised us with the Elephant stamps of Vietnam telling the story of the Trund Sistersn and their role in the foundation of the country ADn 39-43.
VAUX-LE-VICOMTE
Roger Niven outlined the development of three French Royal Palaces; Vincennes, Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles. using stamps and postcards he described some of the features and the integration of structure, decoration, and landscaped grounds from the 16th Century on.
"MAIL BETWEEN THE UK AND THE USA DURING THE 19TH CENTURY" BY MICHAEL PITT-PAYNE FRPSL
25 MAY 2021
With other Member's presentations on "International Mail".
Our Members and guests were treated to a magnificent display by Michael Pitt-Payne; and afterwards we saw some interesting covers from: Detroit as it changed from Canadian to USA ownership (Graham Searle): early international air mail (Andy Cox): redirected international mail (Russell Hill): mail to and from Ireland (Stan Challis) and some routings through France (Roger NIven).
THE CHANGING RATES THROUGH THE CENTURY
Michael gave a superb explanation of the complex rates for mail through the century with variations by weight, routing, carriage by ships, currency and direction of travel.
