poole club

The pending weather conditions were unable to keep the members away from this popular meeting. We also had the added pleasure of welcoming two invited guests Graham & Teresa, plus one new member Ken Leonard, who had been along to previous meetings, making the decision to join our happy band of collectors.

Chris Wheeler then embarked on a display of the history of local railways and stations. Many of his postcards showing railway engines of the period and various station locations, Bournemouth station which was located near Holdehurst Road before it's new location opened in 1885. Picture postcards of the Bournemouth Belle of 1938. Poole Station, old and new, along with a card showing the famous footbridge in Poole High Street, built by Ransome & Napier in 1872.

Bryn Cribb related his younger days in the Porlock and Watchett area along with postcards depicting Porlock Hill, Dunster Castle, the Ship Inn at Porlock, the paddle steamer Waverley at Watchett. Also related history of the Lynton & Lynmouth disaster of August 1952.

Barry Proctor gave us all a lighthearted display of his old seaside postcards, many by the artist Donald McGill. All seen as quite innocent nowadays, but many were banned and confiscated by police more than fifty years ago.

David Lockwood brought along the last display of the evening. Three frames of Exhibition postcards from some of the great early Exhibitions. The Ideal Homes Exhibition of 1912 being one of them. An advert for Virol Tonic, the old time children's favourite (if we were lucky). The British Empire Exhibition of 1922 was also the subject of many of his postcards, along with the Festival of Britain, The Queen's Dolls House, and many other very interesting and difficult to find postcards.

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This was a very popular evening, giving scope to the members' many different interests. An opportunity for them to bring along items not covered in the general category of meetings. This was made evident by the number who came along to the participate and enjoy.

Starting the evening off, Don showed postcards from Scotland collected on many holiday visits. Mostly ships that sailed the lochs and islands around Scotland.

Family history was remembered when Chris related a little of the history of the area, where he was born, Little Bookham and Great Bookham, in the Mole Valley area of Surrey. The display featured stamps relating to 12 personalities who were connected to the villages, including Jane Austen, who wrote several of her novels while spending time in Bookham.

Relating his times on Brownsea Island as a patrol leader, David brought to his display, scouting covers and postmarks from Brownsea, along with, what may well be the only Upton postmark on a cover.

Bob brought along historic items relating to the “Corsini Correspondence” 1581-1598. He displayed a letter from Lord Derby from 1666, disbanding the army; a letter from the Peninsular War to the Royal Hospital and two letters from the Boer War, along with other fascinating items including a letter to the Duke of Wellington from a soldier, regarding the soldiers' pension.

The 3 masted, iron-hulled barque “Polly Woodside” 1885-1904, was one of the subjects in Mike's display. This ship is the central feature of the Melbourne Maritime Museum; including the 1999 Maritime Heritage stamp from Eire, depicting the ship. Also pictures etc; related to the family connection to Edward John Dent, the name behind the manufacturer of the great clock – popularly known as “Big Ben”.

Stamps from Greenland, now in Danish possession, was the subject of Ray's display of very attractive early stamps. Including a cover from the Island of Thule, where the post is only collected once a year. This cover was posted on the 31st Aug arriving in Denmark on the 7th November. A delivery time of three months.

The subject of printing and writing was Wendy's Thematic display. Postage stamps and covers connected with the history of writing and printing from early history, with a special mention of items preserved by The British Library.

Peter related a little of the history of KLM, the only Airline Company to retain the original name since it was founded in 1919. An early KLM cover from Java to Palestine. Two Kingsford Smith covers flown on the “Southern Cross” – the name of the Fokker monoplane.

David L displayed a frame of G.B. stamp booklets, along with packs of discounted stamps with stars printed on the back. 1984 was the first issue of discount booklets. He showed a Christmas folder from 1986 with 36-second class stamps, discounted by 1p available from the 2nd - 24th December of that year.

John Hilton
10/2/13

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21st February 2013 - Barry Proctor & Bryan Cribb
display local items of postal interest
with contributions from member's own collections.

Bryan Cribb opened the evening with a long and detailed history of our local area. Included in the talk was the arrival of the Saxons, the Norman Raiders, the Romans, the war with France, the Royalists and local trading including smuggling. The talk finished with a voice recording of a Mr. Blackmore and his personal history of life as a postman, which included him rowing around Poole Harbour islands delivering post and as a local magistrate.

Barry Proctor showed his collection of early postcards from circa 1906. The cards included an early air display in which Charles Rolls was killed at Bournemouth in 1910, while flying a biplane, similar to the ones flown by Orville and Wilbur Wright. A postcard on which two men were pictured outside Portland prison, and numerous interesting postcards of more familiar scenic views of the area were shown.

David Morris showed a comprehensive frame of local postmarks and some of the many variations that have been in use, making an interesting and topical display.

Chris Wheeler continued his topic from the last meeting on ‘Famous People', but this time, living in our area. These included people on stamps such as, Thomas Andrew, who lived in Southampton, and was on the 55c Eire 2012 stamp. Lord Baden Powell, 2006-7 St. Helena 3p Centenary of Scouting. Thomas Hardy, his novels depicted Wessex. Churchill, Kitchener, Holtz, Florence Nightingale and Captain Scott, were among other names mentioned in his well researched display.

During the past months the subject of competitions has been mentioned at our meetings, along with examples of what a display should, or should not, contain. The results have proved to have been most worthwhile, with an astounding number of entries this year.

From a Society with a membership of 30, we were able to boast 17 entries for the various competitions.

We are grateful for the expertise of Mr Geoff Hood who kindly judged the competitions.

Ray Brown, “Green Cup” (General)
Bob Small, “Harry Parsons Shield” (Postal History)
Peter Grey “Thematic Cup”

The two with the highest points, were Bob Small and Ray Brown, their entries will go forward to the Ferndown & West Moors Philatelic & Postcard Club, for their “Interclub Competition” which will be held on the 13th April 2013, the day of their Annual Stamp & Postcard Fair at the Barrington Centre, Ferndown.

Other entries which were judged by the members, were
The “Barry Proctor Cup” (Postcards) was won by Peter Grey “Reach for the Sky”
The “Bill Way Shield” was won by Bill Pipe for his entry “Dorset Ships & Indian Letter Cancels”
The “Novice Shield” was won by Maxine Humphries' display on the topic of “Tristan de Cunha”.

The meeting was opened by the Chairman presenting the various prize certificates to the winners of the previous meetings competitions, followed with the usual announcements of forthcoming events.

The members, and a large number of visitors, were then delightfully entertained by the guest speaker, James Hooper, from the Somerset & Dorset Philatelic Federation, with his very comprehensive display of the Vienna Pneumatic Mail. The system was set up in 1875 with an arrangement of underground pipes connected to, initially, ten offices (stations). Mail was inserted into capsules (48mm dia. x 200mm.). A number of these filled capsules were then loaded into the pipe, sealed and dispatched by compressed air (up to 30atm.) around the closed circuit to the next station, where the local mail was removed, to be hand delivered by ‘messengers'. The capsules were then topped up with office received items and sent on their way to the next station on the circuit. The setup was so efficient that a letter could be sent and a reply received, to and from a domestic or commercial address within three hours. The first circuit of ten stations were linked about half a mile apart. When the system finished in 1956 there were 62 stations connected in various numbers (three to ten) in interconnected circuits. Alas the business failed due to maintenance expense and competition by ‘surface mail'.

James Hooper's collection contained examples of the three main types of stationery.

Initially ‘postcards' were used and were folded four times to fit up to ten in a capsule. Later, letters in small sized envelopes were accepted. The postcards were double sided with the reverse provided for replies. All the original material was coloured pink and had to bear the pneumatic mail stamp of 15cr. In 1920 ordinary mail was allowed provided, of course, it could fit in the capsule. The display showed items from all the stations covering all the different types of mail permitted. One circuit was linked to Vienna's airport and both incoming and outgoing foreign mail was handled, (examples were shown). The display covered eight frames of fifteen sheets.

The evening was concluded with a four-frame display of the ‘Kinderdorf Balloonpost'. This was a charity set up after WW2 in 1947 to raise funds to house the large number of children orphaned by the war. Supporters paid for mail to be carried by balloon from a set place to land anywhere by chance! The balloons also carried passengers. The mail covers were adorned with the launch and landing places with times and also the names of any paying passengers carried, plus the necessary stamps to forward the item to their collector. The collection showed items from all 117 flights, including some that went badly wrong and were cancelled. Some of the recent items were initiated by James who admitted they were fascinating but purely philatelic!

The Chairman presenting James Hooper with a vote of thanks, certificate and gift.

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Barry started the evening with a wonderful display of early Victorian stamps from the Bahamas. As with all the stamps that Barry brings to the displays they were all very fine used. Enlightening the members with his knowledge of the “Queen's Staircase” in Nassau. 65 steps carved out of solid limestone by the slaves in the late 18th century.

On his favourite subject. “Lighthouses”. Mike took us on a tour of the German coast, the 2 islands of Heligoland and the Baltic, with scenic views and many matching stamps. Along with detailed information on the subject. Notably the island in the River Rhine named Pfalz Castle, which is used at the moment on commercial television for advertising River Rhine Cruises.

In order that we all took notice of Don's display, he invented a competition for everyone to take part in, while at the same time giving a display of “Stamps upon Stamps”, a very interesting subject. This was backed up with a display of “Maps on Stamps”, with questions relating to our attention to the finer details on the stamps! The club members showed great enthusiasm for this, and full marks to Don for bringing new inspiration to a display.

The early history of stamps from Egypt was Peter's subject, from the first postage stamp of 1866. The first Pyramid stamps issued in 1867 to the 1879 printing by De La Rue of the Pyramid with Pharaoh in the foreground. The start of the airmail service in Egypt in 1933, and mentioning the E.E.F. overprints.

David brought along unique and fascinating material for the display. An early G.B. ship letter from Cadiz to London. A Post Office Circular dated Monday 15th November 1875. A letter from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, written 2nd February 1842, to The Royal Observatory at the Cape, South Africa. Postcard and details of the first “Catapult Mail”. Along with many other items of historic and postal interest.

A most enjoyable evening meeting, with credit going to those members of the committee that took so much time in the preparation of their displays to the enjoyment and fascination of the members.

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Starting his display, Peter mentioned the abdication of Queen Beatrix at the age of 75; her son, the Prince of Orange, William-Alexander, became King on 30th April 2013.

With the assistance of his wife Carole, he then displayed an extra large Philatelic Exhibition flag from the Netherlands, which he had acquired after the exhibition had ended. (Approx: 14 feet x 4 feet).

Stamps from the 1891 issue of Princess Wilhelmina as a young girl, with postmarks as early as 1894, started the display of postal history. Concentrating on postmarks or poststempel, to give them the Dutch name.

Peter went on to describe how from August to September 1901, a trial of a heated die postmark strike was made, using a foot-operated machine with a heated die to cancel the stamps. After many failures and many burnt letters due to the cancelling die being heated too much, these trials were abandoned.

A more simple system using pre-franked newspaper wrapper with stamps and cancel markings to include the date was introduced. These were then cancelled with the use of an inked roller.

A complicated system using perfs of 12 at the start turned more complicated later in the issue of machine rolls, when pins were removed from the perf machine to increase the strength and continuity of issue from the machine. Among items displayed were numerous samples with varied perforations on all sides, made by this system.
The “Poko” perforating machine was made by a German company, this machine was capable of taking large rolls of stamps, and was designed to perforate and affix stamps at the same time. This was the only type of electric machine capable of producing perfinned stamps as part of the process of affixing them to the cover.

Many fine samples of perfs with the names of the companies using the letters, making up the display.

We were pleased to have over twenty members attend, and the evening concluded with the Vice-Chairman, David Lockwood, giving a well deserved vote of thanks to Peter for the enjoyable evening.

This year's AGM was of particular notice, as we were delighted to welcome two new members to serve on the committee, Mary Parsons and Chris Wheeler.

Mary has been a member for some time, always eager to become involved whenever possible and I am convinced that Mary will bring along plenty of ideas for us all to consider at future meetings. Having two lady members on the committee will, no doubt, keep the rest of us in place!

The club has been grateful to Chris for quite a few years. His technical skills in promoting the club through his Website has given the club a “shop window” to promote it's future meetings, along with news of past events, photographs and any last minute changes to the programme that may have to be mentioned.

In fulfilling the position of Webmaster, I am sure that Chris will have some suggestions for future events. Being an avid philatelist, is only one of the many other interests that Chris has, these promote interest in his displays at meetings, along with the infinite detail he provides on any of the subjects displayed.

The members being happy that the rest of the Committee was to stand again for another year, we moved on the Social part of the evening with the food and drink.

Being displayed at the same time were the competition entries for the members to peruse whilst enjoying the snack.

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With an attendance of around 24 members, New Zealand turned out to be a favourite country for many of our members, emerging, that many had been there, or had relatives who once lived there at some time and were familiar with the geography of the two islands.

Starting with displays of New Zealand “Health Stamps” A light hearted description followed, on the different issues, from the first issue in 1929, of the one penny red, showing the nurses head, with a one penny surcharge for raising funds to assist those with tuberculosis. To the first “Sunshine Camps” for children, formed in 1932.

The collection was a, “work in progress” Evan informed us. Some of the many issues shown were of mint, used and first day covers. Similar to most collections, the odd scarce item had yet to be found. Familiar printings of the Peter Pan issue of 1945, showing the statue in Kensington Gardens on the one penny with halfpenny surcharge issue. The scout and guide issue of 1953. One and a halfpenny blue, with halfpenny surcharge and two penny green with one penny surcharge. Both stamps having the Morse code in the edging. To the more modern issues portraying members of the Royal family.

The second half of the evening consisted of postcards and photographs of well-known landmarks of New Zealand. Auckland, the “City of Sails” depicted in some wonderful shots of yachts on the seas nearby. This sparked general conversation with the speaker, who had been to the islands on previous occasions, and was planning another visit in the near future. Apart from being a collector of stamps from New Zealand, Evan had a marvellous knowledge of the wildlife of that part of the world, enthralling us with his personal accounts of bird watching and fishing.

New Zealand, a subject close to the speaker's heart and a collection of what he liked to save, as different to a collection of every item according to the book.

His companion Lesley Arberry joined Evan on his visit to Poole, and we wish them well with plans for their next visit to the other side of the world.

A party of eight club members made the journey to the Bridport Club, in support of three of our club members who gave their time to take a quantity of interesting material along for a display to entertain the Bridport Club.

David Lockwood started the evening with a 72-sheet display of “Exhibition Postcards” from many overseas countries as well as Great Britain.

Displaying another 72 sheets came Mike Houchen, with a display of “Lighthouses” depicted on postcards with relevant stamps and technical details.

Following on with the same number of sheets came Bob Small with one of his “Ephemera” displays. This time, “Britain at War” showing letters, newspaper articles etc; from the days of Napoleon Bonaparte. Horatio Nelson's 1798 stunning victory over the French at the “Battle of the Nile”. Continuing with several more original letters on this intriguing subject, every display sheet being a history lesson.

We were grateful to their Hon Secretary, Margot Blackah, for the invitation. To the Chairman, Brian Sidwell for making us all most welcome, the splendid hospitality, refreshments, and for the vote of thanks at the end of the evening from Frank Blackah.

We are looking forward to the return visit of the Bridport Club on 15th August 2013.

With an attendance of over thirty people, the auction was a great success to both vendors and buyers. We greatly appreciated the support of the Swanage Stamp Society and the Ferndown & West Moors Philatelic & Postcard Club, making the evening an enjoyable event for all. The four seasonal auctions are one of the most popular events in our annual programme. None of the success could possibly have been achieved without the hard work and diligence of our self appointed auctioneer, Barry, and the financial wizardry of Wendy and Peter. Not forgetting, the hard work involved by the rest of the committee and members – the refreshments and washing up never does itself !!

The meeting on “Air mail & Aircraft Displays” brought out some wonderful far-thinking displays.

Peter added yet more early flight covers to the evening's display. This time with a mention of the “Contract Airmail Services” and the 1914 Curtis JM4 aircraft. Covers of the early American aviator Charles Lindbergh, with cachet.

Rodney took us on a journey to Ceylon, known as the “Pearl of the East” because of its resemblance on the map, to a “Pearl Drop” at the end of India.

Enlightening the members on some of the early history of Ceylon, Rodney went on to mention that the Portuguese were the first residents to send mail from the Island in the early 1700s. On display were several covers depicting the first postmarks used to cancel the mail. By 1776 the Dutch had taken over and by 1796 the British were in command, starting a postal system up within two years. Most of the mail being sent to England, very little being sent to the rest of world.

The display consisted of covers and postmark examples from this period. An item of ephemera was found most amusing. A printed order of a “General Court Martial” held at Trincomalie in 1817. Ensign John Moffett of the 19 th Regiment of Foot. Charged firstly with unofficerlike, insubordinate and mutinous conduct towards his commanding officers. Secondly for committing the same offence upon breaking his arrest, to which he had been firstly charged. Subsequently he was cashiered for the repeated offences.

Early mail was taking 6-7 weeks to get to England by ship, until the1830s when it became possible to send it overland, and by 1840 the destinations increased to France, Jamaica and other parts of the world.

In 1857 imperforate postage stamps started being printed by Perkins, Bacon & Co Ltd; eleven stamps were printed with various designs of the Queen Victoria head. The stamps were printed in sheets of 240 stamps, 20 rows of twelve. The letter rate to England was six-pence at this time, printed on blue paper with a star watermark. Examples being shown, some outlining the poor quality of the paper as well as printing, along with several shade differences, it was explained that to find genuine examples with four margins was extremely difficult. By 1872 De La Rue had taken over the printing and line engraved examples were displayed.

The portrayal of early stamps from Ceylon was an insight into the very beginnings of philately, as we know it in this part of the world. A truly delightful display showing the members a fine selection of the very best stamps from Ceylon, along with was must be the other extreme – forgeries. Many of which, commanding a lot of money to the inexperienced collector. A selection of fine maps of early Ceylon was also put on display for us all to view.

Thanking Rodney for a most enjoyable evening, the Vice-Chairman, David Lockwood, concluded his vote of thanks by handing over a club certificate and a small appreciation of his fine display and informative talk.

Barry Proctor started the evening off with two frames of Cinderella stamps from the Channel Islands. The Commodore Shipping Company issued many stamps for Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark. The display contained overprinted and plain issues. A fine selection of overprinted “Europa” stamps from 1964 and 1965 Guernsey & Alderney, overprinted and plain. President Kennedy Sheetlets from 1966 and 1967. Postal strike stamps from 1971. And a 1966 issue for the 900th Anniversary of the Norman Conquest.

Chris Wheeler delved deeply into the history of Post Office training, with a well-researched display of overprinted training stamps and other samples, from the issuing of car road fund licences to telephone stamps and postal orders for training. Bringing to light “Bletchley Park” and its use as a training establishment for the Post Office. Not only postal services, but the training of telegraph engineers also took place there, which was in the past, part of the Post Office. One of the many photographs was of a field at Bletchley, with telegraph poles and engineers with their relevant safety gear, being put through their paces at the top, making the required connections etc:

David Morris returned us to the Channel Islands with more Commodore Shipping Co; issues of 1963 Europa. Cinderellas of Alderney and Jethou. First day covers for the First Day of Issue of 5 parcel stamps in 1995, with a value of £5.16. Also stamps from Germany, with examples of Training Stamps from the DDR on first day covers.

Fiscal stamps were brought along by Fred Hoare, of the Festival of Britain, British Empire Exhibition. Along with some very fine examples of Fiscal surface printed Queen Victoria, in various shades.

Any evening display of Cinderella and Fiscal stamps would not be complete without a display by Don Thompson. Don made a very valiant effort to make the evening meeting with his fine selection of materiel for us. Chancery Court issues, Justice & Mayors Court issues, Bankruptcy issues, Embossed issues – for starters! Then came the issues from other countries – Hong Kong, Ceylon, Tasmania, Mauritius, Australian issues from Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland. Most dating back to the early Queen Victoria days. An excellent display of quality Fiscal and overprinted stamps, a collection which must have taken many years to acquire.

Bringing the total number of frames to twelve. David Lockwood ended the selection with a cover from the Philatelic Congress of Australia, 1933 Philatelic Congress in London with 3 sets of 12 stamps in a block, on different shades of paper. The 1946 Congress in Brighton, 1947 in Birmingham, “The City of a Thousand Trades” as the slogan. 1948 Bournemouth, 1951 Felixstowe, along with many others which included Souvenir labels.

The evening got off to a fantastic start with a display of New Zealand stamps by Brian Hunt. Brian embarked on a serious display, covering early stamp production in N.Z. With explicit detail of shades, printers, perforations and early papers used (one cotton). Issues printed by Del La Rue, Waterlow and Perkins Bacon..

During his six frame display, Brian showed examples of the “Mount Cook” stamp and the “Lady” stamp with the four o'clock error. Material from the Boer War and the N.Z. Forces, Dominion post and official mail with overprints on Pacific Island Dependency issues were displayed. A professional layout with the relevant details, even down to the makers of the different plates, from which the stamps were then printed.

What started as a Thematic display by Bernard Paull, on bridges depicted on stamps, was just a prelude to his next part of the display. As a bridge engineer in earlier years, Bernard took us on a trip down the River Stour, with a stopover at each of bridges on the way, shown in his postcard display. From Stourhead to Hengistbury Head at Christchuch. The 60 mile journey of the Stour follows the now disused route of the Somerset & Dorset Railway, through the Blackmore Vale, Gillingham, Sturminster Newton, Blandford Forum, all having river bridges of outstanding design and beauty. Relating fondly to the construction and design of each in turn.

Bernard then went on to conclude his part of the evening with a short Thematic display on Alfa Romeo, from it's early racing days in competing in such races as the Targa Florio (Sicily) and the Mille Miglia in Italy, to such races as the famous Monte Carlo G.P.. Mentioned were famous drivers such as Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari who won in Monaco in 1948 with the Alfa Romeo 158. Alfa Romeo ended their involvement with motor racing in 1952.

The sinking of 3 Cressy Class Armoured Cruisers, HMS Cressy, HMS Aboukir and HMS Hogue, by the German U-boat U-9, Captained by Kapitän Otto Weddigen of the Kaiserliche Marine 1 Flotila, which took place in the “Broad Fourteens” on the 22nd September 1914.

The speaker related the story of this tragic event, which cost the lives of nearly 1500 men, many young seamen amongst them. Putting on display a fine selection of postcards relating to the Senior Naval Commanders at the time, to the 3 Cruisers, German postcards of the U-9 and it's crew after receiving the Iron Cross from Kaiser Wilhelm II who not only awarded the crew with the Iron Cross, but also the U-9. The U-9 and the SMS Emden were the only two ships to receive this award.

Later, the account related the death of Otto Weddigen as Captain of U-29 on the 18th March the following year. Being run down by HMS Dreadnought in the Pentland Firth, while attempting a torpedo run at the Grand Fleet, who were exercising there at the time. The U-29 was lost with all 32 hands, including Weddigen at the age of 33.

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The Autumn Auction of stamps and postcards was a most successful evening all round, thanks to members of Ferndown and Swanage societies taking an active part in the buying and selling of many of the lots. We are now busy preparing the lots for the Winter Auction on the 21st November.

14th September was once again the Annual Stamp & Postcard Fair. This event takes a great deal of organising, but thanks to Peter, the fair organiser, this was a splendid day all round and a pleasure to see many of the enthusiast who come along to the event each year, also the many new faces who came to see us for the first time, thanks to the advertising of the event well in advance. A most successful day, and one which we intend to repeat next year to coincide with the Somerset & Dorset Philatelic Federation Competitions on the same day.

Our guest speaker on the 19th September, Dr. Tony Howgrave-Graham gave us a very comprehensive talk on the history of South Africa from the Union, (Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape and Natal) until the formation of a Republic in 1960. Tony showed us the flaws on the first stamps issued using terms such as. ‘ladder', ‘twisted horn', ‘aeroplane', ‘cobweb' etc. then talked about printing methods, booklets, Voortrecker and Coronation issues. To finish the evening Tony showed a selection of postal history covers dealing with the German Surrender in 1915 and the types of cancels on covers between South Africa and South West Africa thereafter.

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Roger Wilcox started the evening's Presentations with a comprehensive display of GB Victoria, beginning with the three shades of penny black. The twopenny blue, penny reds, imperforate and perforate, on white and blue paper, from the various plates used at that time were all shown, in the sets that they were issued in. Examples from fourteen of the fifteen plates of 1870 bantams were on show, with the delightful 10d and 1/- embossed stamps containing the silk threads.

On further pages were examples of the stamps from the later issues, various watermarks and interesting postmark cancellations. Examples of the high value stamps from different plates, mint and used were explained, ending with examples from the Jubilee set, including the ½d blue changeling.

Keith Dando presented a wide range of 1904-1910 pictorial postcards that had been left in an album by his grandfather. The first set were of 1904 Entente Cordiale and Patriotic cards followed by 1908 Franco postcards. Several cards of the buildings and extravagant interiors of the 1908 Franco-British Exposition at White City were displayed.

These were followed by Military cards, the Ironclads (navy ships of the period, including an early submarine), cards of the London and North Western Railway (ferries, trains and track); the delightful Lipton Tea postard set of eight from 1908; and some early Christmas greeting cards. Very interesting was the map of the "postcard square mile" in London where at that time 60 postcard companies had their businesses, all of them listed.

After the break, John Connor presented his collection of Wartime Guernsey, explaining that in 1940 the British Government decided the Channel Islands could not be defended due to insufficient defences and the islands not being of strategic importance. The military and all but 23,000 of the inhabitants moved to the mainland. Occupation started in June 1940, and from then all communication to outside the island was banned. Internal mail, uncensored, was permitted, and this lasted for five years.

GB stamps continued to be used, but due to shortage, bisects came into use for two months from 27 December 1940, several examples of these being shown. The Guernsey Press were commissioned to print the Guernsey Arms stamps,starting with the penny red on 18 February 1941. The ½d green soon followed and the 2½d blue in April 1944. Various examples of these issues were shown including the later ones on French Banknote paper.

Some examples of German forces letters back to their homeland were on display, with Red Cross letters from Great Britain to Guernsey. Following liberation in 1945, the 1946 GB issue came into use and examples were shown. Finally some original newspapers proclaiming the end of the War were put up for members to see.

The final presentation was by Phil Wolston on British West Africa, showing stamps he started to collect as a schoolchild. Each country had pages showing various issues from George V to Independence. Countries covered were Nigeria, Gold Coast, Kenya/Uganda/Tanganyka and finally Gambia.

Chairman John Hilton gave the vote of thanks, and certificates, on behalf of the club members who had enjoyed the varied displays.

With a display of 180 sheets on the subject, Trevor warned us all in advance, that he was not going to mention each sheet individually, but only certain ones, leaving the members to view their own particular interest during the interval, explaining, that he was sure that not all the members would be interested in the intricate details of each individual stamp on display. This was not to be so, after his talk the members poured over the display, seeking out every minor detail with avid interest.

The early sheets displayed stamps which were imperf. Firstly, the Ceres head of 1849, followed by Louis Napoleon as President in 1852, on to Napoleon III, Emperor in 1862.

Continuing the display with a selection of the “Sower” stamps from 1902, including the Red Cross Fund, Surcharged with red cross, to the Paris International Philatelic Exhibition in 1925, and the lightly used 5f red issue.

With each of the sheets which were set out on display, care had been taken not to overcrowd the number of stamps per page. Many sheets included additional pictures of the view depicted in the stamp printing, such as the 1929 3f blue, issue of “Reims Cathedral”. “The Bay of Algiers” stamp of 1930, 50c red and blue, and 1930 issue of “Le Sourire de Reims” (“The Smiling Angel of Reims”). The added picture being a larger version of the same picture on the stamp, of “Le Sourire de Reims”. This was a Charity Issue for the Sinking Fund 1f.50+3f.50 colour purple.

The Vice-Chairman, David Lockwood, gave a very eloquent vote of thanks for the evening's display, which was greatly appreciated by all the members.

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With 21 members in attendance, the evening started with Mike's display “Lighthouses in the Caribbean” featuring the Bahamas and Bermuda. He showed the location of the Bahamas lighthouses on a blown-up version of their tourist map stamps. Definitives issued in 1935 and 1938 showing Hog Island, (renamed Paradise Island in 1963) were shown. The renaming was due to the influx of lots of cruise ships. Other stamps and covers were displayed. His Bermuda display included a first day cover of the Piloting set of 2011, some wooden postcards and a newspaper article showing the hogfish being refitted to the top of the Hogfish Lighthouse.

Ray demonstrated St Helena with a beautifully written up display showing the history of the island from its discovery by a Portugese sailor in 1602, its rediscovery by Captain Cavendish of England some 80 years later on the birthday of Helena of Constantinople. Examples of its first stamps of 1856, produced from the same die, with values overwritten, were shown, together with many later issues.

Robin showed some Hong Kong stamps from his father's collection (untouched since 1956), telling the story of the colony at the mouth of the Canton River from inception, through Japanese occupation to its return to China in 1997. Various issues from the first no-watermark issue of 1862 up to the 1935 Silver Jubilee issue were displayed.

New member Geoff explained how he had recently made a start in stamp collecting, with the Pitcairn Islands as his starting point. He showed many early issues, stamps cancelled by New Zealand, a cover that had fallen overboard in a sack en-route to New Zealand, with various water stains, the 1940 KG edition, postcards of the School House featured on some of the stamps together with two stamps, one an error saying “schoolteacher's house” the other the correct version saying “Pitcairn School”. He explained that with a population of just 54 it was not easy to obtain cancelled examples. He then showed several frames of Solomon Islands stamps with some errors and varieties, and finally some stamps from Gilbert and Ellice.

John displayed an extensive array of GB penny lilacs, first issued in 1881. Mint and used stamps from Die I and Die II, as well as a wide range of used stamps with the “squared circle” and “duplex” cancellations, and overprints were displayed. Examples cancelled by the special German cancelling machine for the 1897 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria were displayed. Also three pieces on cover, some corner blocks and ten stamps with holes depicting the initials of various companies (perfs). Finally a photostat copy of a memoranda booklet from May 1991 with a penny lilac having a perf “SDS” was shown.

After the break, Maxine put up many FDCs of East African countries, notably Tanzania, covering a wide range of topics: animals, marine life, flowers, insects, hairstyles, pottery, tanzanite, and the new railway across Tanzania from Zambia to Malawi built to relieve the terrible road.

Chris put up a display of every mint stamp issued by Bophuthatsana during its independent years from 1977 to 1994 (305 stamps and 3 miniature sheets).

David concluded the evening with an impressive display of Australian pre-stamped envelopes from their inception in the mid 1970s to their demise in 1990. These were numbered and all mint, matching the thematic, commemoratives and definitives issues.

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The large number of people attending the evening's Winter Auction was matched by the high number of lots, which was the second highest ever at 328. The Club thanks all those who took part and especially the members of Ferndown and Bournemouth Clubs for their submissions, purchases and attendance. The five raffle prize winners went home with happy faces!!

Ten members put up displays on a wide variety of subjects, making for a very interesting meeting. Ray started with a very comprehensive 24 sheet display of GB Training stamps, collected over many years.

Bryan displayed 41 well written-up sheets of aircraft postcards and photographs of aircraft from 1917 to 1980, supported by a collection of matching die cast models. Don Thomson added to this display with a collection of model aircraft that had been at Bournemouth airport or in Poole harbour, giving an overview of their routes and service history.

Don Trowsdale concluded the first half of the evening with a display of stamps on stamps, something old on something new and maps on stamps, with examples from countries all over the world.

Barry continued the evening with a 30 sheet display of Hong Kong from 1863 to 1981, including shade variations of the King George VI $1.00.

Tony was next with a display of humourous postcards from 1909 onwards, some tracing a "story" of couples meeting to a child being born; some risque ones were amongst the others.

Michael displayed Ascension, with 6 sheets from 1922, its first issue in 1924, KGV pictorials, through KGVI and the early years of Queen Elizabeth II .

Chris put up a three sheet display of the Russel Wallace covers with the special cancellations from Broadstone on 7 November, and then a five sheet display of several mint issues from the new postal administration of Caribbean Netherlands.

Wendy put up 15 sheets of very colourful stamps depicting Illuminated Manuscripts. These were from the beginning a newly written-up display. She described how these were done in the monastries in three stages: the miniature itself, the letter and the border. Because they were normally quite small in size, the relative ease of depicting them with all their detail on stamps could be appreciated.

Finally David displayed 15 sheets from his maritime collection showing the routes used for mail from Mauritius to Europe and India both before and after the Suez Canal was opened, and images of the ships used to transport the mail. A copy of the 1837 Act of Parliament defining the amended rates for East Indian postage, ships letters, salvaged postal stationery, and a 1928 Christmas greetings card from HMS Effingham were included in his presentation.

Several non-philatelic exhibits were brought along by members for everyone else to enjoy. Each of course had a story behind it, which when delved into made them even more interesting. These included:

An amazing display of fabulous shells from Sanibel Island, Florida, with explanatory leaflets
Beer mats and playing cards featuring lighthouses
A display case of turn-of-the-century American milk bottle tops
An ‘OO' gauge South African Beyer Garret locomotive
A collection of diecast airplanes in full colour
A framed Australian military canvas, a century old, with accompanying leaflets
The full set of mint Great Britain £5 coins from 1990 to 2013
A book on railway art and one on ocean liners, and newspapers from 1938 and 1939

Also on display were books of the illustrated reports, taken from the website, of the meetings held by the Poole, Ferndown and Ringwood Clubs from mid-2012 to December 2013.

Chairman, John Hilton, welcomed members to the Christmas meal, passed on absentees' apologies, and thanked everyone for their participation in the meetings during the year and for bringing the sumptuous fare for the celebration.

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The first meeting of the New Year began with members displaying stamps, postcards and ephemera on a wide range of interesting topics.

Barry started the evening with a display of stamps from Ireland, commencing with the first issue in 1922 of overprints on the King George V definitive series. He noted that there were lots of varieties, some of which were shown. Stamps from issues up to 1967 were included.

Chris displayed 54 sheets covering three aspects of the Australian Light Horse Brigades' actions in the Middle East conflicts during the First World War. Starting with George Lambert , who had been appointed Australian War Artist, an Australian stamp featuring one of his paintings, and some postcards of other work were shown. This was followed by many sheets depicting people, places and events commemorated on stamps of the places where the Australian Light Horse had been in action, such as Anzac Cove, Alexandria, Aleppo, Damascus, Gallipoli and Jerusalem. Finally mint stamps, and a whole range of postal items from the 2013 joint issue from Australia and Israel commemorating the Battle of Beersheba were displayed.

Don then put up a display of the Gliders used during the Second World War. This included stamps from Japan, The Gambia, Isle of Man and Dominica, as well as many illustrated copies of book, newspaper and journal articles. He explained how various classes of military gliders, such as the Hotspurs, Hadrians and Hannibals had been able to carry 25 troops, tanks, etc. They had been used in various assaults in Crete and Sicily, and the Normandy Invasion. Large numbers had been built, with local bases at Tarrant Rushton, Holmesley and Compton Abbas.

After the break, Mike displayed lighthouses on stamps in Germany from 1974 to 2013, and in Greece from 1913 to 2009. These included gummed, self-adhesive individual stamps, miniature sheets, maxicards, booklets, strips, perforated and imperforated versions, and varieties, re-issues and pagemark shaped postcard issues.

Bob displayed stamps and ephemera relating to various Invasions of and by Britain, well researched and presented. His talk covered the 1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge; 1066 Battle of Hastings; 1588 Spanish Armada;, the counter-Armada against Spain in 1589; the Second Jacobite Rebellion in 1745-46;, and finally the 1798 Napoleonic sorties to England, Ireland and Wales.

Barry put up 21 sheets covering issues from Guernsey from 1969 to 1978; and David also displayed Guernsey, with single and multi-coloured booklets from 1980 to 1989.

Wendy reminded members that the March 12-sheet competitions were approaching and members should start preparing now.

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Tony opened the evening with a display of postcards posted from 1904 onwards, illustrating views and scenes from the local area. Broadstone, Hamworthy, Wimborne, Sandbanks and Poole were well represented, bringing back memories for those members who have known these areas well from younger years.

Barry proceeded with a two-part display of family cards. His maternal grandparents sent and collected postcards, and many examples were displayed, the message on some being read out. These covered holiday, birthday, Christmas and wedding cards, as well as a number of humorous ones. Some of these were silk postcards. Social history was demonstrated in the family postcards of the 1914-1918 War years, with examples showing troops on the march, family groups, groups assembled for photographs, soldiers in uniform etc.

Chris displayed postcards of the Channel Tunnel, covering the planning and excavation, the famous breakthrough when the two sides met with only a three inch misalignment, then the trains, terminals and museum. Several humorous cards were shown, as well as stamps of the tunnel on postcards, and four Benham covers on postcards.

After the break, Bob put up a display of 27 sepia cards from the turn of the last century showing many scenes of the streets, buildings, churches, and bridge of Hamworthy. Many of these views are now distant memories.

Finally Chris displayed fifty postcards of the London Underground, starting with an underground tramway, and progressing through the first trains of 1862 to those of today, with a 3-D view of the new Crossrail development at Tottenham Court Road. Power rooms, train washing plant and early maps on postcards were included. Several postcards showing the Underground being used as air raid shelters were included. Some humorous cards, and stamps on cards finished the first part of this topic. Ninety postcards were then shown covering the various advertising and promotion campaigns used by the London Underground from the 1920s up to today. Although the majority of these had not been postally used they were bright and informative, with some very imaginitive designs, giving a good perspective on the development of the Underground over its 150 years.

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Meeting Report – 6th February 2014
Members Displays: Post-1939 material

Fred began the evening with a display of the stamps issued by the Allied countries during the First World War, concentrating on those issues relating to the war itself. He noted that Great Britain did not produce any such stamps, but displayed a set of their 1939 definitives. However several later Great Britain issues relating to both Great Wars, such as the D-Day Landing set were displayed. He told of his memories of seeing the landing craft at Fleetsbridge and hearing the aircraft and tanks as they assembled in Poole; as well as the special trains which took workers to and from the cordite factories at Holton Heath, where some 5,000 people were employed. He showed selected stamp issues from Australia, Canada and USA which featured a wide range of activities involved with the War Effort.

Chris put up a display of all 230 stamps 4 miniature sheets issued by Ciskei, the second of the South Africa Homelands he has displayed. He commented on the excellent designs and range of topics covered during their administration from 1981 to 1994, even an issue on Fish Bait!

After the break David displayed some rare items from his collection Far East Maritime. Many items were pre-1939 but provided a comprehensive overview of many aspects of maritime postal history from places such as Singapore, Hong Kong and New Hebrides. A set of five photographs showing the recovery of a pilotless aircraft that had run out of fuel in the Atlantic in 1960 during the Cold War exercises was particularly dramatic. A Christmas greeting card from HMS Bulwark whilst off Borneo in 1960 during the Far East campaign, and other military mail was displayed. 1915 shipping lists from Hong Kong, and New Zealand shipping brochures and advertisements from the 1890s and 1903 were included. A postcard from Australia produced for the American navy during the visit of The Great White Fleet whilst on Pacific exercises in 1908 was shown. David noted that the fleet had departed before the card was available so genuine used examples are not to be trusted!

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Meeting Report – 20th February 2014
Members Displays: Americas & West Indies

Barry started the evening with a display of Princess Diana: The American Issues. This was followed by several displays by David on the following topics: Falkland Islands; International Stamp Exhibition Souvenir sheets produced by the United States Post Office; an Exhibition of postcards and postmarks of the Americas. After the break, David continued with: United States Pacific Area postmarks; and Maritime items of the Americas.

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Some thirty members and visitors attended the Spring Auction with a wide range of material being put up for sale.

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Saturday 15th March 2014 - Dorset Family History
in conjunction with The Western Front Association

We were delighted to have been given the opportunity of promoting the name of the Poole & District Philatelic & Postcard
Club, at this very busy event. Connecting family history and family photographs, to the collecting of old postcards and postage
stamps of that period. Many old family archives contain the odd silk postcard from the Great War, along with a few picture postcards of places on the Western Front prior to the start of hostilities.
With the help of Barry and Mary we were able to answer most questions put to us, and I would like to think that as a result
we may well see one or more of the visitors come along to a club evening in response to their enquiries. Praise must go to the DFHS for their extremely well organised day, we were pleased to have been a small part of their successful event.

Competition Evening:
Green Cup, Novice, Barry Proctor (Postcard) & Bill Way Shield

This was a very busy competition evening, with a total of 22 entries from club members for the various
competitions. We extend our thanks to Mr James Hooper for kindly judging the entries.

Green Cup - John Hilton - *Queen Victoria Penny Lilac
Harry Parsons - Bob Small - Napoleonic War Mail
Thematic Cup - Chris Wheeler - 150 Years of London Underground

Barry Procter Cup - David Lockwood - Varying fates of Merchant Ships
Bill Way Shield - Bob Small - *Napoleonic POWs

* These two entries, which scored the highest points, will go forward to the Ferndown & West Moors Philatelic & Postcard
Club for their “Interclub Competition” at their Annual Fair at the Barrington Centre, Ferndown on 12th April 2014.

During the interval, Wendy Buckle exhibited a thematic display on the history of writing.

Our thanks go to Wendy, who very efficiently organised the competition evening, and to James, as Competition Secretary
of the Somerset & Dorset Philatelic Federation.

We hope to carry forward this enthusiasm for competitions to September, when we are hosting the S&DPF competitions
at our Annual Stamp & Postcard Fair.

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Meeting Report – 3rd April 2014
Guest Spence Coaker shows Hong Kong & the Treaty Ports

A summary of the events in China up to the Opium Wars which started in 1841, covering the 13 factories in Canton, the
activities of the East India Company, their trade in silver, tea, silk and pottery for opium was given as an introduction. Spence
then explained how the siege of Canton, Shanghai and Nanking led to Britain obtaining its first portion of Hong Kong in the
Treaty of Nanking, and later following China losing the Second Opium War, Britain secured more trading ports on the China coast, the Treaty Ports, as well as Kowloon and the New Territories.

The first examples shown were the first issue of stamps in 1862; the second issue which included the 96c olive bistre, a mint
block of which are probably the most expensive Hong Kong stamps (not shown!!), and the 1891 commemorative issue
marking the 50 th anniversary of the Colony.

Various entires, letters, overprints, as well as the only commemorative issue during Queen Victoria's reign were displayed.
The Treaty Ports used Hong Kong stamps, but also stamps from other postal administrations such as Germany and France
that had been established there. Examples of these, including some adopted and used for military purposes, some scarce,
were shown.

After the break a range of Air Mail material starting with the experimental flights of 1929, the Air Orient in 1932, the 1934
first trans-Pacific, and an amazing round the world cover from 1937 were displayed.

Then the first and second definitive KGVI issues, the Victory issue, with examples of Japanese Occupation covers and cancellations were displayed. A 1945 Liberation cover, Exhibition cancellations, Forces Post Office mail, early meter mail
and Frama labels were put up.

Finally full mint sets of the seven QEII definitives issues up to the 1997 Handover, and a Chris Patten signed handover cover
date 30 June 1997 brought the exhibit to a close.

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Meeting on Thursday 17th April, 2014
Review of Competition Results,
Awarding of Certificates, Cups and Shields, and
Members Displays of Stamps and Stationery

Some of the entries from the recent Competition were displayed, and the competitors were asked to give a short resume of their entry and answer questions from the floor:
Lighthouses of Japan - Mike Houchen
Lighthouses of Spain – Mike Houchen
150 Years on the London Underground – Chris Wheeler
Napoleonic POWs 1797-1813 – Bob Small
The World of Overprints and Surcharges – David Lockwood
More than Just a Penny Lilac – John Hilton
The Varying Fates of Merchant Ships - David Lockwood
The 1924-1925 British Empire Exhibition – David Lockwood
King George VI Commonwealth Postal Stationery - David Lockwood
Latvia 1919-1922 – Wendy Buckle

Using her competition entry as an example, Wendy gave practical advice to members on how to do well in Competitions. Some of the key points made were that Competitions are not Displays, Competitions have rules that must be strictly followed, Judges work to those rules rigourously. Judges are looking for philatelic material not so much the writing up. Ensure the first page includes the title, a plan, a few lines of introduction and something philatelic. Tell a story, fill the pages. Look at the balance of items on the pages, and the aesthetics of them as a whole.

This was followed by the displays of Stamps and Stationery.
Downstream Access, using C9 mail (12 pages) – Chris Wheeler
Worldwide Registration Labels (2 pages) – Don Trowsdale
Impressed and Embossed Heads (1 page) – Don Trowsdale
Worldwide Airmail Forms featuring Lighthouses (6 pages) – Mike Houchen
Early Forces Mail 1589-1811 (12 pages) – Bob Small

This was a particularly interesting and inspiring meeting, a credit to the inspiration, motivation and encouragement provided in particular by John and Wendy.

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Approximately half the membership attended this year's AGM, in which the previous year's Minutes were reviewed and approved. Reports were given by the Chairman, acting Secretary, Treasurer and Programme Secretary. Mike Mawdsley was elected as the new Club Secretary; all other Committee Members being re-elected.

Under "AOB" there was discussion regarding the number of frames to be used for competitions, and the paper size. Both items were referred for discussion at the next Committee Meeting. The acquisition of a loud speaker system was discussed, as was the inclusion of a members stamp-swap evening, and the appointment of an assistant secretary.

5th June - Guest Anne Stammers - Thematic Evening:- "From Rocks to Riches" and "A Child's Guide to Nature"

Anne began by explaining that her 90 page display was about how minerals in the earth's crust were formed, located and mined, and eventually crafted into beautiful objects by cutting, smelting or fabrication by artists and designers having a thorough understanding of the minerals and elements they worked on. The first three pages provided an introduction and plan of the well written-up display and a map of the world showing where minerals were found.

Stamps were used to show how the earth's surface was formed and the action of volcanoes in sourcing various minerals. Swiss Pro Patria mineral stamps were displayed, with stamps and covers showing the various types of mining and dredging used to obtain the raw materials. Seven pages of Australian stamps on gold mining followed including the stamp book featuring the Eureka Stockade in Balarat.

Samples from Tasmania's series of air letters featuring their many mines, and colourful exmples from South Africa, Canada, USA and South America were shown. Stamps showing the history of gold, the Legend of Eldorado, a South African meter mark "Gold is Money You Can Trust", a ship's letter of 1827 from a ship named "Gold", and sets of stamps showing gems, gemcuts and hallmarks demonstrated the breadth of the theme. A 1907 postcard from Little Rock to Hot Springs was displayed, further illustrating the scope of subject matter that is relevant.

After the break Anne and Wendy put up displays illustrating how to get started in thematic displays and competitions. This specified examples of what should be included, how to collate material that may or may not be included, and use of material in more than one event. Anne used "A Child's Guide to Nature" and Wendy used a 45 page display "Paper Making" to illustrate the techniques, options and range of material that can be used for the various competition classes as well as displays.

A very constructive question and answer session followed with excellent questions from Philip Mudd and David Lockwood. The key replies were to "tell a story", "use a variety of appropriate material", "exclude what is not pertinent", and perhaps the most difficult "write up the plan first".

27 members and visitors atttended the club's Summer Auction, this in spite of it being the warmest evening of the year and the night England was to play Uruguay in the 2014 World Cup. A wide range of material was up for bidding, starting with several lots of cigarette cards. There were some rare and unusual items amongst the varied material, much of which was sold.

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This was to be the penultimate display of this amazingly comprehensive talk. Barry has amassed a unique collection of postal material, including some never-seen-elsewhere items that made this presentation such a discovery for members attending.
During the first half, Barry outlined the geographical and industrial background to Bolivia, and its need for a railway to carry its wealth of raw materials from the mines in this landlocked country to the Chilean coast. Started in the 1880s and completed some ten years later the railway also came to be used for passenger and mail traffic, it taking two and a half days to complete the 600 miles, much of it across the Atacama desert, where bandits were a major problem. During the early decades all sorts of handstamps and cancellations were used, and examples of these were shown, with examples of mail being routed to Panama or back across the Andes to Buenos Aires. Examples of Bolivian stamps with Chilean cancels, and Chilean stamps with Bolivian cancels were shown, together with some contemporary postcards of local landmarks. Cancellations used on the steamers on Lake Titicaca were included.
The typical situation of countries in Central America, was that their capital cities were in the central highlands, and they needed railways to connect to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Costa Rica was the first example of this to be shown, where the railway building started in the 1870s. The interoceanic line was fed by a host of branch lines owned and managed by the huge banana plantations. Private and public TPOs operated on these lines and Barry showed some extremely rare examples of these.

After the break, similar railway operations from other Central American countries were demonstrated, each with their individual problems and successes. Panama for example started to build its railway in 1855, but due to disease killing over half the workforce it was decades before it was completed. TPOs started running in the 1900s, but as part of the Panama Canal Company. The building of the Honduras railway was the subject of a massive fraud, so much of the money being stolen that it took until 1953 for the country to recover. Only 66 miles of the railway was ever built, but many interesting TPO were shown with a host of different handstamps.
Nicaragua tried to incorporate its two huge lakes into its interoceanic railway, several different handstamps being used on the various segments of the line, but even to this day the railway is not complete. Guatemala suffered at the hands of the American banana plantation owners, the first line being completed in the 1920s from Guatemala City to the Mexican border, the second down to Columbia in 1929. However they were very poorly built, could not be maintained, and were subject to a lot of staff fraud. Examples of covers with inspectors’ marks on them were displayed. El Salvador suffered much the same problem, but TPO covers had been obtained and were shown.
This was a fascinating talk, especially for those members who had travelled to this part of the world.

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Mel began his presentation by explaining that there were five distinct definitive issues during King George V's reign (1911 to 1935). The first of these, the Admiral issue, are the most difficult to classify and thus of greater interest to collectors.

He showed examples of War Tax Admirals, explaining that these and other Revenue stamps were much more avidly collected in USA and Canada than in Great Britain. Examples of coils, surcharges, booklets and booklet panes were displayed. Some wonderful examples of the Confederation stamps of 1917, and the story behind them was told. Examples of each of the other definitive issues were shown and key facts about them discussed, together with examples of some of the commemorative issues from the period, which included some photographs of the submitted designs for the silver jubilee stamps which ended up being based on a photograph by Adams, an Englishman!

The talk finished with a frame of "useful material you can enjoy at a price you can afford", with examples of War Tax stamps, elecricity and gas stamps, individually numbered weights and measures stamps, pre-cancels, law stamps, and the two shades of blue Great War stamps. It was noted that though all these were issued during King George V's reign, some were still being used up to the 1960s.

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7th August - Guest Brian Weeks shows Modern Greece,
then members displays of Europe

The evening was of two parts, the first half being a very well described overview of the "Development of Modern Greece” as seen through its stamps, and those of its various administrations. The period was from 1830 to 1967, and included some postcards and press cuttings. Brian explained that a collection of Hermes and Olympics with all their variations was too technical, and this collection taking some six years was much more satisfying. The appreciation shown by the audience indicated that they shared that view as well.

Brian’s claim that “the Greeks love fighting, especially with Turkey” came through clearly as he described the background to the many, mainly commemorative issues in his display. Stamps used in the independent territories such as Crete and the Aegian Islands, and then common issues from 1911 were shown. Next he showed some examples from the issues during the Balkan Wars, which resulted in the nation doubling in size and population and a wide range of overprints came into use - several colours on four papers from seventeen printings, not to mention all the forgeries. Postcards from Salonica in World War I and the devastating fire of 18 August 1917 which destroyed over half of the city were displayed. The various sets issued between the World Wars, the inflation issues, the Victory issue and Dodecanese issues with various administrations, sets from the Communist Civil War were all described. He concluded with the Junta Regime releases from 1967.

Brian receiving his certificate and gift of appreciation from Chairman John Hilton

After the break several members put up one or two frame displays of material relating to Europe. Barry started with Alderney, all issues from 1983 to 2000. Mike Houchen displayed a colourful frame of the Lighthouses of Greece. Invited speaker Brian Weeks displayed the stamps of Epirus, the southern region of Albania, with a range of its official and unofficial issues from 1912 to 1913. Chris Wheeler, using mainly postcards, portrayed the history of Eastbourne Pier from its conception in 1860 to today, ending with the fire of 30 July 2014. Finally David Lockwood showed 15 pages of written up material on European Maritime Philately, with examples from Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Italy.

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Barry Proctor opened the evening with his 13 page display of Jersey stamps featuring Royalty, starting with the 1978 50th Coronation issue and ending with the 2012 issue featuring the 30th Birthday of the Duke of Cambridge. One stamp of note was the £10.00 hologram stamp of the Queen, the image of which can only be seen at certain angles.

Barry with Jersey Royalty on Stamps

Philip Mudd then exhibited a very colourful written-up display of 14 matching signed covers of notable people and the places associated with them. The first two were Sir Arthur C Clark and Sir Patrick Moore, with outer space being their associated place. Sir George Everest and the mountain were next, followed by Elizabeth Deane, the youngest Titanic passenger, at 67 days of age, and the last to survive, dying in 2009. Sir Ebenezer Howard, father of the Garden Cities, and Letchworth were next, and these were followed by Alfred Russel Wallace, the naturalist who is buried in Broadstone and finally Colonel John Jestyn Llewellin, the first and only Baron of Upton who had a naval career and then went into Conservative politics.

Wendy Buckle also put up 14 sheets, these being of postcards, photos and postal stationery showing the 4000 year history of the city of Riga in Latvia, through its buildings and the people associated with them. Of particular interest was the postcard showing the “then and now” skyline of the city and the pictures of its three cathedrals; the National Opera, Riga’s oldest surviving building; and the Castle, now the War Museum. The 35 metre tall Freedom Monument built in 1935 and the charity stamps issued to help fund its construction were shown, and finally some amazing art nouveau buildings from the 1920s.

John Hilton started with David Livingstone, born in Blantyre in 1813, with a postcard of his birthplace. After gaining his medical degree at Glasgow University in 1840 he went to South Africa and was in Africa as a missionary and explorer for 33 years, discovering Victoria Falls in 1855. Stamps from Southern Rhodesia and Rhodesia and Nyassaland featuring the Falls were displayed. Postcards and photos illustrating the plaque over the door in North London where he retired to, and of his tombstone in Westminster Abbey where he was buried in 1874 were shown. John then exhibited some Newfoundland stamps featuring Sir Humphrey Gilbert of Compton, Devon and the 450th anniversary of John Cabot’s discovery of Newfoundland, with his association with Poole.

After the break David Lockwood displayed two frames of Australia postal stationery, selecting from his collection those that illustrated people and places. He started with the State’s views of South Australia, then the National issues of Royalty, the 175th anniversary of Hobart, the Arms of the States, the four se-tenant pictures of Sydney Harbour, Parks, Ships Officers, Ships, Aircraft, Darwin, Literary Figures and the Gold Rush. He then showed a set of ten colourful pre-stamped envelopes “The Pitcairners of Norfolk Island”.

Finally Chris Wheeler put up 30 sheets of stamps and postcards featuring The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and some of the people associated with the Gardens, including Queen Victoria, King George III, Capability Brown and the Royal Horticultural Society. The many unique Houses at the Gardens were shown, as well as the Flagstaff, ruined by woodpeckers, the Pagoda, the Sackler Crossing, the Royal Palace and the original Tea Rooms burnt to the ground by two suffragettes in 1913. Postcards showing the many gates into the Gardens, and the River Thames pier were shown. A number of items of postal stationery were included, with strike mail, meter marked mail and several first day covers. Finally, the seedbank at Wakehurst Place was illustrated by stamps, this is where the future lies with increasing emphasis on preservation and conservation.

John opened the evening with his comprehensive two-frame display of GB “150th Anniversary of the Penny Black”. He started with some double headed stamps from the 1948 Silver Wedding, his first pre-collecting stamps, and then the main theme split into two parts with every variety possible of the mint stamps and then with them on Covers and with Special Handstamps. All sorts of booklet examples were shown including the very colourful Prestige Booklet of the Stamp Show, 2000.
Mary then described her display of “GB Post & Go” stamps, all the early ones being on SG pages. The early issues were delightful with their pictorial subjects, but she felt that the later ones for Philakorea were dull and less interesting. Don then put up five sheets of his “Favourite GB Commemorative Stamps”, with mint and used examples from the 1966 Battle of Hastings set to the 2008 Air Shows set. Mike displayed two frames of “Early GB” including the full set of penny reds (except the Plate 77!); the halfpenny bantams, including No 9 with a Glasgow postmark; Edward VII with shade differences and George VI First Day Covers. Finally Philip displayed “Regional Stamps”, with some pages of pre-decimal mint and used examples from the Channel Islands and then individual and miniature sheet decimal issues from England.

After the break Barry showed some “Early GB Definitives”, collected some 60 years ago, again without the Plate 77 penny red (now valued at some £250,000), imperforate examples and some interesting cancellations. Chris put up two frames of white and gold “Horizon Labels”, from inception in 2003 to today, with samples of all the eight paper types used so far. He showed a wide range of Royal Mail UK (53) and Post Brehinol (34) indicators. He showed several examples of labels that had not been treated correctly by Royal Mail. The last display was from David who also put up two frames of exhibits this time the “GB Booklets and Booklet Panes, 1904 to 1939”. Many of the examples shown had been used to advertise promotional products and services, which made them most interesting. He displayed correspondence between the Post Office and the Inland Revenue seeking a decision on the tax implications of using adverts in the booklets, and examples of the issued booklets with their stamps cancelled or having punched holes in them which were sent to the advertising companies to prove they were in circulation.

As a result of the dedication by Club members this Fair was particularly successful. It was a delight to host the Somerset & Dorset Philatelic Federation Competitions this year and to know that the many S&DPF committee members and the Judges were delighted with all aspects of their day. The dealers were mostly very pleased, and several noted that there were more people through the door this year than for some years previously. Of the 16 dealers 12 have already confirmed their attendance next year. It is pleasing to note that many of the Awards, and the overall Winner Trophy went to Poole Club members, who submitted seven of the fifty entries. A table of the results will follow in due course. There were also many happy raffle prize winners!

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Although many members were on holiday, the Autumn Auction was a success.
A big bonus for the Club was the joining up of two new members.

Trevor's talk covered the period from inauguration in 1924 to the outbreak of War in 1939, starting with the amalgamation of various airways to form Imperial Airways in 1924, the primary role being to carry mail, not passengers. He outlined the early routing and how it was extended from north to east Africa in 1931, to southern Africa in 1932, and later to all parts of the world. These early routings included a mix of air and rail transport, and were not without their problems, some of which Trevor explained in detail, adding to the breadth of his talk. Many examples were shown of mail originating from all over the developing network and how it was taken to its final destination. This enabled a myriad of countries's stamps and postal rates being used.

All these stages were illustrated by well written-up sheets containing covers, maps, photographs and text which were a delight to study at the interval and at the end of the talk. He showed a copy of a May 1937 letter from Imperial Airways to a host of philatelic outfits advising that it would no longer give advance notice of the inaugral dates of new services as the list had grown so large it was costing the Company too much to maintain - philatelists abounded in those days too!!

The penultimate frame showed examples of air mail to and from west Africa, and the last frame showed examples of covers in 1939 when due to the War the rate soared from 1½d to 1/3d; the planes that then carried the mail and the ports of Southampton and Poole.

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John started his talk with stamps illustrating the transmission of messages before the days of “Pen and Paper”, with stamps showing Hermes, Mercury and the Angels. He also gave illustrations of other early, and some still current, methods of communication: sounds, symbols, bells, smoke and semaphore.

Following this introduction John explained that his display was a description of some 100 ways of delivering the mail, in alphabetical order, starting with Airmail, Archer Mail and Autogiro Mail, and eventually ending with Wells Fargo, Wheelbarrow Mail and Zeppelin Mail. There were photographs, postcards, letters, stamps and covers to illustrate all these methods, and stories behind them to make the talk so interesting. One of his favourites was Stilt Mail, where in a region of Southern France where the ground was very wet heathland, the postman delivered the mail wearing a pair of stilts.

John closed the evening by describing his 80 sheet Competition Entry to Autumn Stampex on the subject of Tin Can Mail (for which he won a Large Vermeil), and how for next year he hopes to expand it to 128 pages. This delivery method arose because the island of Niuafo’ou had no beaches or harbours for passing ships to dock, so mail was sealed in cans and thrown overboard for native swimmers to retrieve and bring ashore.

(A comprehensive write-up of the talk can be found on pages 41 and 42 of Stamp Lover, April 2014.)

The talk was very well attended with the added bonus of two attendees joing the Club as Members.

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Bob began his talk by saying that he had started preparing the display five years ago and it had taken three years to complete. This was its first “outing”. He further explained that none of the pages had cost more than £5.00, which was very encouraging for many Members.

The story started with Alfred the Great, who set up the first Navy with a fleet of longboats with 30 oarsmen and archers to defend against the Vikings. He is the “Father of The Navy”. (The Navy only became The Royal Navy in 1660 on the return of Charles II from exile). The fascinating history of the Navy’s technical development as illustrated through stamps, postcards and pictures was illustrated by well written-up pages. Many of the great sea battles were described in detail, with illustrations of the famous people, ships and exploits of those concerned.

Explanations of how the new inventions such as gunpowder, cannons, canvas sails, steam power, paddle steamers, the screw, recoilless guns, and later, steel hulls, submarines, ships that planes could land on, which led to the aircraft carriers of today (which are the capital ships of the navy replacing that role held by battleships for so long). Then came radar, missiles, and the amazing Daring Class ships and soon the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, which Djibouti has already issued a miniature sheet featuring. The last frame concentrated on stamps showing the Auxillary Naval Services, supply, hospital, survey, etc. without which the fighting ships would be unable to achieve.

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Presentation of the Awards
from the Somerset & Dorset Federation Inter-Club Competion held on
13 September 2014

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There was a big turnout for the Auction which saw a large number of lots come under the hammer. Although there were several unsold lots, there were many happy buyers and sellers!!

Sixteen very varied displays were enjoyed by members this evening:

Ray Saunders with a selection of Horizon Labels (21 pages)
Bob Small with “Newspapers of the Time of the War of Spanish Succession, 1701-1714” (25 pages)
Tony Arnold with a selection of Humourous Postcards (9 pages)
Don Thompson with a selection of mint “British Postage Stamps from 1967-1974” (22 pages)
Brian Cropp with “Transatlantic Mail”, showing the variable rates
Bryan Cribb with “Porlock and Watchet - A lovely time of my life” (19 pages)
Phil Woolston with Stamps from Nigeria, 1937-1960
Michael Mawdsley with Stamps of Sudan 1898-1954 (8 pages)
Mike Houchen with stamps of several countries featuring the “Columbus Memorial Lighthouse” in Santo Domingo City
Chris Wheeler with his Somerset & Dorset Federation competition entry on “Kew Gardens” (8 pages),
and then “Paddington Bear” on postcards, stamps, credit and telephone cards (1 frame)
Barry Proctor with his selection of Saucy Postcards (1 frame)
Mike Houchen with his collection of stamp sheets of lighthouses issued by Jugoslavia, and now Croatia, which was an expansion of his Somerset & Dorset Federation “The Annual Lighthouse Series of Croatia” (1½ frames)
Wendy Buckle with “Elements from Illustrated Manuscripts with Christmas Themes” (1 frame)
Dave Lockwood with “Souvenir Sheets from Stamp Exhibitions” from the 1920s onwards,
and then his postcard competition entry “The Varying Fates of Merchant Ships” (16 pages)

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Several members brought along non-philatelic items for the static display. These included a range of early railway plans and titles; miniature works of Shakespeare; coins of the world featuring lighthouses; a set of model battleships and a gutter block of Isle of Man stamps signed by the designer, with a cartoon on the reverse (which had arrived in the post that morning).

As can be seen from the picture, there was a good turnout, and Chairman, John Hilton, took the opportunity to briefly review another successful year and thank all members for their contributions to the meetings and to the Christmas Celebration.

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Barry Proctor started the evening with a three frame display of postcards from the World War One era. All these cards were from his family collection, having been sent to or received by family members. Themes covered humour, greetings, Christmas and so on, including many silks. He closed with three of the famous Bamforth “Song Cards”. Chris Wheeler then put up a frame of postcards featuring Salisbury Stations from around the world, including several of the 1906 accident in Wiltshire. Bryan Cribb closed the first half of the evening with an entertaining reminiscence of his cinema-going younger years at the Regent and Regal in Poole! “Oh for those days” he commented. Many postcards, some leaflets and cuttings were displayed showing the famous actors and film stars of yesteryear, (including his favourite – Ingrid Bergman), the earliest card being posted in 1902.
Don Trowsdale showed postcards depicting the history of Royal Mail Transport, early road and rail vehicles, aircraft, post buses and the underground. Then a broad overview of Poole was displayed by Tony Arnold, two frames of mainly 1950-1970s depicting views of Poole and the surrounding area, all very colourful and covering many locations. The oldest card was of Scaplens Court from the 1920s in sepia. Ending the evening David Lockwood put up two frames of postcards featuring the ships of the Cunard Steamship Line, including the Aquitania in several guises – passenger liner, hospital ship, troop carrier and some fake images on cards. The famous Queens were shown, including one with Queen Mary back in Cunard colours alongside the Queen Mary still in its wartime brown. He closed with a few pages of merchant ships from the same period.

Eight members gave displays which entertained the seventeen who had braved the chilly evening to attend. Fred Hoare started with a well written up presentation of 20 sheets depicting various aspects of "Particpation in World Wars I and II" on stamps, postcards and some pictures, these included members of his own family. Remembrance was emphasised with a sheet of poppy stamps including Jersey's 2014 release which had poppy seeds embedded in the flower hearts which recipients could plant. Don Trowsdale was next with a miscellany of pages covering very early definive stamps from Japan, commemorative stamps from Kiribati and two pages of miniature sheets of "King" Elvis Presley.

Mike Houchen then put up a display "Of Lifeboatmen and Lifeboats", a comprehensive 12 sheet display showing how this topic has been covered on stamps and covers by administrations all over the world, interspersed with his own experiences as a lifeboatmen. Starting with Lionel Lukin's invention of the unsinkable boat in 1785 he demonstrated the advance of Sea Rescue technology and practice up to the present day. The first half was concluded with an imaginitive stamp display by Barry Proctor on the "Parishes of Jersey". Ten of the twelve Jersey Parishes were featured with a postcard or stampcard of each parish followed by stamps showing landmarks from it.

After the break, Brian Cropp displayed thirty pages of Jersey stamps, some cancelled, including postage dues, from inauguration in 1969 up to 1976. Chris Wheeler then put up two frames of postcards on the topic of "Leap Year", reading a poem from 'a girl in need' to the audience that was on the first card. Phil Woolston displayed nine sheets of KUT, followed by David Lockwood's display of Jersey stampbooks and booklet panes, which included various formats, varieties and some very colourful pages from one of the Prestige Books.

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Tony Arnold started the displays with two frames of illustrated postcards from 1900 to 1930, all with the words “Birthday Greetings” on them. Some were also inscribed “To My Sweetheart”, some to “My Daughter on her 21st Birthday”, and so on. Bryan Cribb put up a frame of postcards and pictures of early motor cars and his beloved Royal Blue coaches. Chris Wheeler displayed a frame of early postcards featuring Boscombe Pier and Beaches. Robin Humphries displayed a frame of definitive and commemorative GB stamps from the reigns of King George V, Edward VIII and King George VI.

After the break, Barry Proctor then put up two frames of postcards, with a similar theme to Tony Arnold, including a plastic greeting card. He had photocopied the stamp and cancellation of many of these cards, and pasted them next to the respective card so we could see where they had been posted, and their dates. Wendy Buckle had not been able to put up her display at the last meeting which was “J, K or L stand for......”, so took the opportunity to show a frame of postal history from the major seaport of Libuau on the Baltic Sea coast of Latvia. Finally David Lockwood displayed a frame of Far East Maritime postal stationary, with examples of contracts, waybills, Christmas cards, brochures and recovered bank notes, all with details of the relevant ships.

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There was a large attendance, and an equally large number of lots for the Society's Spring Auction. The evening, however started on a sombre note as a Minute's Silence was observed in memory of the Society's Chairman, John Hilton, who very sadly passed away on 25 February.

We are grateful for the expertise of Mr James Hooper of the Somerset and Dorset Philatelic Federation who kindly judged the competitions. In his remarks he complimented all the competitors on the high standard across the board, and said how much standards had improved since he first started judging Poole Society competitions some years ago. He especially praised the Thematic entries, some of which he considered above the general standard for the Somerset & Dorset Philatelic Federation thematic competition.
The winners were:-
David Lockwood, “Green Cup” (General) for King George VI Commemorative Postal Stationery
Bob Small, “Harry Parsons Shield” (Postal History) for Early Forces Mail
Chris Wheeler “Thematic Cup” for The Salvation Army
The two with the highest points in two different categorie, were Bob Small and Chris Wheeler, whose entries will go forward to the Ferndown & West Moors Philatelic & Postcard Club, at their “Interclub Competition” which will be held on the 11th April 2015, the day of their Annual Stamp & Postcard Fair at the Barrington Centre, Ferndown.
Whilst the judging was going on members viewed entries for the “Barry Proctor Cup”, an award for a postcard display decided by the popular vote of members. This was awarded to David Lockwood for The Royal Navy.
At the end of the evening all entries for the General, Postal History and Thematic classes were viewed by members, and another popular vote taken for members’ personal favourite. This award, the “Bill Way Shield”, was won by Chris Wheeler for The Salvation Army.

Three senior members of the Ringwood Philatelic Society entertained the Poole Club with quality displays during the evening. The first was given by Paul Barry with "Great Britain Pot Pourri", a display of two halves beginning with a unique collection of parcel post labels. Finding these is very difficult as Dealers seldom have them and they go very quickly when they do appear. Several sheets were displayed of labels from differnt towns, with stamps of matching values. He then showed some of his latest aquisitions, some unusually seen international covers from the Victoria era, with RPS certificates.

"Ringwood Postal History" was Colin Mount's first story, an amazing display of postal items with Ringwoodmarkings dating right back to the 1700s. Stage Coach mail and later Ringood Post Office and later its sub-offices and the local Army camps were all covered. Mileage Marks from 1801, 1806 nd 1809 wer shown; as well as use of the Bridgend duplex, number 120, used by Ringwood from 1849 to 1874! Colin then put up 25 sheets of QEII issues demonstating a mix of errors and flaws, including whole sheets and booklets.

After the break, Alan Whitaker entertained with 90 sheets tracing the history of the "Australian Air Mail Services from 1918 to 1939", a fascinating and meticulous display incorporating covers from a myriad of different airlines which were authorised to carry mail during that period. Many did not last long due to crashes and takeovers, finally with Ansett Airways absorbing all of them. The background of flights from england to Australia was discussed, and then the first internal mail flight from Perth to Geraldtown in 1921. He concluded with an overview of the mail flown by the Flying Doctor Service, which started in 1928.

David Lockwood gave a vote of thanks, and certificates, to the three presenters, complementing them on an exciting and memorable group of displays.

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Following the annual competitions, detailed in the 19th March report, all the competitors displayed their entries and spoke for a few moments about them.

Bob Small, winner of the postal history class, showed 12 sheets of Early Forces Mail, each one featuring a different dispute, starting with a 1589 naval letter following the Spanish Armada, then items from the Thirty Years War, English Civil War, disbanding of the Cromwellian Army, Monmouth Rebellion, War of the Spanish Succession, First Jacobite Rebellion, War of the Austrian Succession, Second Jacobite Rebellion, Seven Years War, American War of Independence and a 1799 letter from the Napoleonic War. Wendy Buckle followed with Pre Mail stamp from Riga, showing covers both internal to the Russian Empire and examples going to Belgium, Germany and France. Ranging in date from 1785 to 1857 they would have been carried originally on horseback, later by mail coach and eventually by train. Next were the postcard entries. Barry Proctor showed early cards from Bournemouth, including views of the sea and the pier, the gardens and pines, and Mont Dore Hotel (now the Town Hall) as it was when it served as a hospital in the First World War. David Lockwood, winner of this category, followed with The Royal Navy, featuring a wide range of ships including Dreadnoughts, aircraft carriers, support ships, light cruisers and submarines. It included cards showing the 1937 Coronation Review. The first half finished with the general class, both entries submitted by David Lockwood. In his King George VI Commemorative Postal Stationery David explained that the Crown Agents instructed their main printers De La Rue, Waterlow’s and Bradbury Wilkinson to submit to the Universal Postal Union examples of their postal stationery overprinted ‘Specimen’. This overprint was carefully placed so that it never defaced the stamps. All major types of specimen were shown.
David then showed the World of Overprints and Surcharges, an overprint being ‘an additional inscription or device printed on the face of the stamp of postal stationery; and a surcharge being ‘an overprint that changes the face value of a stamp or postal stationery item’. Overprints could be for a range of reasons, including status changes, occupations, Official use, commemorative events etc.

The second half featured the thematic entries, starting with Chris Wheeler’s winning entry The Salvation Army. Chris not being there, on his behalf Wendy explained that the entry was inspired by a talk he gave to the Salvation Army in Winton. Starting with its foundation by General Booth in 1865, the display featured its religious beliefs, its international community service, its uniforms and music, and mail in war time. Chris’s second entry was The Panama Canal an entry inspired by a stamp issue howler from Egypt which featured a picture of the Panama Canal on a stamp commemorating the Suez Canal! The entry traced the history of the canal from initial prospecting in 1855, through the dreadful failed attempts when 22,000 works died from disease, through to final success by the USA. Mike Houchen put up his two entries. Founded by Sir William Hillary, The Royal National Lifeboat Institution looked at particular countries: GB, Ireland, Isle of Man, Guernsey and Alderney. Mike also entered Lifeboat and Maritime Rescue Services. While omitting the RNLI the display showed boats from all over the world which provide this vital service. Fred Hoare showed Participation as an aspect of World War One. Starting with the diplomatic crisis leading up to the War, it featured the unofficial Christmas truce in 1914, VC winners, family involvement, and rather poignantly the role horses played.

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Six members exhibited displays on a wide range of topics. Barry Proctor started the evening with Cinderella material from the Channel Islands of Aircraft and Commercial Shipping. Bob Small displayed Sir John Moore, the Retreat to Corunna in 1809; the Siege of Badajos in 1812 and finished with an old newspaper showing a letter from Fletcher Christian (Bounty) 1796. Mike Houchen showed material relating to his 21 years experience with the RNLI - Lionel Lukin, the inventor of the lifeboat, plus lifeboat related covers from GB, Lundy, Isle of Man, Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey, etc.

Don Trowsdale then displayed material relating to the Falkland Islands. This was followed by Wendy Buckle with the printing, publishing and book industry, including security printers. Finally David Lockwood put up a range of material including GB Postal Stationery, with both printed and embossed examples.

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Eighteen members attended this year's AGM, which started with Chris Wheeler being presented with the Thematic Cup and the Bill Way Shield for his winning entry "The Salvation Army", and Best Overall Entry respectively in the Club's April competition. He was also presented with the Second Place with Gold Certificate for his entry "The Panama Canal". David Lockwood encouraged members, reminding them that these awards are achievable by inexperienced entrants.

Many new committee positions were confirmed, notably the election of david Lockwood as the Club's new Chairman. Following acceptance of the various reports it was agreed that the Club would alter its name to "Poole, Bournemouth & Districts Stamp & Postcard Club". The proposal to include a new Competion Class from next year "Modern (post 1952) Commemorative Covers" was adopted. this will be won by popular vote, and a new trophy prepared for the occasion. It was also agreed that planning for an appropriate event in 2017 marking the Club's 50th Anniversary should get under way with ideas from all members being welcome. Regular report-backs to the members was requested.

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Barry Proctor started the evening’s displays with one frame of stamps depicting various portraits and events in the life of Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family. Many colourful pictorial stamps were included.
Michael Mawdsley followed with his display “Compare and Contrast” in which he put up a range of stamps showing Queen Victoria and then a range showing Queen Elizabeth II. It was noted that many of these showed the head facing left, with a diadem and value. Various Wilding and Machin examples were shown, with commemoratives in which Queen Elizabeth is depicted in various poses. He ended with three Prestige Booklets containing a wide range of portraits including the Wilding re-issues with decimal values.
Chris Wheeler had collected several miniature and souvenir sheets from Chile, Palau, Russia, Isle of Man and Great Britain celebrating the 150th and 175th anniversary of the Penny Black on which the two Queens were featured. Also displayed was the five value Great Britain double heads set of 1990. He closed with examples of a mint tete beche pair and a self-addressed envelope with the Europhilex 2015 cancellation, of the new Horizon label not due to come into the Post Offices until December this year.
During the interval a number of commemorative books, brought in by Fred Hoare, were available for members to enjoy. This was followed by David Lockwood’s three frame display showing a wide range of material exhibiting various portrayals of Queen Elizabeth II. This include part of the omnibus issue of the Coronation, some colonial stamps, a Sarawak stamp with the Isigionis portrait, and then a selection of postal stationery, stamp books and covers, including the British Honduras quartet that featured in the 1965-66 Daily Mail Schoolboys Exhibition. He closed with some cream and blue letter cards bearing octagonal embossed stamps.
The Chairman congratulated the presenters for assembling their highly interesting displays with only three weeks notice. The two Queens would have been proud of them!!

There was a good turnout, on a very warm evening, with a healthy number of lots for sale, and sold during the evening. David Lockwood conducted the auction.

Belgium is a relatively new country, only becoming independent and recognised in 1830. Prior to that it had been known as the Low Countries and had been administered or incorporated into a wide range of other countries. It was this which had initially drawn the speaker to collecting Belgium, and what an amazing selection of his material he showed to the Club. He displayed numerous postal items from different administrations from as far back as 1611, all in perfect condition. These were followed by the first definitive issue of 1 July 1849, where colour varieties of the 10c and 20c cent stamps of the “Eppaullete” design were displayed. This issue continued for sixteen years.
A whole range of the country’s early stamps was exhibited, all well written up, including whole panes, overprints, the 1911 Exhibition issue with and without overprints, express stamps from 1921, stamps with labels and the familiar tete-beche issues.
After the break, a vast range of charity stamps was put up, covering the annual TB issues, the Orval Abbey restoration stamps, Queen Astrid mourning stamps, Building Fund, the 1941 Winter Relief Fund and 1942 Soldiers Family Relief Fund. Included were some of the country’s multitude of miniature sheets starting with Belgium’s first one issued on 9 August 1930 commemorating the International Philatelic Exhibition held in Antwerp, the stamps featuring Antwerp’s City Arms.
The speaker noted that many of Belgium’s stamps were designed by ladies, thought the engraving was done by men. It was also apparent that although overrun during the War, the quality of Belgian stamps did not suffer in any way, somehow the paper, inks and design quality being maintained to such a high standard. The presentation ended with a frame of beautiful labels from the 1898 Ghent exhibition in a wide range of colours.

This proved to be a very popular topic with eight Club Members displaying their varied and interesting material. Barry Proctor opened with Transport of Jersey, a selection of stamps and miniature sheets depicting transport by Car, Bus, Train and Aeroplane. A second frame comprised a wide range of mint Commodore Shipping Line stamps from 1965 to 1975 from Alderney with a couple of covers and postcards to enrich the display. Next was Bryan Cribb whose title Steam at its Best covered 3 ½ frames, comprising a wide range of postcards of all ages depicting steam engines used for carrying passengers, ending with a picture of his father driving a road roller in Poole.
Don Trowsdale put up half a frame of stamps and postcards of Postal Delivery Systems, starting with the Pony Express Riders (who were all orphans so no claim could be made if they were murdered on duty!!). This was followed by another half frame depicting methods of transport, which included such as elephants, ships, Russian and Polish fire engines, aircraft, tractors and submarines. Tony Arnold followed with an array of postcards, showing old and new Modes of Transport all over the world, starting with Indian haymaking. His wide range of topics included many of the well-known, but also many lesser examples such as llamas pulling a cart, camels, maglev railway, gypsy caravanning in Germany, the Far eastern Floating markets, a London Bus successfully jumping an opening London Bridge, and a tongue in cheek sign on a Dorset Bridge threatening Transportation to Australia for anyone damaging the bridge. Chris Wheeler displayed covers and postcards on the Underground Railways of Great Britain outside London, these being Glasgow, Tyne & Wear and Liverpool.
Wendy displayed a magnificent frame of mainly covers depicting Air Mail Transport in Latvia up to 1930. This was followed by Mike Houchen’s complete (apart from two) set of Official Covers from the RNLI covering the period they were issued from 1974 to 1996. With 259 in total, 185 were sketches, the remainder photographs – a really colourful display. Finally David Lockwood displayed a frame of postcards featuring the famous Cunard Ships in their various guises, notably during the War Years, and closed the evening with a frame of early aircraft, including the 1934 Robinson Air Race to Australia, the first airmail from Ireland to the Isle of Man, army airships over St Pauls, and finally two pictures of the first travelling Post Office of 1937.

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Claire’s display of photo cards, postcards, covers, letters and related documents was presented so as to tell the story of how the wounded soldiers in France from the First World War were treated. Of the 65 million soldiers mobilised some 21 million were wounded. This was thought to have been a short War, so as it extended so did the number of casualties and the massive effort required to assist them. Initially dogs with medical packs were sent into the war zones to find the wounded and help direct the medical teams to those in need. Initially the wounded were taken back from the front lines to treatment centres out of danger. Many of the stretcher bearers were conscientious objectors, but they too were not immune to being injured. As the numbers of wounded grew so did the number of centres, all sorts of buildings being commandeered for the purpose.
Once treated, the more seriously injured were then taken from these centres further from the battle areas to towns and villages, where again, all sorts of buildings were adopted, and hastily built annexes to hospital constructed. The exhibits showed these centres, and the methods used to transport the soldiers using hastily converted vehicles of all types into ambulances, the specially built 23 coach hospital trains and the converted trains of cattle trucks for the less seriously injured. Once back at the coast, examples of the hospital ships for the return to Southampton and Portsmouth, and then a range of centres where rehabilitation took place, and the special treatment centres for those with lung damage from gas, and limb damage from munitions, and so on were displayed. Examples of documents for the massive fund raising efforts for the supply of vehicles and medical equipment were shown.
Claire also told the story of how the soldiers were supplied with pencil, paper and envelopes whilst on the trains so they could write messages to their families, and since, being wounded they were no longer entitled to free “On Active Duty” postage, the trains would slow down at main stations, such as Winchester and their letters would be thrown out of the window for local people to collect and mail for them, in the hope that understanding postmen would deliver them without asking for payment!
This was a very unusual display, very topical, and one that all present were able to enjoy and empathise with. The audience was treated to an amazing array of exhibits – where did they all come from, who took the pictures, made the postcards, and saved the correspondence?

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Nine members displayed during the evening. Some concentrated on “Local Material”, others on “Material about the Locality”, lending to a very interesting and wide-ranging perspective of the Club’s location. David Morris started with a display of all known postmarks from Brownsea Island, then cachets and cancellations, many under the National Trust’s ownership of the Island. He included local postmarks, parcel delivery office labels, some stamps from Ghuh Island in the Isles of Scilly, closing with a 1993 cover, designed by him and addressed to Upton House.

Tony Arnold concentrated on an array of postcards featuring all aspects of Corfe Castle, including a reconstruction image. Barry Proctor followed with a frame of postcards of various ages, featuring landmarks in the locality, including the country’s oldest in-use postbox at Holwell, near Sherborne. Michael Mawdsley also displayed a range of postcards, all with some particular meaning to him, from the local area, notably a card showing the Defence of Corfe Castle by Lady Bankes in 1643, which had even been franked with his birth date!

Phil Woolston put up a selection of Swanage post marks from 1903, followed by Swanage Lifeboat covers, and cancelled covers relating to the Swanage Railway. This was followed by a five frame display from Bryan Cribb of postcards from his Poole collection. Each one had a story – so entertaining. The second display session ended with Mike Houchen’s “Then and Now” presentation of local views on postcards compared to photographs he took of the same views in 2011.
Chris Wheeler displayed 45 sheets “Along the Swanage Railway”, starting with postcards of Wareham, and ending with postcards of Swanage. Some postal material was included. David Lockwood closed the evening with his assortment of local material, mainly postcards and meter marks from the University and local businesses. Various covers were also included.

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Mike Houchen began the evening with a splendid display of the Lighthouses of Estonia from 2015 to 2014, a country endearing itself to him because of its extensive stamps, maxicards, covers, and their well illustrated reverses on his favourite theme. This was followed by an overview of the stamps of Singapore, a country that Chris Wheeler chose due to its amazingly motivated population. Reaching its 50th Anniversary, mint examples of its celebration stamps, and all other mint issues for 2015 to-date were displayed. Michael Mawdsley put up 8 pages of stamps from 2000 from his Great Britain collection. He chose this country because it was the one he had spent most time and money assembling. Wendy Buckle followed with a frame of Latvian stamps and covers from 1937 to 1939, all properly used as intended.
After the break Bryan Cribb displayed three frames of pictorial material reflecting the time he spent whilst holidaying in California, USA, accompanied by his enthusiastic description of his time there, including the 1989 earthquake. He finished his display with a further frame covering Singapore. David Lockwood closed the evening with a two frame presentation of the Official cachets used by a wide range of Government departments and services in the Falkland Islands.

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As in previous years, there was a good turnout to the 2015 Annual Fair. The new dealers were welcomed, and hopefully found their attendance worthwhile.

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This evening's auction was one of the quietest for a long time due to holidays and the weather. However there was a good range of lots for sale, and strangely, the number offered and actually sold was higher that at the Society's Spring Auction.

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Thursday 1st October 2015
Guest Dr Tony Howgrave-Graham shows "South West Africa, 1914-22"

The progress of the war in SWA was illustrated with covers and postcards. Early in the war the German forces had air superiority (three aircraft). When aircraft arrived from the UK for the Union forces they proved unsuitable for the conditions. Covers from the ships involved, such as the troop ship Armadale Castle and the hospital ship Ebani, were shown.Towards the end of the war most of the post offices were under military control. The numbers of casualties on both sides was miniscule compared with those on the Western Front, but the outbreak of Spanish flu at the end of the war was much more exacting.

After the war many rubber cancels were introduced but they perished rather fast in the conditions. Wooden cancellations that had been used during the Boxer Revolution were also pressed into use. Oval railway postmarks were illustrated. Stocks of unused German (SWA) registration labels were used up with the word "deutsche" crossed out. It was thought that SWA would become a British protectorate and a suitable cancel was produced, however within six months it became a mandated territory.

Eight members put up displays during the evening starting with Mike Houchen with Lighthouses on stamps and postcards from
Malta, Macao, with its latest issue in July this year, Montenegro, Namibia and the Netherlands which included the many personalised issues listed by the thematic dealer Rob van Lingen. Included was a postcard of the Tershelling Bandaris lighthouse in the Netherlands also showing the hotel next door where he stayed on one occasion. Bob Small followed with Napoleonic and Newspapers, with Nelson mentioned several times. Two frames of broadsheets, folded to A3 and with annotated write-ups were put on display. Most of these newspapers reported on Napoleon’s amazing exploits of 200 years ago, which Bob disclosed. His reply to a member’s question as to how he acquired such unusual material was in the main from eBay! Chris Wheeler followed with 2½ frames on Model Railways, including stamps, covers, miniature sheets and postcards from all over the world.
After the break, Phil Woolston put up a frame of Nigeria stamps from George VI to Independence during Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Brian Cropp followed with Maritime Provinces of Canada, including some most interesting covers and letters from the 1840s. Cancellations from sub post offices in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia were featured. Don Thompson then displayed covers and postcards of many of the ships he had worked on during his career, including his first ship, the Queen Mary, and then Queen Elizabeth, Mauritania, Olympic, and in the 1960s the Carmania, Canberra and QEII. He also displayed some material on the History of P&O. Bryan Cribb put up postcards of Ocean liners, including the Olympic, Oronsay,
Normandie, Majestic and Montrose, telling some interesting stories about these ships, what happened to them and the (in)famous people they carried. Finally David Lockwood displayed Maritime postcards, stamps and covers with ship’s cachets, discussing their routes, and illustrating letters and cards carried on them.

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Chris Wheeler started the evening. Not being a postal history collector, he put up a frame of envelopes which "had come through his door" in the last three weeks. What sounded to be a boring topic turned out to be quite interesting, especially the cover with a C9 10001 access mail print and an imprint of a 2nd class stamp in the colour of the Longest Reigning Monarch 1st class stamp. Research shows that this is an example of a current two month trial by Royal Mail. Bob Small then put up five frames of superb material on the major battles leading up to and including the Peninsular War. This was followed by Tony Arnold's two frame display on some aspects of the history of the Post Office. This was made particularly interesting as it included a postcard of the first women postal recruits during the experiment in Poole to replace the men who had enlisted for the WWI. On the postcard was his grandmother who was one of the pioneers!

Brian Cropp displayed two frames of Transatlanic mail which included examples which had travelled from USA to the UK, Ireland, Russia and Europe, with example of one cover from Cuba via New York to the UK, and one from Canada to Koblenz in Russia. Finally Barry Hobbs showed some of his collection of TPOs from Peru and told some of the stories associated with them. A most interesting and varied range of topics enjoyed by everyone.

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This evening's auction was again a quiet one, however it was distinguished by having the highest lot sale rate for many years.

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A high proportion of members put up displays this evening on a wide range of subjects, material and number of pages. It was an evening of something from and for everyone. Starting in the first session was a fine three frame display of huourous postcards by Tony Arnold, some quite old from the theme's early years. Mike Houchen put up the complete range of postal products on the lighthouses of Australia from their 2002, 2006 and 2015 issues which included the stamps, maxicards, booklets, and printing variations.

The second session saw Bob Small's one frame display of postards showing Hamworthy, Upton and Lytchett Minster as they were many decades ago. He then displayed a frame on Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, with a wide range of philatelic material illustrating its various components: the five beach landings, the subsidiary Operations, and some of the people involved, all excellently written up and explained. Chris Wheeler's display was a collection of stamps from the ANZAC countries about the Gallipoli Peninsular War of 1915, with the 100th anniversary this week of the withdrawal. He followed this up with a three page colourful display of all the Christmas issue stamps from Christmas Island from 2010 to 2015. A range of stamps from Falkland Islands and its Dependencies was Don Trowsdales' one frame exhibit. This was followed by a one frame of Old Transatlantic Covers from 1843 to 1865, shown by Brian Cropp. Different routes and currency values were included. The definitive and a few commemorative stamps from Barbados from the reigns of Queen Victoria up to the present day was Michael Mawdsley's topic

The Second World War in France as depicted on Postcards and Stamps was Mike Trickett's subject, with items featuring its war stamp issues, patriotic postcards, covers and a newspaper article. Tony Arnold then displayed some more of his collection of humourous postcards, bringing many a smile to the viewer's faces! Characters on stamps from mainly children's books was Wendy Buckle's theme, with the emphasis being on Christmas related personalities. This was another very popular exhibit. Finally to close the third session, David Lockwood displayed two frames of British stamp booklets from 1978 to 1985. Many of these booklets had stamps of the same value but examples of booklets containing mixed value and discounted stamps, a well as advertisemnets were to be seen in this very attractive presentation.

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The Christmas Social evening was enjoyed by many members and their partners, with an excellent spread of attractive edibles! It proved to be an interesting end to the 2015 season, with anticipation open for what 2016 will bring. A number of members brought along items not related to stamps, some of which are shown below.

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The New Year's programme began with members displaying postcards from their collections. Tony Arnold started with two displays, one featuring all aspects of Swanage, many of which were cards on the same subject but from different publishing companies. The second were a range of humorous cards which he had not shown before. Mike Houchen put up postcards featuring the ships he served on during his maritime career, with descriptions of life aboard and life abroad. Many questions ensued. Bryan Cribb then displayed some magnificent postcards covering some of the 1,500 villages of Dorset, the favourites being those designed by Harold Shield.

Chris Wheeler displayed three frames of colourful postcards by a wide range of artists, and series, featuring posters used by London Underground over the years to promote their services. Finally, David Lockwood also put up three frames of postcards these featuring non-philatelic international exhibitions from the early decades of the 20th century. They showed some of the venues and some of the stands inside them.

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Not only did Tony Arnold put up three frames of mainly first day covers and postcards on military themes, but also a side display of non-philatelic material of posters from Australia, a military song sheet sets of genuine and reproduction cigarette cards and pages from a military calendar. This display also include four postcards of fighting units in action given to him by his father. Bob Small followed with a range of military letters spanning the years from 1697, all beautifully researched and written up. Letters to and from the Duke of Wellington were included, as were letters from participants in the Boer and Koren Wars. A second frame of more modern items concentrated on Victory ending World War II.

After the break, Wendy Buckle displayed a frame of philatelic material emanating from Latvia during the extremely complex Latvian War of Independence, 1918 to 1920, terminating with the Liberation issue in 1920. Chris Wheeler displayed a frame of philatelic items relating to the ANZACs, mainly stamps, miniature sheets, postcards and covers from the countries forming the ANZACs, including stamps from Great Britain and Ireland. Finally, David Lockwood put up a range of material from his extensive maritime collection, covering various philatelic media and countries of issue. He closed with a Christmas Card from HMS Bulwark, after it had been converted into a helicopter and commando carrier in 1960.

The evening included the presenttion of Trophies to Bob Small and Wendy Buckle for winning their Classes at the Somerset & Dorset Federation Competitions last year. (Photos on the S&D webpage)

Thursday 4th February, 2016
Member Philip Mudd: "The complexities of cover collecting",
and Member Bob Small: "Royal Air Force"

Philip started his one hour illustrated talk by giving some background to his collecting interest which was one based on the story behind the item. He found early on that covers not only tell the story of the stamp but have many other items of interest on the them about the purpose and use of the stamp, and in the case of many special covers the insert adds to this as well. His first item was an Abbey cover illustrating the ten components of a good example. Some pre-1840 examples were displayed, and then early pre-KGV examples, some containing letters which in themselves tell a story. During the KGV reign 12 commemorative sets as well as postage dues were introduced, increasing the scope and volume of covers. A wide range of anomalous covers were shown whith much discussion as to what were good and poor examples.

Bob Small then gave an explanation of his well written up display of the history of the RAF using stamps, postcards and covers to illustrate his talk. He explained how before the RAF was formed in April 1918 the two services the RFC and the RNAS had developed independently during WWI to service the army and navy respectively. Initially the planes were used for reconnaisance then into artillery spotting, only later getting involved in fighting and bombing. The development from bi-plane to single-wing then to jet aircraft was discussed, as well as some of the main people involved in flying and designing the aircraft. "War spurs invention" was a phrase used to explain the rapidity of development.

Chairman Dave Lockwood gave the thanks and appreciation on behalf of all members for a highly educational and inspiring evening. Both talks were well presented with the displays giving excellent examples illustrating the topic.

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Thursday 18th February, 2016
Guest Charles Leonard shows "Russian Overseas Mail"

An extraordinary range of unusual covers formed the basis of Charles’ display. It was a real eye opener to have explained with the examples on show, the huge variations in the way overseas mail to and from Russia was processed and paid for, with allocations of postal rates to the various countries en-route. Several rate and procedural changes took place during the period with new Treaties every few years – a philatelist delight or perhaps nightmare. The political composition of Russia as opposed to the Russian States was discussed with mail to and from them demonstrated.
The expansive subject of Late Fees and how they were handled with strange roundings up of the payments due to non-availability of ½d stamps, and the methods of their payments, in cash or with stamps, prepaid or paid on receipt was expertly illustrated.
Following the new rating system in 1866 and the new Treaty of 1872, further simplification of the rates happened and more countries included in the postal arrangements. A lot of Russia's treatment of overseas post was incorporated in the initial structure of the GPU directives of 1875. Charles closed with a frame of Registered Mail bearing various marks and handling methods, and finally with a couple of postcards following the final postal rate change introduced with the GPU requirements bearing half the new 2½d letter rate of 1¼d. We started with an 11½d rate in 1852, and closed with a 2½d letter rate in 1875!

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Another successful and lively auction took place with the first lot achieving more than three times the reserve price. Our new auctioneer, Tony Arnold, was like a professional with a clear voice and touches of humour when called for. Well Done to him!!!

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Thursday 17th March 2016
Competition Evening - Green Cup, Novice, Barry Proctor, John Hilton & Bill Way Competitions

Guest Colin Mount was invited to judge our annual competitions. The results were:

Entries from these classes went forward to a popular vote competition by members for the Bill Way Shield. The results were:

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Tony Arnold opened the evening with a mixed display of covers marking a range of anniversaries and events. Aptly his first example "A Celebration of Anniversaries", was a FDC from 11 April 1989. Topics covered were Victor Hugo, Inigo Jones, British Explorers and Sir Isaac Newton. Events included the 350th Mayflower, several relating to broadcasting and the Suffragettes and the Cycle industry. Overseas covers were also included. Fred Hoare put up two 12 page competition entries on the subject "The Longest Reigning Monarch" each having its own treatment. The first mainly used covers with colourful recent issues, and the second traced Queen Elizabeth's family back over four generations, with stamps being the main medium. Chris Wheeler then put up two frames of covers illustrating how philatelic societies from round the world have celebrated their anniversaries and events.

After the break, Brian Cribb displayed three frames of "Postcards from Yesteryear", an amazing variety from his collection of Victorian postcards, covering a wide range of topics and styles. Michael Mawdsley displayed early Gibraltar definitive issues, starting with the 1886 issue being Bermuda stamps overprinted with sterling values. The 1889 series with Spanish currency were next, and then in 1898 the reversiong to sterling. Later commemorative issues were included. Finally, David Lockwood displayed a range of philatelic material relating to the Olympic Games from 1948 until London 2012. This included promotional cards "Leaping for London", a trial sheet for the first Salisbury Fair and various printings of the G.B. Olympic Winners.

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A rewarding evening with many trophies and certificates being presented to club members for their achievements in the 2016 Club and Interclub competitions, fourteen entries in all.

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Eight members displayed a wide variety of material during this evening’s meeting. Tony Arnold started with two frames of Saucy Postcards which drew much attention. This was followed by Don Trowsdale with a frame of covers and stamps mainly featuring the Falkland Islands, notably two covers illustrating “Endurance”, which this week left Portsmouth to be broken up in Turkey. Three frames of very ornate Edwardian postcards from the early 1900s was Brian Cribb’s theme, many telling a very personal story in themselves.
After the break Mary Parsons put up the Stanley Gibbons Machin definitive album pages for 2015, together with their description. Then with great aplomb analysed each one to show the secret codes being utilised in current printings, for example the alteration in one of the squirly lines from MAIL to MA15, and in the recent Jubilee issue how the word REIGN is altered to REIGM for stamps in the miniature sheet, to REIGS for those in the sheetlets, and to REIGC for those in the Custom books.
Mike Trickett took the theme Anniversaries for his display using mainly early stamps from Germany and France, and some art deco and art nouveau postcards to illustrate the theme. Michael Mawdsley showed a range of stamps from Southern Rhodesia, during the period 1924 to 1965, illustrating how they used their own designs for many of the omnibus issues. Chris Wheeler put up a frame of Great Britain covers from 1954 to 1989, demonstrating a range of Charity, Event and Post Office Promotional Slogans. He then put up a frame of Velopost End to End private post stamps, as now used in Bath, Bristol and Edinburgh. He closed with a challenge with three Machin definitives, one of which was a forgery that had gone through the mail and a beady eyed dealer had spotted. Finally, Mike Houchen displayed a range of stamps, postcards, covers and diagrams of Polish lighthouses, all well written up with maps. His display concluded with Poland’s lighthouse in Antartica.

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The Club's Summer Auction proved to be a bumper one in both the number of lots and in the prices realised for some of them. It was well attended, with several members from two other local clubs joining the event.

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Members enjoyed the relaxed manner of presentation and the logical and comprehensive treatment of this Ship’s amazing story. Fully illustrated with miniature sheets, stamps, postcards and a few highly relevant ephemeral items, including the Titanic’s teddy bear “Titanic Ted”, the supporting material was from all over the world. Much of it was produced when the film “Titanic” was released and at the time of the centenary of its sinking in the North Atlantic in the early hours of 15 April 1912.
The full title of the display was “Diary of Disaster – Titanic – From Cradle to Grave and Beyond.....” and this is exactly how the display was treated, starting with the commission for the ship, design plans, press announcements, the keel laying and Benin’s sheet showing the launch on 31 May 1911, and Mustique’s sheet also showing the ship being fitted out in 1912. Sea trials took one day on 2 April. The ship then sailed to Southampton arriving on 5 April, where the new crew, provisions and coal were loaded. The ship was inspected on 9 April and on the morning of 10 April the passengers started to come aboard. After collecting further passengers from Cherbourg and Queenstown, Titanic started across the Atlantic with Captain Smith attempting to arrive in New York before dawn a few days later.
Illustrations of the events which followed,the rescue, the personalities involved, the musicians, the artifacts on board, memorials, funeral services, and eventually the location and filming of the ship on the seabed in 1985 were all displayed. The talk concluded with two frames of material on the books and films relating to Titanic, the Titanic Road Shows, Titanic Museums, stationery, covers, miniature sheets, and of course “Titanic Ted”.

Roger started his extraordinary display with a few words about Rowland Hill, the Postal Reforms and the Treasury Competition of 1839. As no designs were accepted, he set about doing one himself. The skill and artistry of his achievement with limited technological help and the enduring appeal of his design is an amazing testament to the result. Newspaper advertisements of the time announcing the new postal system were on display. Then Roger put up examples of all the plates used for the production of the 1d black, 2d blue and the 1d red, explaining the features of each, with printed examples. Starting with Plate 1 which when manufactured was not hardened enough, and so was re-hardend resulting in Plates 1a and 1b, the story of the anti-forgery measures with the use of different cancellation inks, introduction of check letters in the 1850s, the overlap of some plates being used for both the 1d black and 1d red, all these were illustrated with examples for members to look at during the interval. Examples with two and four check letters, the white line in the 2d blue, and then embossed envelopes were there to see. Plate 4 was discussed in detail because of so many interesting features, with its inks, paper, perforations and all sorts of blemishes and printing errors with their consequent touching-up, repairs and the extra wear on rows A and T, all leading to varieties. Then there was the introduction of cancellations, replacing the Maltese Cross. Examples from various printing, water mark and rouletting trials used by Perkins Bacon, Napier and others were also shown. Finally examples from the introduction of the Plate numbers in the stamp design from Plate 7 onwards were displayed.

Not satisfied with this amazing array, Roger displayed examples of designs for the Mulready envelope, the adopted design, and many caricature examples. Propaganda envelopes and then Advertising envelopes, including a local one from Poole Slate Merchant, John Blanchard to a supplier in North Wales were displayed.

Carol began her talk explaining how she started in the hobby, and her time in the Minehead and District Stamp Club. The message she was first given there was to "collect anything you like as long as it is cheap, and then something will grab you". Clearly the stamps of North Borneo inspired her. She gave a little of the history, geography and administration of the country, and then an overview of the stamps issued from 1883 up to 1909. The second pictorial issue of 1909, printed by Waterlow & Son were shown, with the 18c which was only used for one month, being displayed. The stamp itself was used for many years, but with overprints, starting with 20c.

Specimens, line perforations, mis-perforations, errors, many proofs and specimens, and the "double door" flaw on the 39c stamp were all explained and shown. The story of the sinking of S.S. Persia in 1916 with the loss of new stamps for the country was related with the consequent temporary and provisional issues, with attendant errors. Examples of the Red Cross issue, with postmarks were shown. However Carol explained that most of these cancellations were forgeries, it being very hard to find genuine used examples of this issue. Examples of inward mail and censorted mauil were shown, then postage dues and various trials. After the break, much of the talk related to airmail. Different routes, carriers, rates, and even a crash cover were displayed.

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Four members put up displays, starting with Don Trowsdale with "Various Offshore Islands". Mike Houchen followed with a range of topics including TV licence stamps, Cornish stamps, Drake's Island (off Plymouth), Lundy with an outline of its stamps and associated Atlantic Coast Air Service. This was followed by Mike Trickett with a miscellany of French fiscals including a catalogue, Eiffel Tower vignettes, and mixed world fiscals. Finally Wendy Buckle presented a range of Latvian revenues from the Russian Occupation and German overprints in WW2.

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Tony Arnold began the evening's displays with a frame of postcards depicting pub signs from hostelries in southern England. A wide range of colourful and diverse signage made the display very interesting. Their unique artwork is always much admired by travellers. "The Arts" was interpreted by Don Trowsdale as being something cunning or fishy as he displayed fish flies from Mauritius, then on to a selection of art-related topics including the Bee Gees and carvings on stamps from USA. Alan King then displayed two frames of fabulous stamps from France depicting famous painters and sculptors, all printed in the method that best showed off their special features. A sheet of more traditional stamps from Hungary was also put up as a contrast to those from France. Michael Mawdsley displayed GB commemorative stamps featuring Poetry, Literature, Painting and Music including two covers featuring the work by Stubbs and Reynolds and concluding with the 1976 Heraldry set on cover. Chris Wheeler ended the first half by looking at Wikipedia's definition of "The Arts", and displayed two frames of stamps featuring the 15 classifications that it specified.

After the break, Mike Trickett displayed early French stamps selected for the artistic design that they portrayed, their designers getting the credit rather than their subjects. The 1925 Paris Exhibition, the Sinking Fund stamps from 1927 to 1931 and the AIR stamps from the late 1930s were shown. Later issues covering embroidery, jewelry and glovemaking, and the designs used in the reliefs of some of the Red Cross stamps were also shown. Wendy Buckle then displayed a frame on the subject of literature, with a range of booklets, postmarks and aerogrammes featuring famous British writers and children's book authors. Separately she put up a frame of very colourful stamps from around the world illustrating medieval illustrated manuscripts, discussing thos representign the miniatures, the initials, the borders and the bindings. Finally Bryan Cribb showed members some books on art and the renowned sculptor Anthony Caro, who had designed the "Sea Music" sculpture on Poole Quay.

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Unloading for the Annual Fair was in the rain, but once the tables had been set up, trading was brisk, and there were many happy dealers, buyers and raffle winners!

An Open Evening for members and guests was held shortly after our Annual Fair, with the aim of promoting our Club and getting new members. Guests were invited to bring their own material to talk about, or just see the sort of things we have on offer. In the event, very pleasingly, two new people signed up for membership on the night. The room was set up around static displays by members, giving them and guests a chance to look at a wide variety of subjects. Kicking off the display was an entertaining stamp-themed quiz set by Don Trowsdale, followed by:
South Georgia - Don Trowsdale
Lighthouses of Poland - Mike Houchen
Modern Covers - Philip Mudd
France - Mike Trickett
Local Postcards - Tony Arnold
Early Great Britain - Mary Parsons
The Arts - Chris Wheeler
Christmas First Day Covers - Tony Arnold
Entertaining Postcards - Tony Arnold

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A sucessful auction was held this evening, with many quality lots realising good prices

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Four displays were put up during the first half of the evening. Usung the letter "P", Tony Arnold displayed a wide range of covers and postcards with that letter as the subject matter. These include such as Pantomime, Philippines, Police, Parliament, Paxton and Painters, all well received. Don Trowsdale followed with the subject of Post Boxes, displaying a wide range of them, ones dug up and restored, the favourite from Brownsea Island, and examples from Antarctica. Chris Wheeler chose the relatively new sunject of Postcrossing illustated with mint and used stamps form various issuing countries, and with many examples of postcards that had been sent from one anonymous person to another with messages about the sender, his home town or his interests. This is a popular craze at present which many postal authorities are taking advantage of. Lastly in the first session was Mike Trickett with a range of stamps, covers and postcards relating to various historical aspects of the development of Paris.

During the second half of the evening, Bryan Cribb portrayed an excellent recollection of his younger years, demonsrtrated with many examples of his memories. A miniature model of a 1950 BSA Motorbike with sidecar as used by his uncle at Porlock as an AA man featured the letter "P". "Q" covered a range of postcards of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. "R" featured various cars that travelled the Atlantic including a Renault insured for $1,000; 18 cars in the huge hold of the Normandie, and some Renaults on an aeroplane. He closed with the very difficult score of the musical "Robins Return" which his mother played as a party piece, one recognised as demonstrarting her high piano competence.

Tony Arnold started the evening with three frames of material covering a wide range of topics related to Postal History.. His first item was a postcard featuring Sir John Coke and Sir Francis Windebank who were installed as "joint masters of the post" on 1 July 1637 by King Charles I. Other key post officials such as Rowland Hill were featured, and then a range of uniforms, equipment, transport, post boxes (of various colours with their meanings), also including some unadopted ones made of wood for use in airports. He concluded with stamps showing methods of postal services used around the world, and finally the 40th anniversary of the Postcode on 8 April 2014. Chris Wheeler followed with a Postal History of Ringwood, showing poastcard views, a letter with the three ½d green Kings franked in Ringwood on 10 May 1837; a number of letters of various types sent to Rudolf Randow Esq at Newstead, Ringwood; a large 1870 Ringwood franked piece with four penny reds from plate 110; and a number of Ringwood cancelled letters from the 1830s. The last few sheets were of stationery in and out of Ringwood Ontario, Ringwood Oklahoma, Ringwood NewYork, Ringwood Victoria; some army censored mail from APO143, USA.

After the break, Mike Trickett showed a variety of covers with particular cachets and postal markings. These included pre-stamp, postage due and airmail covers from France; one of particular interest was carried on the SS Bremen then by air to New York. There were also covers from Egypt, Channel Islands during World War II, Greece, Lebanon and French Post Offices in Syria. Barry Hobbs showed two different areas. He started with what he described as his ‘serious’ collection: travelling post offices of Peru. Little is known about this subject and Barry has done a huge amount of research to uncover the items and their postal markings. Specific lines were shown, including the “English Line” from Callao (the chief seaport) to the capital, Lima. This postal service was so precisely run that you could stipulate on your envelope which train you wanted it carried on!

Barry’s second display he described as his ‘fun’ collection: illustrated envelopes from North America telling the story of medicines. The early doctors and pharmacists practiced on the Eastern Seaboard, and spread westward via waggon trains. With only limited knowledge, and limited raw materials, they manufactured various pills and potions which promised amazing cures; promises which had no scientific base at all, often sold by totally unqualified quacks. At best, some were mildly beneficial; at worst they were positively dangerous. One of the worst contained ethylene bromide which can damage liver, kidney and lungs. Salesmen did not hold back on the claims made for their products: one foot powder was claimed to cure frostbite and trench foot! covered 1785 up to 1858, before the introduction of postage stamps. Most of the covers shown went abroad, and she explained how mail was transported between countries before the foundation of the Universal Postal Union. Each country had its own agreements with its neighbour, and each country charged for the transit of mail. She showed as an example a cover of 1828 from Riga to London which required payment for the Russian part of the journey, was then charged by the Prussian authorities, and then further charged when it reached the UK. The UK charge on its own was 6 shillings and 8 pence. Sending letters wasn’t cheap! The second frame showed stamped covers from 1859 to 1898, highlighting the changes in design of postmarks during this period.

Several members displayed a range of philatelic matrial duruing the evening commencing with a frame of very colourful humourous
postcards on a wide range of risques subject, all in full colour Tony Arnold had collected these, printed by various companies. A fascinating display of postcards, drawings and stamps was next. These were displayed by Mike Houchen on the thematic basis of "How Lighthouses Grew". Over the years, due to vegetation growth, the change to fog accumulations, new buildings and coastal erosion, many lighthouses from all over the world have been added to, shortend or relocated. With the illustrations this made an excellent story. Very nicely presented sheets of the definitive issues of Tristan de Cunha from 1952 till 2015 was Ray's offering, with a new set issued every three to four years. Don then followed with ten sheets of Commomwealth issues covering a mass of topics from Abolition of Slavery, Naval Craft, John Lennon and the Royal Families of the world. The first half ended with a splendid display of the huge Paris floods of 1910, illustrated by a set of matching sepia postcards and maps illustrated by Mike Trickett.

A magnificent display of non-religious manuscripts on stamps from the thirteenth century onwards was the next display. Illustrations for books of poems, stories, the history of the time, sagas, romance and natural history were the highlights. Examples from the remains of the Hungarian library and the recent Magna Carta centenary concluded the display. Bryan Cribb then put up three frames of postcards which had been sent to him over many years by his daughter as she travelled with her husband round the world working in the electrical generatrion industry, closing with postcards featuring military ship he had worked on durning his life, notably the Brittanic and Phoebe, (which had been based in Poole). The evening closed with a frame of mixed material accumulated during 2016 by Chris Wheeler, some with incongruous postmarks, ratings and postal interest.

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Another sucessful auction was held this evening, with a number of quality lots realising good prices

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Sixteen members attended an active Christmas Social evening, which was opened by the Chairman commenting on a successful year in the Club, thanking those who had contributed so much to its programme of diverse topics and growth. For the first time a Chairman's Award had been designed and this was awarded to Tony Arnold for his significant personal advancement and contribution to the Club during 2016, in particular acknowledging the increase in quality and number of his displays at members' evenings, becoming a successful autioneer and generally being there to set the room up and asssist wherever possible. Following a hearty repast, various exhibits that some members had brought along were examined, and a stamp quiz was held.

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Tony Arnold kicked the evening off with two frames of beautiful Edwardian postcards featuring flowers, mostly birthday greetings plus a few Easter and Christmas. He followed this with one frame of Dorset views.
Brian Cribb completed the first half with cards illustrating the history of Bournemouth, helpfully including a three page write-up for those unfamiliar with the town. Starting with the founder Captain Tregonwell he took us through to the present, pointing that there are still a few old Victorian villas left in the town. Brian followed this with a brief look at Cinema in Dorset, including Brownsea Island; and his reminiscences of being a singer at the Winter Gardens as a young man.
In the second half Tony Arnold continued his views of Dorset. He was followed by Ken Parrott showing some postcard views of Malta, plus some postal history on postcards, including cancels indicating the postman’s route numbers. This was an unusual topics, but not as unusual as his 1908 cancel on a Victorian stamp – no explanation known for this!
Finally, in his absence Chris Wheeler had arranged for a frame of Mauritius postcards to be shown. These included local produce and markets, the Natural History Museum, sugar plantations and the sugar industry, and some pictures of the beaches and hotels of Mauritius, now its second major source of income: tourism.

(By coincidence, the two above items were sold in Geneva at the David Feldman auction on 1 December 2016, reaching the prices of £2,045,000 and £1,125,000 respectively!

Tony Arnold started the evening with a display of postcards on motor cycle racing, particularly the Isle of Man TT Races. Pictures of a few accidents were shown, though Tony did point out that more visitors are statistically likely to have an accident travelling to the event than riders are likely to crash! He then showed Sammy Miller, who won major events at both road racing and trials, and who today runs the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum at New Milton (see http://sammymiller.co.uk/). Tony followed these with some first day covers including cricket, tennis and football.
Mike Houchen, known for his collection on Lighthouses, rose to the occasion and showed some of his covers which also feature sports, including (very topically as it was Inauguration Day the next day) Donald Trump’s golf course at Turnberry.
Alan King made several members quite nostalgic when he showed sporting sets issued by Hungary in the 1950s and 1960s. Many of us remembered owning those stamps in our early collecting days. Eight pages of Hungary were shown, from 1952 to 1965, including the Olympics at Melbourne, Rome and Tokyo. Alan contrasted this coverage with France, who between 1924 and 1926 only issued sport stamps enough to fill three pages. However, the 1998 Football World Cup – hosted by France – produced a flurry of new issues!
Michael Mawdsley showed stamps and first day covers from his GB collection including the 1948 London Olympic games, the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games (we still had an Empire in those days!), and covers featuring sailing, rugby, cricket and football amongst others.
Brian Cribb brought a different emphasis to the evening with some memorabilia of his and his son’s sporting careers. His son Mark was a very successful county athletics sprinter and Brian himself used to play for Bournemouth Gasworks Athletic Football Club, who reached the final of the FA Amateur Cup in 1930. Photos, postcards, press clippings and badges were shown.
Finally, in his absence a display by Chris Wheeler on Formula One was shown. Loved or hated, it is a sport which taxes not just the driver but more and more the latest technology.

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Wendy Buckle started the evening with a brief introduction of the pre-1840 postal system, when amongst other things, rates were based on distance travelled by the postal item and payment on receipt. With Rowland Hill’s revolutionary new system, pre-payment was the norm, and a fixed price per weight was introduced. This led to the invent of stamps, the need for designers, and rules for their design and usage. She explained how the first stamps, the 1d black and 2d blue came into being, and how they evolved over the years, with such concepts as security features and from 1858, perforations, and then later on plate numbers. She spoke of the different methods of stamp design, starting with engraving, which included the greatest stamp engraver of all time, Czeslaw Slania, and his background. It was he who produced Great Britain’s mail coaching stamp set of 1984.

The methodology and examples of embossed stamps, with their 3D effect, letterpress, flat-bed printing, offset lithography and photogravure were all illustrated. Finally she gave examples of the most famous stamp printers, starting with Perkins Bacon, who had printed the first British stamps, and then a dozen other well-known printers, closing with a description of the De La Rue Key Plate system. Tony Arnold followed, describing his display of a wide variety of printed postal stationery, and in particular the Pitney Bowes stamp label producing machine that his family had used some decades ago, together with a bottle of the ink used in the machine.
After the break, Chris Wheeler spoke about the purpose of stamps, the main categories they fall into and some of those that have unique design features; and how the design process is used to enable successful stamps to be designed. He used David Gentleman’s designs as an example of how the Stamp Committee influences the designers and vice versa, with examples of accepted and rejected designs. In conclusion he spoke of his visit to the ISP printers in Walsall, and explained the stamp printing process they used in the production of the Machin 1st class purple “Long to Reign Over Us” issued in September 2015. The final display was by Mary Parsons who had expertly analysed the hidden date codes and source codes of recent Machin issues, and displayed examples of some of them, with enlargements, and a supply of magnifying glasses for members to use to find the hidden codes. A lot of work and analysis lay behind her talk, the results of which surprised many of those in attendance!

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A successful evening was held, with a good proportion of the varied submitted lots being sold; then followed by a raffle.

Thursday 16th March 2017 - Competition Evening
Green Cup, Novice Cup, Harry Parsons Shield, The Thematic Cup, Barry Proctor Cup, John Hilton Trophy and the overall Bill Way Shield

There were nine entries altogether this evening, four were judged by visiting Judge, Albert Jackson, the others by Club members. The results and overall winner of the Bill Way Shield are in the tables below. After completing his work, Albert reminded Club members that Competitions were a key part in the life of any Philatelic group, and that taking part is highly recommended. He commented that he had taken part in many competitions over the years, some doing very well, and some entries not even being placed. He had tried to be fair in following the competition rules, explaining how the entries had met or otherwise the spirit of the rules. His key message was that competitors must "lead the judge", have a plan, good introduction and then the exhibit must lead the judge clearly the through the story being told.

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Three members put up displays this evening, Tony Arnold showing many pictures of his visits to Denmark, highlighting the more unusual and memorable sights and experiences as he travelled around the country, to its islands and major cities. His first illustrations were of the old cottages on the island of Læsø which had been converted to museums and had roofs of seaweed, which over time slid down and covered the walls and windows. He showed lots of pictures from the travelling floating ship The Ark, which featured many stories from the Bible, finishing with the Mermaid in Copenhagen. Don Trowsdale gave everyone a cornucopia of illustrated memories from places which he had visited during his lifetime with interesting stories about the visits. These started with his family home at County Gates on the Somerset/Devon border, his fascination with Dan Dare and itsmuseum, picking grapes from a vineyard in Lytchett Matravers and making wine from them, his visits to Quebeck, Sanibel Island, Scotland and his local at Yately where he lived for some time. Chris Wheeler then illustrated with stamps, postcards and covers items that had been sent to or received from the nine islands in the Canaries.

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Those who had entered the Competition on 16th March had the opportunity to put up their entries again this evening and to talk about them. Certificates, Cups and Shields were presented to much applause. This was followed by some additional displays, notably that by Tony Arnold of two boards laid out with colourful copies of the front covers of comics from the 1950s and 1960s. Mike Houchen also put of a display of some of the lighthouses on postcards from around the English coast.

John Davis is well known to the Club for his excellent displays, and this one was also exciting. Based on his successful competition entry at Stampex in 2016, John first gave a brief account of the history and geology of the island of Niuafo'ou, part of the Tonga Group. Discovered in 1616, it has an average population of 1,300 mainly illiterate inhabitants, yet it has over the years had an enormous mail count, all resulting from its unique method of delivery. Being a volcanic island with no port or beaches, all shipments have been done to and from ships anchored about two miles off shore whose captains sound the ship's horn when they are ready to unload or pick up provisions. Swimmers go out in the shark infested waters to collect and deliver cargo to these ships. However in 1882 a white non-native became marooned on the island and sent a letter wrapped in greaseproof paper in a sealed container to a passing ship for delivery to the Tonga postal authorities asking for a mail service to be set up. Once this had been agreed the mail became known as Tin Can Mail because it was transported to and from these passing ships in sealed kerosene cans. After a few years tourist ships seized on the idea, and they made a special stop off the coast for their passengers to send mail to the island to be franked and returned to them. Over the years a large variety of cachets in different styles and languages were designed and used, and these were reflected in John's display.

Special events occurring in and to the island were also shown, such as the total eclipse of the sun in 1930, the volcanic eruptions in 1946 leading to the evacuation of the island, and the cessation of the service, and then its resumption in 1962 following the islanders return; and its continued use until the small airport was opened in 1983. His display included some newspaper articles, comical postcards, damaged covers and various other stories, such as the replacement of swimmers with canoes after one of the swimmers was killed by a shark.

Chairman Chris Wheeler gave a vote of thanks on conclusion of the talk, which had been enjoyed by all present, and had generated a number of questions during its delivery.

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A successful AGM was held on the evening of 18th May, with many members attending. As well as the formal discussions plans were finalised for the Programme for 2018-2019, and the 50th Anniversary Celebrations

Eight members displayed this evening, starting with Ray Saunders who put up a magnificent display of imperforate Machins, and some Readers Digest multi value coil stamps, all excellently written up in a unique script! Ken Parrott followed with stamps of Malta designed by the famous Emvin Cremona, who between the 1957 George Cross 150th Anniversary issue and the 1980 Flemish Tapestry issue, designed 250 stamps for 62 releases. Back from his six months illness, Bryan Cribb put up five frames of photographs, sketches, and drawings, some of which he had received awards for from the Parkstone Garden Society, and as always gave some very interesting personal and family history to his talk. He closed with a set of old postcards recently brought back from Monaco by his daughter.

Michael Mawdsley put up a frame of beautifully displayed stamp sheets commemorating the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, These covered GB (with some overprints), the Commonwealth and the omnibus issue for the Colonies. Wendy Buckle followed with two frames of highly colourful stamps, covers and postcards on the topic of Illustrated Manuscripts, with an excellent account of the production process from the 800 to 1500 period, explaining how the monastries used their animals and other products to make the vellum, ink, quills, etc, and then closed with illustrations of the binding process. Bob Small surprised us all with his display of King George V WWI ½d green stamps in the huge variety of colours that have been individually identified, some with certificates. Until the outset of WWI, dyes had come from Germany, but this huge range in colours was a result of GB having to make their own. Bob noted that the cost of these shades varied from £1 to £11,500!!

After the break, Mike Houchen displayed a wide range of lighthouses on stamps and matching postcards and photographs of the lighthouses of France. Maxicards, sheetlets and enlargements were included in the three frame display. The evening closed with a three frame thematic display by Chris Wheeler on the Fire Services of Europe, with stamps from a host of countries relating the the Fire Service, and then some covers, meter marks, and postcards.

It is very pleasing to report that this evening's auction was a record on many fronts, especially with so many lots being for Club Funds, but other beneficiaries did very well too, both as vendors and purchasers. It was a long but productive evening, testing the stamina of the excellent auctioneer!

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Thursday 29th June 2017
50th Anniversary Visit to Donald McGill Museum, Ryde, Isle of Wight

Eleven membersof the Club made it to Lymington for the 10:00 ferry across to Yarmouth on the the Isle of Wight and via two buses arrived in Ryde where they descended into the Donald McGill Museum to visit the massive collection and display of "saucy postcards" designed and produced by Donald McGill and his Company, Constance & Co. There apart from viewing so many cards, Donald's life story and motivation for doing the cards was revealed, culminating in his arrest and trials for indecency and obscenity at Lincoln Court, where 21 cards were banned and allcopies siezed by the police. Some members bought memorabilia of the visit from the shop, no doubt for Club displays in the future.

What an extraordinary evening, Colin had us all spellbound for the two halves with an endless portrayal of the role of pigs in Society, and what over the centuries Society has done to perfect this amazing animal, the one that is closest to the human in so many ways. After 44 years working in the pig industry, notably genetic improvements, with involvement and visits to breeders all over the world, just those stories alone would have been entertaining. But this was a philatelic evening and Colin was able to display 180 sheets of material showing all aspects of our hobby through all aspects of the pig’s life (and after-life!). There were personal items as well, letters and cards sent to him from family and friends, new discoveries from members of his audiences all over southern England, who sent items of value and uniqueness from their own family memories and history from working in the industry.

There was a great assortment of postcards, letters, invoices, letterheads, stamps, frankings, and so on, in many languages and formats – a collector’s delight. This was the first outing for this version of the presentation, Colin having restructured it over the last few months, enriching the content and supporting write-up.

Chairman, Chris Wheeler, gave a vote of thanks on behalf of everyone, and as well as a certificate presented him with a framed print from the 6 January 1904 edition of Punch magazine, depicting an RSPCA inspector telling off a farmer for holding a pig by its tail!

Before looking at Transport Mike Houchen showed two photos of the display made by Upton in Bloom which celebrate the Club’s 50th anniversary. It features a variety of flowers plus the Club’s dolphin logo. Mike then started the evening proper with cigarette cards featuring lifeboats, which he had purchased on the Club’s visit to the Isle of Wight. And he gave the last display of the evening, this time Lighthouses of China, explaining their link with the theme: they are an aid to transport.
Mike Mawdsley raided his GB, Channel Island and Isle of Man collections to show stamps featuring a huge variety of transport ancient and modern, from animals (donkey and camels in the Christmas Story) to space travel. While some topics could be predicted others were more unusual, such as the “pea-green boat” on which the owl and the pussycat sailed to sea.

Alan King showed stamps of France and Hungary, from the early – horses and balloons – to the modern, including motor bikes, racing cars and aircraft; via the historic such as steam trains and vintage cars; to the unusual such as a bathysphere and skis. Mike Trickett followed with more France, this time postcards, including his Dinard collection featuring a first flight from Dinard to Jersey and the Dinard ferry to St. Malo. He also showed the transporter bridge at Rouen and finished with a postal history item: the Paris pneumatic mail (an English invention which we failed to develop ourselves). Tony Arnold finished the first half with postcards on a whole array of subjects, including tanks, royal carriages, sand yachts, wheelbarrows, roller skates, beach donkeys, elephants, barrel racing, the London Eye and The Titanic. One card showed a balloon over Upton House, which had housed an airship station in World War I.

After the break Don Trowsdale showed a series of pictures telling the story of the role of gliders in World War II, Operation Market Garden, the unsuccessful Allied military operation intended to circle the Ruhr, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in September 1944. He then went on the role of some of the iconic aircraft of the War including the Vulcan and the Spitfire. Barry Hobbs followed with some stunning postal history of the Travelling Post Offices of Bolivia. He explained that he had collected the subject for some years but for a long time had failed to find any new material, which left him without “the oxygen of acquisition”. But suddenly six covers came on the market, all of them unique. A variety of previously unrecorded TPO marks were shown including a 1932 letter to the builders of the Mojo-Pulario railway which got caught up in the Chaco War. The moral of these finds, said Barry, was “never give up”. Wendy Buckle also showed TPOs, this time of Latvia. On major lines TPO waggons staffed by postal employees were usually situated immediately behind the engine. Serving the towns and cities along the route they received, processed and delivered mail from both the post office and individuals. Mail could be posted in a special letter box on the post wagon, each of which had its own oval cancel. Wendy also showed a frame of Latvian airmails, from the start of the service in 1921 until it ceased in June 1940.

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Philip started his talk by explaining how he had loved ships from childhood, especially the military ships. “Messing about in Boats” was the first talk he ever gave, and now over the years the display has been expanded and modified as new material has been acquired and written up. He began by noting the top seven naval countries and when they first issued maritime issues: USA in 1869 with “Adriatic”, then France in 1918, Japan in 1921, commemorating the Imperial visit to Europe, Russia in 1922 with a Transport theme, Italy in 1931, Germany in 1937, and only then in 1961 Great Britain with its “Victory” release. Perhaps the first stamps with boats was New Brunswick in 1860, and the Suez Canal Company in 1868. The “Sandbach”, a 435-ton frigate-built ship was constructed at Liverpool in 1825 for Mr. Samuel Sandbach. The “Sandbach” was an extremely popular ship on Merseyside was taken as a model for the medallion on the British Guiana stamps, where, it keeps company with the portrait of the late King George V. These stamps were first issued in 1913, but the design, without the portrait, dates back 37 years earlier, for the same picture of the full-rigged ship Sandbach, but in a different frame, was used for the stamps issued in 1876. It also appears in all shapes and sizes on a range of Grenada stamps from 1906 to 1964.
Philip illustrated some of his favourite stamps, the South Atlantic “Badges” and German Colony “Yacht” issues. Some countries issued single unconnected stamps over long periods of time, such as Argentina and France. He showed the Russian “icebreaker” series, and then because of the surge in issues as thematic collecting came into vogue, he chose countries with the letter “G” to illustrate their wide range of issues. He then moved on into photographic releases, many of doubtful validity, miniature sheets, and ended the first half with some excellently produced examples from the Marshall Islands.
The second half answered the question as to why countries issued maritime stamps in the first place, and demonstrated some of the reasons with examples from all over the world: Naval Pride; Science and Technology (cable laying, surveys, space support, postal services, tall ships, exploration); and Famous Ships. He concluded with a certified forgery of a high class stamp (as illustrated below). A most interesting evening with humour and a touch of sarcasm on occasion to make the audience question what was being shown and enhancing the result!

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A treat was in store this evening with nine members displaying as wide a range of material as one could imagine. In his absence a frame of mixed material was put up for Fred Hoare, starting with a description of what Cinderella Stamps are. This was followed by examples of several of these including cinderellas on Foreign Bills, Transfers, Hire Purchase documents and Common Law Agreements. Tony Arnold followed with a postcard of The Granary in Wareham, addressed by a girl to her family in Poole with a green shield stamp attached! He also laid out two tables of examples of cinderellas from a split Cinderella Philatelist magazine, which showed College stamps, newspaper stamps and so on. He also put up a frame of mixed material which included Manchester Local Post, a set from New Zealand, a Players Navy Cut stamp and a stamp from the 1937 London Stamp Exhibition. On the theme of lighthouses Mike Houchen displayed two frames of private stamps on covers and postcards, with matching pictures from various islands off the British coast, making for a very interesting geography lesson as a by-product. Many of these were charity stamps, but all in aid of preserving the lighthouses they were illustrating. Don Trowsdale spoke about a philanthropist who bought Jason Island, an island in the Falklands, for use and preservation as a bird sanctuary, from which he brought sample birds and eggs to sanctuaries in Gloucestershire for the public to see. To help fund the expenses of this project he issued stamps and coins. Don also put up cinderellas of Nagger Land, Sealand, Saoy, Lundy and the Calf of Man. Closing the first half Michael Mawdsley displayed a very neat frame of Edward VII stamps, but being copies, some never issued, they could be treated as cinderellas.

After the break Phil Woolstrom entertained with a frame of GB Postage Due stamps, all the values from 1914 to 1969, and then the decimal issues. Mike Trickett followed with France, showing a range of vignettes, including a vignette bag, with examples promoting exhibitions, clean air, various receipts and fiscals, registrations and fees/taxes. Many varieties of the Eiffel Tower vignettes of 1889 were included as was an example of a postcard used that year,the first year they came into service. Chris Wheeler put up a frame of Tobler cinderellas from 1922, part of a vast range produced just that year covering every conceivable subject. Finally Wendy Buckle displayed some rare and ancient documents from Latvia and more recent examples of used revenues and fiscals from the time Latvia was part of Russia, the Occupation period from 1912 to 1919, and then Independence from 1919. These included a range of licences, bank receipts, ID documents and Employment forms.

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Thursday 7th September 2017
The Club's 50th Anniversary Evening - Special Inter-club event
"Alice in Wonderland and beyond" - Paul Leonard, FRPSL

This was a memorable evening, starting with a most enjoyable meal at the local hostelry, where members met the evening's Speaker, and enjoyed some pre-meeting time together. Meanwhile other members had arranged the Club's Room ready for the Speaker's display, but also with "50" flags, and tables for the Raffle prizes, refreshments and Club archive material - an exciting sight as members from the Poole and Bournemouth Club and visitors from neighbouring Clubs arrived.

Paul had tailored his talk with A4 sheets explaining his display, but specially prepared with the Club's logo and presentation title on them, a very pleasing effort appreciated by everyone. There were five sections to his talk, all most interesting and entertaining, and so well presented. In essence because the Post Office would not consider a commemorative issue for Lewis Carroll, Gerald King decided to do his own. But using the basic design and history of the regular GB stamps, he went one better with his Wonderland stamps in Winks values (40 Winks making a Golden Slumber)! implying that his issues were released before the GB ones, and so the GB ones were copied from his designs. Hence the first 1d black was issued on 5 May 1840, the first Mulready in 1862, and so on. His humour expanded into the production of Alice stamps and covers mimicing those of the Post Office in all aspects of the Post. So examples were shown from his and Gerald King's collection, of a wide range of interesting items icluding such as flaws, forgeries, different water marks, rareities,specimens, overprints different papers and inks, cardia envelopes, printers waste and reprints. Not stopping there, we saw examples of burnt covers, crash covers, salt water damaged covers, and more.

A third dimension to all this was the mimicry of the story of Alice reproduced in all these examples, so there were bantam stamps for when Alice grew smaller, emergency inflation stamps for when she got larger, the Scowling Boys of New Zealand instead of the Smiling Boys, the cracked plates, cat in the tree and cucumber stamps. There was humour and imagination everywhere. A further dimension was that due to the now high value of lots of these items, many are being sent to the expertising committee, of which Paul is a member, and he was able to explain some of the processes used to verify, or otherwise, stamps submitted for appraisal.

The chairman thanked Paul on behalf of everyone, presented him with a special Alice Certificate, asked a few questions about how the production was funded and marketed, and then, members were able to study the material, ask lots of further questions, and finally enjoy the raffle and refreshments. All the raffle prizes were Alice in Wonderland sheets, stamps or covers, directly relating to the evening's talk.

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The Fair was deemed a success again this year with all the tables booked and many visitors searching and buying, some with great success! The raffle took place, with Member Don Trowsdale winning the first prize and John Bennett from Roy Hollis of Chepstow winning the DVD.

Four members put up displays on the subject of World Peace, marking International Peace Day established in 1986. Don Trowsdale began with a range of stamps and articles on the stamps produced by members of the British Empire, starting with the Churchill Speeches issue from the Bahamas, and then New Zealand and Great Britain issues. Mike Trickett followed with a range of stamps from some of the countries of Europe following their Liberation. These included France, Germany, Netherlands, Greece and Finland. Several issues and designs were included in the France exhibit. Wendy Buckle showed us some stamps and covers from 1919 and 1920 following the liberation of Riga from the Serbian Forces, illustrating regional peace. A wide variety of examples were shown including perforated and imperforated stamps, the use of different papers including bank note paper, differnt sizes, plates and watermarks.

Another successful Auction evening, with many happy sellers and buyers. It is always pleasing to see members from other clubs, and prospective new members, attending and winning an item or two they want for their collections.

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As part of the Club's 50th Anniversary Celebrations 12 members of the Club visited the Dorset Mail Sorting Centre in Poole, at the start of their evening shift. There we were met by Jaki Magorian who took us on a 1½ hour tour of the centre, down onto the main floor being able to see close up the various machinery at work, and to talk to the controllers of the various processes. We saw the local mail arriving and being unloaded, then sorted into regular letters, large letters, parcels and Special Delivery items, and the sorting routes each of these followed. Jaki explained how the machines worked, what problems they incurred, the manual sorting processes still required, and how unsortable mail was handled. All first class mail had to be ready for outward despatch by 9:00pm and 2nd class by the morning. By the time the local mail had been sorted and prepared for delivery, mail from other centres around the country and overseas for the BH and DT areas would start to arrive, and new sorting patterns would be set up on the machines to arrange the mail into the correct order for each postman's delivery rounds.

Some interesting statistics were given to us: some 3.5 million letters have been processed this year so far, there are 1,081 post boxes in the BH area, and 762 in the DT area. (We went to the key room where their keys on labelled bunches were all hanging in rows near the vehicle keys and log books). 261,623 homes are delivered to in the BH area and 104,100 in the DT area, all within a 2,655.5 square kilometre area.

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Ten members displayed this evening, covering a wide range of topics, all turning out to be of interest to the attentive audience. Ray Saunders started the evening with a one frame display of the definitive stamps of Trista-da-Cunha, 1952 to 2015, nicely displayed showing the development of the design over the 60 years. Tony Arnold then displayed two frames of 'Saucy postcards' on various themes, which attracted considerable attention at the interval! Swedish lighthouses followed, with Mike Houchen showing two frames of well written-up material includingstamps, booklets, covers excepts from pilot books, and several enlargements of the portion of the stamps to illustrate the lighthouses featrued on them, notably the inventionof the flashing bulb which enabled the lighthouse to run unmanned. He closed with examples from Tunisia and Ukraine. Paul Edwards displayed for the first time with a very neat frame of GB stamps, covers and presentation packs on the subjects of Steam Railways, the Silver Wedding, Silver Jubilee, Shakespeare, Television, with a cover featuring muffin the mule, Tallents House and Universities.

After the break, Michael Mawdsley gave a short history of St Helena, discovered by the Portugese in 1502, and then a frame of stamps, definitives, commemorativbes, omnibus issues and ones with faults. Don Trowsdale covered a range of countries including the Turks and Caicos, British Solomon Islands, St Kitts & Nevis, St Vincent, Sweden and Tokelau. Alan King displayed some of his collection of Cape Triangles, covering the Perkins Bacon issues from 1853, on a wide range of papers and inks, including a block of four one penny stamps from a late 1850s worn plate. The later de la Rue issues were shown with their deeper shades, still using the original worn plates, closing with the 'little Hopes' of 1864. Mike Trickett chose Finland (Suomi), one of his collecting countries, showing a range of stamps from the time when Finland was part of Sweden, then part of Russia, and then afer indeopendence in 1917 its own 'lion' issues, and then the 'views' issues from 1918. Two postcards were also featured in his display.

Bob Small followed this with an amazing display of historical manuscripts from theNapoleonic Wars, covering the Prisoner of War camp in Bristol - Stapleton Prison, with letters and site plans; Trafalagar with a contemprary issue of the Times newspaper announcing Nelson's death, the Transport Office and the Battle of Ushant. Chris Wheeler showed stamps, covers and maxicards on the subject of Underground Railways form many countries round the world beginning with the letters S, T and U. Finally, with another historical display of rare material was Wendy Buckle with a wide range of examples of the the correct and incorrect useage of Underpaid items into, outgoing and internal to Latvia.

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This must be one of the most interesting displays seen for a long time at the Club, due to the uniqueness and rarity of so many of the items shown. Phillip began be passing round maps of India dating from the mid to late 1800s for members to see and be able to relate the location of some of the Feudatory States as examples of their philatelic products were displayed. His interest in India started when as a 20 year-old he back-packed there and his uncle asked him to bring back some stamp packets from the sellers outside the Bombay Postal Museum.
In the pre-stamp period there were some 1,600 enclave states, all independently ruled, then the Dutch arrived and consolidated those in the South west, followed by the French, Portugese and British, each taking over separate portions of the country. Eventually the East India Company became the sole traders and rulers of the country, and brought order and uniformity to many Government functions. Stamps were introduced in 1864 and by the mid 1880s there were 38 postal stamp

ssuing states, though many more issued fiscal stamps for their own purposes. Many unusual practices evolved for example interstate postal items had to have the stamp of the originating state, the stamps of the final state, and stamps for each other state the item travelled through. One can imagine from this practice the amazing variety of covers that could be collected, not to mention all the To-Pay examples. There exist a vast range of forgeries, fakes, different papers, cancellations, printing errors (some deliberate) and overprints. Due to lack of education many states had almost no postal volume, but Jaipur for example, where most are well educated, there are high volumes. Phillip closed with a show of many very rare stamps from his favourite state Duttia.

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Thursday 16 November 2017
Members Displays - 50 years ago, anything relating to 1967, our Founding Year

This evening the theme was 1967, our Founding Year. Nine members put up displays,two of them displaying for the first time. With such a narrow subject, there was bound to be some overlap and repetition. In summary:-

Mike Trickett began with an unpaid, surcharged postcard from France to England with an unexplained 20/60 To Pay marking on it; a full set of the 1967 France stamps; stamps from 1967 from Lundy, Finland and Greece. Alan King followed with the 1967 Machin issues, including full sheets, varieties, phosphor bands andcolour hues. Michael Mawdsley also put up some 1967 Machin issues, and a range of commemoratives released that year or shortly afterwards,but commemorating 1967 events, such as the launch of the QEII and the Opening of the Liverpool Cathedral. Also included were the last £sd and first $c issues from New Zealand, and the final issue from Yemen. Mike Houchen showed British 1967 commemoratives and covers; the complete 1967 set from Australia and Austria; the block of four RSPCA stamps from Lundy in their four languages, isssued following the Torey Canyon disaster. Rick Wilmot concentrated on Yugoslavia, with the full Tito definitive set and all the commemoratives from that year, with themes of flowers, fables, Boris Becker and one in particular of the 16th century bridge. Tony Arnold represented three different people in his displays, the first from member Fred Hoare who could not be present, then two frames of material relating to the Six Day War in 1967 on behalf of his wife, and then his own display of two frames covering a wide range of topics and material relating to events and personalities from 1967 with local connections, closing with the final edition of the Boys Own magazine. Linda Westwood showed us a photograph taken when she was at boarding school in Oxted, and two stamp albums which she started in 1967.

Following a lengthy break, whilst all this material was looked at and discussed, Ken Parrott displayed a range of stamps and covers from Malta, including one with all four of the 1967 Postage Due stamps on it; covers issued for Christmas 1967 with stamps issued from the set on different dates; and the last non-phosphor stamp booklet. Chris Wheeler closed the evening with two 1967 competition entries showing covers demonstrating various philatelic aspects from Great Britain, and then Worldwide.

There was a good turn-out for this year's Christmas Social. Mnay members brought along non philatelic items for display, including a collection of national flags, two very old East African wooden family pieces, a collection of Barclays ties from South Africa, a large format 1959 Reminiscent Annual and a collection of banknotes from travels around the world. Many members also brought festive fare, and items for the raffle. Following the meal, everyone took part in the game of identifying 28 items in cotton bags, ranging from a toothbrush, to a drain cover, which Tony Arnold had devised. This was most avidly pursued and enjoyed. The winner achieved 26 correct answers and was awarded by drawing the first raffle ticket. A great evening!!

Thursday 4 January 2018
Sporting records, achievements; competitions; pleasure boating

The New Year started with contributions from many members. Most chose aspects of the various Olympic Games held over the years, with stamps featuring specific aspects of their production. Rick Wilmot showed the Australian 2000 sheets, followed by a set of very interesting covers commemorating women chess champions. Mike Houchen followed by using the very recently issued miniature sheet and its accompanying posters and promotion material "The Great Kiwi Road Trip", which had several pleasure boating scenes included. Don Trowsdale featured the Great Britain 2012 Olympics, as did Ken Parott, who also included the Smiler Sheets from 2009 to 2011, (now listed in a separate section of the SG Catalogue). Mike Trickett showed stamps from the Greece 1896 Olymics, and some later issues from Greece, France and Finland. Chris Wheeler closed with a frame of stamps showing all aspects of pleasure boating - the Royal Yachts, canoeing, windsurfing, power boating, rowing, yacht racing and finally some promotional labels from Nestle and Evinrude.

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The evening started with Mike Houchen’s display featuring articles, photos, cards and stamps from various countries showing the Christopher Columbus monument located in Santo Domingo Este, Dominican Republic, which was started in 1852 and completed in 1992. He closed with two pages of worldwide stamps featuring Columbus. Mike Trickett followed with Scientists, Inventors and Explorers featured on stamps from France, all with clear annotations. Among them were the better-known names like Madame Curie and Ampere, but René Laennec who invented the stethoscope in 1815 was also featured. Several colourful FDCs were included in the display. Rick Wilmott drew on his extensive collection, taking us around the world with philatelic material featuring Captain Cook, Darwin, space exploration, and several rarely seen exhibits such as those of the Russian Arctic and Antarctic explorers, closing with a postcard featuring the 175th anniversary of the birth of the Russian activist, Peter Protopkin who participated in several geological expeditions in Siberia in the 1860s and 1870s, and who has never featured on his homeland’s stamps. Chris Wheeler used a wide range of Australian Antarctic Territory stamps to trace the life and exploration of Sir Douglas Mawson on the Nimrod Expedition, and then his own Australasian Expedition finding the Magnetic South Pole.
Finally, Tony Arnold described his two frame open philately exhibit which included photos, articles, stamps and FDCs of many of the world’s famous explorers, scientists and inventors, starting with Sir Francis Younghusband who was the first to explore Tibet and meet the Dalai Lama. He is buried locally in Lytchett Minster. Darwin, Shackleton, Wallace, Einstein, Newton, Columbus, Cook, The Pilgrim Fathers and the Vikings were amongst those included in the display. Tony closed with some recent newspaper articles about 2018 GB stamp issues such as the Game of Thrones and Dad’s Army.

Thursday 1 February 2018
Guest Michael Elliott: "Aspects of Finnish Postal History"

Michael introduced his talk with an outline of the political and military history of Finland from 1939 to 1945 which fell into four eras. These were described in detail through his amazing display of the postal history items he put up for club members to study. Starting with the period 1939 to 1940, when Russia invaded eastern Finland and occupied the area, a selection of postal items was shown.
Strangely, this started with the establishment to the Forces Postal Service in 1937 (in anticipation of what was to come). Various covers, showing various aspects of their service during the Russian invasion were shown, including a cover sent to the Football Association in England by a British football reporter who had been sent to Finland as all games had been cancelled in Britain due to the harsh winter of 1939-40. There were several examples of returned covers, sent to army bases, but by the time they reached the bases the border had moved and the Camps had gone.
As Finland had no established Allies during this period, Swedish and Danish volunteers cane to their aid, and they in turn established their own postal services, with many fine examples being shown, using various letter sheets, and postal rates, including freepost stamps. One of the most precious examples displayed was a British Volunteer Mail letter sent back to Britain by a member of the crew of a fire engine sent to Finland to assist in reducing the war damage.
1940 saw the Treaty of Moscow when an Interim Peace was established, but this did not last long as within a few months Finland decided it wanted its land back and the Continuation War commenced, however Russia re-invaded with the Germans in 1944, taking the eastern part of Finland again and evicting all the population, destroying everything as they advanced. However due to other political pressures, the tide changed and the occupying forces were themselves evicted during late 1944 and 1945 in the Lapland War, leading to an eventual Peace. So many unique examples of the postal history of the time, with cancellations, misdirections, redirections, censorship, sad letters of lost families and property, special interim postal arrangements, and even dealer fraud were displayed.
Michael was thanked by the Chairman for his very lucid and fascinating talk, which all those present endorsed.

Mike Houchen opened the evening with a frame of postcards of local scenes of a century ago, with matching photographs taken in 2011, for comparison. His second frame was of postcards from New Zealand, sent back to England whilst overseas, by his mother. Matching stamps were on each exhibit. Rob Wilmott followed with an array of postcards showing local scenes, and an unusual midget postcard of Miss Mabel Love in her younger days! He closed with a Ham Radio card. Malta was Ken Parrott’s theme, starting with some British and Irish cards that were valid for use in Malta until the 1950s. A Field Post Office card was displayed, and some postcards posted from Malta with French and Greek stamps. A set of 24 postcards featuring preserved single decker buses concluded his presentation, which was followed by a collection of postcards sent to Michael Mawdsley by friends and family from various parts of France. Tony Arnold produced a three-frame collection on various themes, including Penguin Book covers, Valentine, Films, Advertising, Saucy Seaside, Railway stamp reproductions on postcards and finally a collection of British Butterflies.
After the break, Nicole Chattlain displayed a frame of excellently preserved postcards from Europe, sent to her great uncle by various friends, which like Michael Mawdsley’s display had a special personal touch. Finally, Chris Wheeler put up a frame of modern Love Heart cards and a frame of Art Nouveau postcards from the 1890s.

Thursday 15th March - Competition Evening
Green Cup, Novice Cup, Harry Parsons Shield, The Thematic Cup, Barry Proctor Cup, John Hilton Trophy
and the overall Bill Way Shield

There were eight entries this evening, three were judged by visiting Judge, Albert Jackson, the others by Club members. The results and overall winner of the Bill Way Shield are in the tables below. After completing his work, Albert again reminded Club members that Competitions were a key part in the life of any Philatelic group, helping participants to really concentrate on the parts of their collections wort developing and writing up.

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Seventeen members, including one for the first time,attended this evening’s meeting, which started with Tony Arnold’s miscellany of subjects on the three themes, including Sammy Miller and his motorcycle museum near New Milton. A further miscellany of mainly postcards covering trams, the railway, hovercraft, water buses, the Malta trains which ran from 1883 to 1931 followed, explained by Ken Parrott. Rick Willmott then displayed full sheets of German Railways stamps issued from 1880 to 1884, with labels showing the routes the particular trains travelled; cancelled stamps in a folder of the Trans-European Express and some ships on cover with excellent cancellations. Paul Edwards put up an well-written-up display of steam locomotives from around the world. Only starting collecting last year, this was an excellent first display which all members found most interesting. Argentina’s 5-year plan, early Canadian locomotives, and the Puffing Billy form Melbourne, recently in the news, formed part of the display. Don Trowsdale showed us some bicycle and motorcycle covers followed by ships that were used on Antarctic Expeditions, and finally a range of individual items on the subject of Safety, including the Swordfish aircraft which was bale to attack enemy ships, flying very low beneath the firing line of the ships’ guns.
During the second half of the evening Chris Wheeler put up three frames of Royal Mail advertising posters which most members had not seen before, and then an unusual display of the railway accident and recovery of the Amey Roadstone ballast train with its Class 56 locomotive at Haywards Heath, by Peter Money who was responsible for the recovery and restoration of the track, ended the most varied and interesting evening.

Thursday 19th April 2018
Competition entries displayed and awards; Members Displays: Fashion (first half silent)

The evening began with a display of the Competition entries from the last meeting and congratulations to Wendy Buckle for winning the Peter Owden Trophy for the best entry at the Ferndown Interclub Competition on 14 April. Ray Saunders was also congratulated for his entry in that Competition, representing the Club which came third overall.

After the awards for the Poole Club Competition on 15 March were given out, there was a members display on the topic of Fashion. Nicole Chattlain began with a frame of beautiful 1920s glamour cards, which everyone thought were stunning. Mike Trickett followed with a frame containing single 25 year old ladies in their French Fashion outfits including hats as worn on St Catherine's Day. English fashion ladies followed and he closed with a set of five items showing how redeeming items sent with postage due had changed over the years, from attached postage due stamps to yellow labelsto postcards containing instructions as to how to collect the item or pay for it over the internet. Don Trowsdale had put together a cornucopia of GB stamps illustrating how the Royal Mail had used fashions of the day as images on their stamps issues, fashions including traditions, uniforms, fishing flies,and music groups. He included two postcards one of the oldest working postbox, and one of a postbox in Ceylon, converted from a torpedo.

Chris Wheeler put up a frame of stamps illustrating how trends in architectural design had changed over the years in countries around the world, using the materials available on location, and architectural trends such as eco friendly considerations. Religious and Post Office buildings had separate sections. Mike Houchen displayed clothing fashions on stamps from Austria, and then a frame of postcards on the subject of Safety at Sea, which he was unable to display at the last meeting.

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Chris Wheeler opened the eveining with a frame of stamps, miniature sheets and postcards from round the world illustrating the mining process from prospecting, to training schools, extraction, processing, transport and the fininshed product. Michael Mawdsley followed with a selection of stamps showing the Coronation Regalia, Gem stamps on cover, some interesting hologram stamps from Australia, and the Cyprus copper mine. MikeTrickett showed a postcard promoting Ireland as the "Emerald Gem", then some stamps from France illustrating various aspect of mining, a jewellery exhibition, and a 1952 stamp from the Netherlands. The last display was by Nicole Chattlain who put up a series of cards featuring women with their jewellery from Tunisia and Algeria. Finally Maxine Humphries gave a short talk about the mining she and her husband had witnessed whilst living in Tanzania and India, referring especially to the open cast mine near the Rift Valley in Malawi.

A positive set of reports from Committee Members reassured members that the Club was on a sound footing after its 50 years in existence. Memories of the Anniversary Events was recounted. Mike Trickett received the 2018 Chairman's Award at the meeting in recognition of his contribution to the Programme, the Competitions and the Fair planning. Several members brought along non-philatelic items, noteably Rick Wilmot with his set of Russian buttons, Alan King with his childhood collection of cigarette cards, Mike Tricket with a 1920s Post Office balance and Maxine and Robin Humphries with several original paintings of their previous home environment in Tanzania and the Rift Valley. The meeting closed with plenty of refreshments including a 50th Anniversary cake.

This was a very full evening with many displays by members, Mike Houchen starting the evening using stamps and PHQ cards illustrating the "light character" of individual lighthouses around the country. He gave a detailed explanation of the workings of their time sequences, with examples of their colour frequency patterns, which sailors used to identify them. Paul Edwards gave examples of covers illustrating the religious aspect of cathedrals and celebrations, also showing a cover commemorating the establishment of Greenwich Mean Time in 1884. Bob Small followed with a page of stamps about John Harrison and the marine chronometer he invented. Chris Wheeler presented a 12 page competition entry about the Salvation Army, their worlwide distribution, range of work, music, uniforms and correspondence. Don Trowsdale illustrated GMT, Popes of the Vatican and the planets with a variety of stamps and covers. Then Alan King gave a very descriptive two frame display starting with time as a theme, the story behind the first Christmas stamp (Canada) and then stamps from GB, France and Hungary contrasting their treatment of religion. The first half closed with a huge five frame display of postcards by Tony Arnold illustrating all manner of clocks from around Great Britain.

After the break, Mike Trickett used a range of postcards from France illustrating cathedrals, Greek churches and then on the subject of time a range of postcards illustrating the mechanical workings of major world clocks. Finally Wendy Buckle put up a magnificent two frame display of religious manuscripts, their production, and the bibles, psalters and missals produced as a result. She included stamps from different countries showing how each of them treated the same subject differently.

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A mammoth auction took place with a bumper number of lots and turnover. This was in part due to the cancellation of the previous auction due to the "Beast from the East" when everywhere was frozen up.

Christine emphasised at the start of the evening that for a collection and club display, no fixed rules apply, therefore members can put up whatever they like within the description for the evening. "Collect what you want to collect and display what you want to display".

In the first half she concentrated on traditional thematic collecting and exhibiting, stressing that one must have a plan and a storyline, the opening paragraph beginning with such as "This exhibit explains..." or "This exhibit tells about..." Examples of good plans were shown, and the correct way to head each page. A reminder of what is allowed, and not allowed in a thematic exhibit was described. In the second half Christine showed how these basic Thematic principles applied to Open Class Philately, with the difference being that up to 50% of the material could be non-philatlelic, so such as coins, medals, postcards, maps, newspaper clippings, posters, letters, FDCs, etc can be included, provided they are relevant in telling the story. She explained how to narrow a large collection down to a 9, 12, 15 or 16 page exhibit, the importance of legible but succinct script and a subtle background paper. New for most members was how to use non A4 paper sizes, especially the one and a third width A4 (11" x 11"), which is so effective for larger items, thus having 3 x 3 in a 12 sheet frame.

After hearty applause, the Chairman presented Christine with a certificate and a dark blue dolphin brooch. The best presentation for along time!!

Most members put up a display this evening, ranging from classical well written-up to the more general format. Although the topic was quite specific there was very little duplication, with worldwide weaponry and military themes spanning the last 1,000 years. Colourful well explained displays captivated the audience and made for an excellent evening.
Rick Wilmot – Worldwide Victory issues from WWII, and a certified genuine and a forged copy of a 1944 Croatian miniature sheet; Ken Parrot - the GB Battle of Hastings set, then a range of material from Malta; Mike Houchen – Military scenes on stamps from Australia and the Channel Islands; Paul Edwards – GB Battle of Britain, the story of David Gentleman’s efforts to remove the queen’s head from that commemorative set, and stamps on the British Army; Mike Trickett – a range of material from WWI in France, the Viney Bridge Battle, and some unusual Propaganda Cards from GB and France; Michael Mawdsley – GB, Malta, Gibraltar, Australia and New Zealand stamps featuring weaponry; Nicole then put up a sheet of stamps from Belgium with the evening’s theme, and was followed by Tony Arnold’s five frame mega-display, starting with war posters and calendar pages from Australia, postcards relating to the War Effort, postcards from the Tank Museum and a miscellany of other war-related cards.
After the break, Wendy Buckle displayed a range of mail sent in, to and from Latvia during the period of German Occupation during WWI, mainly Fieldpost from the occupying soldiers, but illustrating the story of the censorship marks, cancellations and eventually the dumb cancellations; Alan King illustrated his talk with material from France, the Dominions, and finally the numerous GB “poppy” series of stamps; finally Bob Small displayed some amazing examples of postal history, going back to 1589, through the Napoleonic era, the War of Independence, a Service Paper, a Ballot Paper, a Transport Office letter to Stapleton Prison, and a letter to the Duke of Wellington.

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Chris Wheeler opened the evening with a frame of written-up sheets depicting stamps featuring famous mathematicians, scientists and theorists from 3000BC to 1000AD. These included well-known names such as Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoras. Ken Parrott followed with a display of British FDCs featuring the many issues from Royal Mail promoting our own scientists and inventors, many of the covers having pictorial representations of their work, closing with an example from Malta. Rick Wilmott then put up a frame of stamps and covers featuring Tesla, the inventor of AC electricity,telling us a bit about his life and the effect his discovery has had on the world ever since. Mike Trickett displayed the multitude of single and sets of stamps from 1934 to 1962 produced by France showing their country's many scientists and inventors, with an explanation of what they are recognised for. Wendy Buckle put up a frame of nine sheets from various competition entries describing the Chinese inventor of paper and its derivatives over the centuries with examples on philatelic material of their products and how they were used. Finally, Tony Arnold described with two frames of covers and ephemera he had mounted of British and Channel Island material covering a very wide range of inventions and scientific discoveries and how they are now used in our daily lives.

This was the most amazing of presentations, one that is impossible to describe properly as it was so comprehensive. Each one of the 180 sheets deserves a write-up on its own, so significant each one was. How all the material shown was collected and so competently ordered and written-up is astonishing, but those present had the treat of a lifetime. "Poland at War" told the story of the Polish nationals, the military and their families during the inter-war, World War II, and post-War periods. We all came away with enormous sympathy and admiration for the immense suffering and loss they experienced, and the fortitude they continue to show to this day in their attitude to life and to "getting things done".

The story begins with the Versailles Treaty in which the "Danzig Corridor" was created providing a wide strip of land fom Poland's heartland to the coast along the Baltic Sea, splitting Germany from its province of East Prussia. The Polish people occupied the land and settled there. It was part of Poland, however Germany wanted it back and through stealth and guile, as shown on some of the propaganda cards in the display, they were falsely accused attacking a Germand Customs post and Germany used this as a pretext for starting the war. This conflict is extremely complicated to understand as it lasted from the mid 1930s until the late 1940s, right through WWII, with countries involved in that changing sides and allegiances, so that one day the Poles were prisoners of one nation, and the next they were free, but prisoners of another. There were periods of national exodus from Poland as a whole, military alliances with countries when the Polish forces were on the move. Then with WWII over, various forms of repatriation followed from a highly dispersed military and family nation, spread from the Middle East, through Europe and Scandinavia to Great Britain, sadly with vast numbers of Poles not wanting to risk returning to their homeland fearful of reprisals and an uncertain future. The volume and diversity of mail throughout this period is extraordinary, ending possibly with the massive efforts to find and re-unite the widely dispersed families. The added complication of the Jewish imprisonment and extermination was yet another major subset of this whole story, also fully documenmted with examples of unique mail relating to the concentration camps.

This brief political background is necessary as Albert had so many examples of how the processing of the mail took place in so many different forms throughout this period, with for example surcharged rates by the Germans for the Poles, special inter-camp stamp designs, intricate procedures for mail to be sent via organisations and individuals in neutral countries as intermediaries, to recipients in War Zones and so on. A truly magnificent display and summary Polish history of that time.

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Although the number of participants was lower than usal, there was active bidding throughout the evening, and many attendees went away with heavy hauls of purchases, much to the sellers' relief! The new display layout was most successful.. Well done yet again to the auctioneer, his helpers and the accountants!

The Annual Stamp Fair took place with a steady flow of visitors throughout the day. Some buyers and dealers were very satisfied with the day's results, and the seven raffle prize winners returned home with happy smiles!

Thursday 20 September 2018
Members Displays - Emergency Services, Medicine and Health

Mike Houchen began the evening with three sheets covering the history of the RNLI on stamps, postcards and charts, closing with some covers from Lundy designed by one of the Club's previous members. Ken Parrott followed with a range of covers from various countries, each showing different aspects of healthcare and sickness prevention. Also included were stamps from round the world on medical themes,including some charity stamps, such as those from New Zealand. Chris Wheeler put up two frames of covers, some with letters and inserts, addressed to or from hospitals around the world used in general correspondence or commemorating their anniversaries. After the break, Michael Mawdsley displayed a range of stamps on medical issues from many countries, including the non-descript 8c Canada example below. Alan King concentrated on the first French Red Cross issues of 1914 and the orphan issues from 1917, and also sets of New Zealand Health stamps from 1929 to 1969. Finally MikeTrickett displayed a wide range of postcards and stamps covering many health-related topics including Finland's first Red Cross issues, and a set from Greece.

Mike Trickett opened the evening with a wide range of postal items about Paris, including a humorous postcard, old postcards, letters, covers, stamps and two fake postcards. Also included were some rarely found Tuck postcards of the City. Rick Wilmott followed with an exploration of space travel, including some now very hard to find items, including authenticated signature covers, and cancellations relating the Rusian space exploration. Mike Houchen's theme was Rescue at Sea and he presented two frames of stamps, covers, labels, advertising sheets, etc. from countries all round the world collected mainly on one of his trips. Ken Parrott displayed stamp issues from Malta from 1860 to 1951 including the perforated Specimen issues from 1930. A range of different-facing watermarks was included. Chris Wheeler displayed two frames illustrating the achievements of Isambard Kingdom Brunel with a range of philatelic and non-philatelic items. Finally we were delighted to have Bryan Cribb's display of postard scenes covering the unusually seen views of villages in Dorset, a tiny part of his massive collection.

Two members of the Blandford Forum and District Stamp Club visited us this evening, each giving a 90 sheet display on his chosen subject. Patrick Reeves, Club Secretary, started with Channel Islands as his topic, concentrating initially on the early stamps of Guernsey. He showed us a range of the 1d and 2d values from the Third Anniversary of Liberation issue, with its various watermarks, and plate flaws, its use in Guernsey and the eight authorised post offices on the mainland.
After the break, Mike Spencer, a Cyprus specialist, presented the "Refugee Issues", explaining why they were first needed, their ongoing use, and the reason for their contuinuance even today. He showed the initial study for the stamp first issued in 1977, with a photograph of the mother and child used for the stamp's design. Three different designs have been used and these were shown on covers and together on the miniature sheet issued in 1999.

Few of the Club members attending this evening expected such an expansive and detailed analysis of the life of hostile internees and prisoners of war, nor that there were 70 major camps of all descriptions with 700 work sites where the occupants were employed around the country. Graham explained that his display was mainly postal history, with many letters and postcards showing the camps and work sites, but that the theme was the story of the people involved as much as the variety of postal markings.

The period covered was from mid-1914 to January 1920 when the last of the POWs left the country. Initially German nationals who had come to England to avoid being involved in the upcoming War were given the choice to leave or be interned. However the port of departure was Folkestone but those arriving their to return to Germany were mistakenly interned. Initially they were guarded by boy scouts. However after inmate protests started, soldiers took over this duty. Graham skilfully picked out many of the camps used during this period, explaining their use, duration and the sort of work those encarcerated were deployed in. One example was at Hackney Wick where tools and parts were manufactured and then assembled to make Vickers sewing machines. There was considerable movement of personnel between camps, and some were sent overseas whilst others were brought to England. He highlighted a home in North Wales used for detaing submariner officers, their escape and futile attempts to be rescued before being caught again. He spoke of the nine prison ships, and showed mail relating to all these types of holding facilities. His last frame dispayed propaganda letters developed by the British Government and dropped over the lines in Europe.

Bob Small kindly gave the vote of thanks, for an exceptional display, and the Chairman presented Graham with a certificate and bottle of wine.

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Another successful auction was held this evening, with happy sellers and buyers!

Over 20 members and guests attended the Christmas evening, enjoying the wide range of food and drink they had brought along. Once the meal was over Tony Arnold intoduced the Quiz portion of the evening with a "What is this?", followed by 76 pictures of items from the 1950s, though only part was shown or the pictures were from unusual angles. The winner got 44 right!! There were displays of beautiful ornate ceramic boxes, the full set of 2018 A to Z Great Britain 10p coins, fabulous model aeroplanes, buses and books on Falmouth which those present spent much time looking at.

There was a good turn-out for the first 2019 meeting, with nine members putting on displays. All admitted to having difficulty in finding interesting sets of stamps featuring Women who have made their names by Achieving great things for humanity. However, many sets from Great Britain were displayed, as were many from France, covering a broad range of art and science topics, as well as sport, royalty and entertainment. Stamps from Malta, Hungary and Tanzania also featured as did many about Coronation Street from islands around Britain.

Thursday 17 January 2019
Guests Mike Houchen, Rick Wilmott and Mike Trickett

The evening was divided into three parts with Mike Houchen displaying 90 sheets of his extensive collection of Lundy stamps during the first half. After giving a summary of the island's quite diverse history, having been occupied by many invaders over the centuries, it is now managed by the National Trust. The Post Office issued stamps there until 1929, when the new owner took over that responsibility by producing two values initially, the ½ puffin and the 1 puffin. Quite crudely printed, it is possible to detect each stamp's original position on the page, and Mike showed examples of this with partly filled sheets. Higher value stamps were later produced as were so-called tram tickets for use on the ferry. For postage anywhere off the island, mail had to be taken to a mainland post office where Great Britain stamps of the correct value had to be affixed for onward delivery. Air mail stamps, also with many errors, were introduced from 1935. Mike showed many forgeries, perforated and imperforated examples and a wide range of overprints. A continuous range of new issues, many mimicking those of the mainland were and continue to be released, but they also produe issues relevant to the island's own interests.

Following the break, Rick Willmot put up part of his unique collection of covers signed by cosmanauts. These started in Dubrovnik in 1978 when the Astronomical Society had a Congress to which many astronauts were invited, and where a series of covers were produced for signature. This convention has continued subsequently every year since then. Translating the descriptions from mainly central European countries is proving to be a mammoth task!! The third display was of postcards from France, with Mike Trickett covering three topics, Dinard, the Paris Flood of 1910 and the Eiffel Tower. Having made numerous trips to France his knowledge and experience shone through. His Dinard collection, now of several hundred cards started with a gift of eight. Dinard started to be developed as a leisure town in the 1850s and some of his older cards showed how it looked 150 years ago. His postcards of 1910 Paris really brought to life the magnitude of the flood and how the Parisians coped with it. The first postcard of the Eiffel Tower was an undivided one, issued in October 1899. Many others were shown, ending with a large one which had a gramaphone track embedded in it, and he closed by playing the song from it on a radio.

This was an excellent evening enjoyed by a gathering of 20 members, one of whom had joined that very evening.

Many members brought along material for displaying, it was a very popular evenig with a wide range of topics, styles and history. Mike Houchen opened the evening with a comprehensive display of the lighthouses along the north west coast of France, showing picture as well as artist drawings of the wide variety of edifices that have been in use over the years.

Ken Parrott put up a display of many aspects of Malta from the first postcards issued pre and post-1885, pre-paid and reply paid cards, Services freepost and censored cards and then historical transport and views of the country. Rick Willmott followed with his display of family history-related ships he and his family members had served on with many of the storiues relating to them. We were then priviledged to enjoy the first display by our new members, , showing well written-up examples of caricatures from Dicken's novels, which drew a lot of attention from club members at the interval. Michael Mawdsley put up postcards from his visits to The Hermitage, some from the time when it was first opened to tourists from outside Russia. Tony Arnold displayed five boards on three topics, general themes, saucy themes and a set of 100 cycles.

Following the break, Chris Wheeler chose the imminent valentines Day to display postcards "Popping the Question", followed by a rare subject displayed by Mike Trickett on the Davis Message cards from USA, started in 1913 (ending in 1959), they being in art nouveau and art deco style, containg pre-printed messges in ornate borders in colourful inks on quality card. Mike and a colleague had written up the catalogue of this broad range of cards, which was also on display. Finally Brian displayed cards on all sorts of topics from the collection he started when he was just eighteen, featuring a very wide range of interests.

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Thursday 21 February 2019
Guest John Willows: "Collecting Postcards - Why do I and Why did I start?"

John started his presentation with the first postcard he had received, and then the first one he bought. Using these two cards he explained how he had become fascinated with the old cards, and their method of portraying the contemporary life, which now with some research becomes the basis for us to study the social history over the years on a massive range of topics and topographical subjects. One collection leads to another, and before long an amazing relevant story can be pieced together. By visiting postcard fairs he spent the time needed to examine his favourite areas of interest and using his magnifying glass was able to spot details in the pictures not normally visible. Using the other side of the cards, the date stamps, addresses, adressees, and their replies, together with the stories told also make a fascinating study area, as he so ably demonstrated.
All members found the presentation most interesting, bringing new life to a philatelic subject that some had not concentrated on before. Perhaps one of the most interesting conclusions from this display was that through the postcards he showed us we were able to gain a good insight into his own life, career and areas of interest - living social history!!

Following a rather slow start and fewer attendees than normal, the auction became quite lively, and most attendees bought or sold several items that suited their collecting themes.

Thursday 21 March 2019 - Competition Evening
The Green, Novice, Barry Proctor and John Hilton Cups, & Bill Way Shield

Results of the 21 March 2019 Club Competition Evening
Entries were as follows, Judged by Colin Mount

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Thursday, April 4, 2019
Guests Brian Hunt: "Falkland Islands" and Bernard Paull "Alpha Romeo"

The Club was treated to two excellent and varied talks this evening, starting with a detailed overview of the postal issues from the Falkland Islands by Brian Hunt. He showed examples of the stamps used throughout its issuing history with many stories behind the choice and production of these issues. Many were scarce if only because with a population of just 2,000, the production numbers were correspondingly low. A good example of a “Black Frank” started the presentation, this being a postally valid mark used on mail before stamps arrived in the island in 1876. In 1890 following postal rate changes there was a shortage of some values and bisects were used. From then on there were the usual rate changes, printer and paper changes and some colourful commemoratives showing scenes from the island.

Following the break Bernard Paull displayed a wide range of material relating to the history of the Alpha Romeo marque, with covers, stamps, meter marks and detailed descriptions of the exhibits. He outlined the story of the Company by decade from 1910 when it was formed until now, with its ups and downs, models of cars, aeroplane engines during the war, and its racing history, some advertising and how the composition of its emblem was formed.

Two most enjoyable talks from our Bridport Stamp Club colleagues in the Somerset and Dorset Federation.

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The evening concentrated on the submissions for the competitions held on 21 March, the awards to the winners and the members concerned putting up their entries and discussing them. It turned out to be a very interesting and entertaining meeting, with a great variety of topics and approaches to the entries. The awards were presented, and at the end three additional displays were put up, one on the recent error by Royal Mail raising the 2nd class rate to 61p before 1 April. Chris Wheeler displayed several examples of mail with this incorrect rate, and also an early example of a meter mark from our new BCP Council. Michael Mawdsley showed Australia, Canada and South Africa in their early days demonstrating with stamps of the time, how disparate states in those countries merged to what we have today. Finally, following his visit to Avila in Spain, Mike Trickett showed an embryonic collection of philatelic items forming the start of one of his new collecting areas.

David opened his display with what he called an amateur collection of banknotes that he had assembled in 1992. He explained that banks originally issued their own banknotes an had to have suficient gold to support the number and value of the notes they issued. Many of these banknotes were extremely finely printed, especially those produced by Perkins Bacon.

He then went on to demonstrate banknotes from all over the United Kingdom, using them as examples of style, paper, designs, forgeries, amalgamations, anti-theft, cancellations, trimmed ones to meet postal weight tariff categories, the first use of the zip code; and then an array of banknotes issued by local banks over the years, including one issed in 1825 by a Ringwood Bank which due to the bank's failure is now part of TSB. David closed by telling a story of theft from a Guildford Bank, which he discovered and reported, ending up being the prime expert witness!

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1. The Club would move from the Somerset & Dorset Federation to the Hampshire Federation
2. The Packet Service provided for the Club would cease, however Club members using the Packet would be invited to join the much larger one operated by the Ferndown Club, which incidentally is seeking new members
3. Two new members were appointed as Committee Members, without portfolio.

Several varied and most interesting one sheet displays were put up and explained after the meeting and before the "social".

Pneumatic mail was a way of transporting post using long tubes which transported cylinders by the use of compressed air. Mail had to be folded twice to fit into the cylinders, so used pneumatic mail will always have creases. The system was introduced in Vienna in 1875, initially operating from ten offices.
For some years special postal stationery was used. The first issue were letter sheets with 20 kr telegraph stamps, followed later by letter cards and then postal stationery cards which used current definitive stamps. The stationery was lightweight, with instructions on the back. The postal cards listed all the offices, which eventually numbered 31. The use of special stationery stopped after the hyper-inflation of the early 1920s.
Mail was posted in special pillar boxes, painted red rather than the yellow for ordinary mail. Letters were collected every ten minutes. At first the items only received a franking for the stamps, which showed the receipt time, but by the 1880s it was normal practice to add a second stamp indicating the delivery time.
In the early days the postal rate for pneumatic mail paid only the transit within Vienna, to go further required additional franking, but later on these rates paid for the whole journey. Pneumatic post was often used to send mail to the railway station for onward despatch by TPOs. Airmail to and from Vienna always went via pneumatic mail.
The service finally closed in 1956.
This was a very detailed display of stationery and frankings, based around the three-volume The Pneumatic Post in Vienna by Colin Tobitt and Andy Taylor.
James finished his display with two frames of Postablagen cancels from the Salzburg area. This was a system of rural mail, operating from very small places, perhaps just a hotel, and sometimes only operating for part of the year.

A good and varied range of items were auctioned during the evening, with many happy bidders returning home with their acquisitions.

Eleven members put up displays this evening, one for the first time, which was most encouraging. Tony started the displays with a frame of well-mounted FDCs and some inserts showing famous airships and how they were destroyed. Alan King followed with several themes drawn from the countries he collects Transport, Airmail stamps, many from his Landscapes of France collection, some of the "mirror" series and the Roman Gods stamps from France, and the Channel Tunnel. These were followed by the full sheet of GB A to Z of the British Isles, Birds of Britain on the Post & Go issues and finally his daughter's collection of worldwide underwater creatures. Rick Wilmot dispayed a broad collection of aerophilately, from the specialist John Field from Sutton Coldfield, including an Edward VIII FDI envelope. Michael Mawdsley drew from his extensive GB collection using examples of stamps featuring all three themes such as the Seahorse, and series like the Victory, RNLI, Battle of Britain and Inventions. David Wilkins used stamp sets from Greece and South Africa to exemplify air, sea and sky, including the delightful set of Greek watercolours. Finally, with his first display and covering sea only, James Mates used Belgium covers and pictorial postcards of ships to illustrate the transport of mail on the Ostend to Dover route by the Belgian Shipping Company, which had the added interest in that he had travelled this route many times and his father had been an officer on one of the ships.

Following the break, Mike Trickett put up an extensive collection on Lundy, an island featuring land sea and sky very well with its Puffins. Included in his display was a cover with a 1911 cancellation by the Royal Mail post office which was based on the island at the time. Ken Parrot used the Ellis and Gilbert Islands as the basis for his presentation, emphasing the use by these islands of land, sea and sky, for all sorts of activities, such as fishing and flower cultivation. Chris Wheeler followed with a frame of miniature sheets with the theme Holidays, showing land sea and sky for starting the holiday, enjoying the holiday and activiteies on holiday. Mike Houchen then displayed his comprehensive collection of Marine and Air/Sea Rescue stamps, covers and miniature sheets. Finally Wendy Buckle's display concentrated on the air aspect with a rare set of air mail covers from Latvia from 1921 to 1940, showing many routes and their development.

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As an introduction Claire explained that the evening’s display was just a part of her International Gold Medal Entry and that it was based on what she wanted and liked not on any pre-determined structural or catalogue guidelines, hence was personal and unique. The display was a collection of a wide range of material relating to the complete funeral process, starting with its history, steeped in Catholic tradition and symbolism, at every level form Royalty to peasant. A vast range of topics was covered, all with examples to illustrate the process from death to burial. Many international items were included.
Starting with the funeral business itself, the survivor choosing the coffin, the lining, the furniture, the type of funeral, the stationery, the advices and notifications, undertaker advertising, settling the bills, the types of service, wills, and many other forms of paperwork involved. Types of death from disease, murder, execution and terrorism were explored. The use of coffins for smuggling; death certificates, re-internments, memorial design, war deaths on land and sea were all illustrated. The use of the black borders and homemade stationery were all covered, as was the use of black seals and black wafers. Truly, a unique display and one all the audience thoroughly enjoyed and learned so much from.

Tony Arnold began the evening with two frames of mainly GB FDCs on the wide subject of Flora and Fauna, including some stamp club badges featuring "stamp bugs". Mike Houchen followed with stamps from all over the world, closing with some miniature sheets and covers. Ken Parrott also used FDCs as a base for displaying his range of Flora and Fauna from round the world, but included some gutter pairs and stamps from Tuvalu and Kiribati. Rick Wilmot concentrated on the beautiful and wide ranging stamps from Malawi, as well as some from South Africa. Ted Kemp followed with a display taken from a past competition entry showing three sheets of birds from countries within each of the five continents.

After the break Michael Mawdsley displayed a range of stamps depicting birds from the many Commonwealth countries, and included some fish as well. MikeTrickett put up an unusual display of postcards, christmas cards and greeting cards, many with a humourous theme covering birds, flowers and black cats. David Wilkins concentrated on the Spanish Colonies and Overseas Territories, with again examples of the beautiful wildlife living in those regions. Shirley Kemp focused on Czechoslovakia's many stamp issues from the 1950s and 1960s with designs in various formats and evolving styles, including some of the less well-known creatures such as beetles and doormice. Finally, Chris Wheeler focused on the Chinese Almanac displaying stamps and miniature sheets from many countries covering all twelve animals, noting the amazing artwork behind many of the designs.

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Brian Slade, with his first display to the Club, firstly thanked the Cub members for making him so welcome and for hosting such interesting meetings. He then described his very well written-up display, which was an extract from a wider collection of Eastern European "Great and Good" personalities. It was very well received, with stamps above descriptions of those portrayed, from the arts, politics, creative industries and social fields. Ken Parrott followed with items from Valetta in Malta and Queen Victoria, including one of only 400 or so de la Rue Specimens. He included ships starting with the letter W, WW2 aircraft and sets of stamps from countries beginning with V. Mike Houchen displayed lighthouses from countries beginning with V and W; then Rick Wilmot tackled what he described as the "philatelist's nightmare country", Vietnam. He put up a sheet showing all the Administrations that had issued stamps, starting with the French Colonial Administration in 1862. Bob Small chose W for war, and exhibited some very old newspapers and letters relating to Battles since 1746. He showed a vignette on a French letterhead depicting Villneuve's invasion force's intentions to land on the Pevensey beaches, and up the Thames. Tony Arnold closed the first half with three frames of postcards relating to many aspects of WW1 and WW2, some very serious, others comic or with slogans.

Michael Mawdsley started the second session with stamps from theVirgin Islands and Victoria, Australia. Alan King displayed Western Australia recounting several stories about the Black Swan, its varieties, forgeries and adaptaion of the Perkins Bacon 1d steel plate for other values. Mike Trickett, again brought humour to the evening with a rather stretched display of items relating the the letters V and W. Chris Wheeler displayed the complete set of stamps issued by Venda during its period of Independence from 1979 to 1994, commenting on the design of some of them. Finally, Wendy Buckle gave an excellent display of Writing materials, what was written on and the implements used to write, splitting them into animal, vegetable and mineral categories. Some amazing examples were displayed, especially the use of the mutton bird pie tree leaves in Stewart Island, one of the islands off New Zealand when all stocks of paper had run out.

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Two days before our Annual Fair, the Club held another successful Auction, with many lots for sale and sold.

The 2019 Annual Fair was generally very successful from everyone's point of view, with some major transactions taking place alongside the many smaller ones. Many Club members were on hand very early to set up and then to assist the dealers bring in and take out their many heavy boxes of sale items. The emergency arrangements for catering were most successful, as indeed were the takings for the Raffle. The Draw took place at 3:00pm with eight lucky winners.

Graham Mark’s display started with a frame of letters and photos of the first Commissioners of the Middle East who had taken over from Kitchener, starting with Sir Henry McMahon. He displayed some of the early cachets from the various units, and collecting these discovered that there were so many that he stopped after assembling about 100 of them. Until 1915 when the Turkish army joined the War, all mail had been chargeable, and consequently was of different interest to that of the freepost which followed. The routings and methods of carriage changed and some TPO material which had travelled along the coast of Egypt was shown, much of it emanating from Gallipoli. He gave examples of the many different troops and divisions deployed to the region, demonstrating excellent military historical knowledge as well as its associated philatelic examples. Some postcards were included to show for example the commandeered L&NWR's SS Hibernia, the armoured cruiser Jeanne d'Arc with its six funnels and the Lancashire Fusiliers Cycle Division. Many on-cover cancellation varieties were included, some of them very short-lived.
After the break, Graham, again explaining the military activities that occurred at that time, provided a wide range of material from the visiting forces from Italy, France and the ANZACs, together with the associated Egyptian censorship of the mail of the time, supplemented with a British censor office which in effect controlled all outgoing mail, some of it being held in storage from 1914 to 1919. Examples of this mail was displayed and provided the audience with material not seen before.

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Due to a clash with other activities, attendance was lower than usual this evening, however some excellent displays were put up for those present to enjoy. Among these was a display of stamps and miniature sheets by Rick Wilmot illustrating some of the commemorative sheets issued on the occasion of stamp festivals, both in GB and in Russia.

This title allowed a broad range of interpretations to the theme, which was readily adopted by many of the members in their displays.

Started by Mike Trickett, with a picture of the painting by Louis-Oscar Roy (1846-1911) entitled 'La Sameuse' and based on his model Charlotte Magot, this wonderful painting was the basis of many France issues of 'The Sowers', examples of which he used to introduce his display. He continued by showing members one of the earliest postcards of the Eiffel Tower and reminded members the quotation "Art is a revolt against fate". Michael Mawdsley followed with a range of GB stamps on a wide range of art-related topics. Ken Parrott showed examples of the eminent Maltese stamp designer Emvin Cremona, Flemish tapestries and works of Matisse. Mike Houchen drew stamps form his collection of some 2000 art images; then he showed examples of highly artistic lighthouse designs, especially from USA and Japan. Rick Wilmot drew examples from his extensive collection of Austrian artists, most unknown to members, but including Klimt and Schiele, all excellently written-up. David Wilkins concentrated on the heritage of Greek art on stamps, the ealiest being 1942, but so many subsequently, both by Greece and other postal authorities. After the break, Wendy Buckle put up a one frame display of stamps portraying covers of famous books, starting with the founding work of Western literature written by Don Quixote in 1616. She then explained the operation of World Book Day, celebrated everywhere in the world except GB on 23 April. Alan King showed his favourite stamp 'The Great Wave of Kangawa', amongst several other famous artists such as Renoir, Monet and Manet. He then referred to a separate side-display of mainly French and Hungarian stamps all featuring the works of other famious artists. He closed with part of his new collection of the English and French schools of artists' works on the stamps of Canada. Chris Wheeler followed with a frame of stamps depicting characters from children's stories. Mark Meyts also covered Belgium but looking at a range of diverse and largely unknown artists and their works, explaining their particular skills, finally Shirley Kemp displayed her presentation of well written-up 'PaintingsThrough the Ages' starting with the cave paintings, and ending with a frame of the work of Czeckoslovakian artists depicted on stamp from the1660s.

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Thursday 7 November, 2019
Guest Albert Jackson: "Anschluss. The German Annexation of Austria, 1938"

Different collectors take different approaches to their subject. Some love the detail of design or printing method of their stamps, some love the postal history of routes, rates and cachets, and some, like Albert, just love telling a good story, backed up by a wealth of philatelic knowledge. And the Anschluss, or Union, is a spectacular, if sobering, story. Certainly some of us in the audience had thought that Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938 was just a part of German expansionism, but we now know better. The story is much more complicated and nuanced than that.
The first half of the evening told the story of Austria from its defeat in World War I, and its loss of Empire, up to the events before the Anschluss. In 1918 Austria was financially and socially broken, and Austrians saw a merger with Germany as a way of strengthening their country. Their Emperor was asked to step down and the country became a republic, adopting the name Deutschösterreich or German Austria, led by a unified government of several main parties. However the following year at the Treaty of Saint-Germain the victorious Allies prohibited the union with Germany, and the country became the Republic of Austria, or Republik Österreich; stamps were overprinted Deutschosterreich, followed by independence issues with the same name. To honour the treaty, however, both sets of stamps had to be replaced with a new design with the name changed to Österreich. By the early 1920s two main political parties had emerged: the left-leaning Social Democratic Party and the right-leaning Christian Social Party. Clashes between them led to a rally in Vienna in 1923 which turned violent, armed police were sent in and 33 Social Democrats were killed. The angry crowd burnt the Palace of Justice to the ground. In 1932 the Christian Socialist Engelbert Doffuss was made Chancellor. He dissolved Parliament and declared martial law. Social Democrat leaders were arrested and some executed. In 1934 a group of Austrian Nazis attempted a coup against Dolfuss and broke into the Chancellery. Dolfuss was shot, trapped in the building, and died. Stamps and slogan cancels were issued in memory of the man. Dolfuss was replaced by Kurt Schuschnigg, who tried to resist pressure from Hitler for union by proposing a plebiscite on the issue. Hitler insisted the plebiscite be cancelled, which Schuschnigg agreed to on 11 March 1938. He then resigned.
Albert told the story of the Anschluss itself after the break. Hitler's ambitions for Austria being thwarted by Schuschnigg's opposition, Hitler arranged for a forged telegram to be sent from Austria requesting German troops. The country was invaded on 12 March; on the orders of the Austrian government, in order to avoid bloodshed the German troops met no resistance. A fieldpost system was set up immediately, with troops allowed to use the ordinary postal system for their free mail. The invasion was a popular one in Austria, and when Hitler himself arrived in Linz on the day of the invasion he was given an enthusiastic welcome. Such enthusiasm made him change his mind about keeping Austria as a puppet state; he now decided on full integration. A plebiscite was again arranged; stamps, cachets and slogan cancels were issued, and a train touring the country encouraging people to vote in favour was itself used as a voting booth. But there were also warnings of Hitler’s true beliefs: the small print on the voter registration card said that Jews could not vote. The plebiscite duly went ahead, with 99.75% of voters opting in favour of the Anschluss – a result that was printed before voting had ended.
This was a wonderful display, told with great clarity, bringing such an unhappy – and complex – period to life. It was illustrated with a wide range of philatelic material including stamps, covers, postal stationery and slogan postmarks, augmented by wonderful non-philatelic material including postcards, propaganda cards and cartoons.

Due to the weather and many competing events, numbers were low for this auction, but we were delighted to be able to welcome three new members to the Club

Chris Wheeler began the evening with a frame of mainly individual stamps on writers of poems, music and books from around the world. Ken Parrott then put up a display of stamps and miniature sheets from Malta which illustrated that country's history, the War between the Crosses and Crescents, fighting off the attempted invasion from the Ottoman Empire, and then some historical events in other countries depicted on Malta's stamps. Mark then took the floor and gave an excellent summary of the life of Bolivar and his conflicts against the Spanish Colonialists in South America and the esteem he still commands 200 years later. The relatively rare miniature sheet of Bolivar in Rome making his oath to rid South America of the Spanish was particularly striking. Rick Wilmot had chosen the Czechoslovakian novelist and story-teller Franz Kafta, with many stamps from Germany, lamenting that only one had been issued by his home country, and that was one of a pair with Chesterton. Shirley Kemp used stamps to trace the early history of GB with the Doomsday Book and Arthurian Legends before moving on to characters from Dickens, ending with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Michael Mawdsley concentrated on GB stamps featuring GB authors and their works followed by Tony Arnold who displayed the covers of 100 Penguin and Pelican books covering a wide range of authors and subjects.

After the break, Wendy Buckle put up a frame of mixed, mainly GB philatelic material on Books for Children, ending with three very colourful children's lettergrams. Alan King covered Australia and France using stamps to track the history of their production, referring to the current series of annual stamp sets being issued on this subject. He closed with a delightful miniature sheet depicting Tintin. Finally, Ted Kemp covered Turkey during the WWI period, with a well written-up display starting with the loss of GB produced stamps, when they declared war on GB and had to design their own. Many examples of their early issues were exhibited.

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Thursday 19th December 2019
Christmas Event, Party Night; Members displays of anything non-philatelic

21 members attended this year's party night and following examination of members' non philatelic displays and a very enjoyable hour around the huge table together, Tony Arnold entertained everyone first by trying to identify an historical medical item, which baffled everone, and then a pictorial quiz of 78 pictures of scenes from different TV Shows, starting with easy ones such as Dads Army and then movng on to more specialiast TV shows. The winner was Inah Wilkins with a score of 73. Inah had also very kindly offered to run the evening's raffle, which she did very professionally, raising money for Club Funds. The Chairman thanked the committee for their hard work during the year; to all those who had brought exhibits; food and raffle prizes,aned espiallcialy to Tony for arranging theTV Quiz, which had been very notalgic in many ways.

Tony Arnold started the evening with an overview of what the term Cinderella covered and then proceeded to show five frames of examples covering a wide range material includng College stamps, TV and National Savings, labels from Lundy, Scout Hall stamps and local mail. Mike Houchen followed with an array of local postals and labels issued by the many islands around the UK, all featuring lighthouses, including ferry and ship labels. Some overprints were included. Mark continued with his back-of-the-book collection of Belgium Railway stamps, a very extensive collection, imprinted in French and including the French Railways use of Belgian routing. These commenced in the 1860s, were plentiful and are still very popular. He showed examples of issues stolen by the Germans at the start and during the War, and countermeasures taken to ensure that the correct rates had been paid, with modified issues by the Railway Company. Rick Wilmot concentrated on a breakaway Principality set up in Wesrern Australia by Prince Leonard, called the Hutt River Principality. Many very interesting issues were released, used mainly by visitors, as there are now only about 30 permanent residents. Closing the second half Ray Saunders mounted two frames of stamps produced by Rushstamps for some of the Caribbean Counties, which blacked out their country name and were overprinted "Hampshire Local Mail" with the value, during the 1988 postal strike.
Mike Trickett put up some vignettes, stickers with perforations, labels, export control stickers, receipt stamps, local justice and postal staff training stamps, all from France. Wendy Buckle showed a range of Revenue stamps and their rubber stamp and preprinted precursors on documents going right back to 1639. The First Stamp Act came into force in 1694 and remained effective until 1861. She closed with some advertising labels. Finally, Chris Wheeler put up a frame of recent "Through My Door" covers with examples from around the world illustrating the different and up-to-date use of fama labels, bar codes and stickers to pay for and adorn their mail.

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Twelve of the eighteen members present this evening put up one or two sheet displays covering a broad range of topics with Islands as the theme, including one of our new members, Peter Roberts who displayed for the first time. Tony Arnold began with two frames of mainly postcards covering the Channel Islands, Malta and the Canary Islands. Peter Roberts defined what local stamps were and showed examples of them from some of the 41 English and 252 Scottish islands, including Sealand built during WWII, and now a private residence. Mark concentrated on the Galapagos Islands, showing stamps depicting some of the wonderful wildlife existing there on this province of Ecuador with a population of some 10,000. Ken Parrott concentrated on the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cyprus and the independent issues of Kiribati. Michael Mawdsley took a novel approach with a sheet of stamps on an island from each letter of the alphabet except the letter X. Mike Houchen put up a frame of presentation packs from Jersey, whilst Rick Wilmot put up several Year Packs from Aland, and a cover which had been opened (censored) by the Border Force. Ted Kemp put up finely illustrated covers each with a single mint stamp of a bird from a different country retained in a clear thin plastic sleeve. This was followed by Chris Wheeler who put up a frame of all the stamps issued by Madiera between 1980 and 2005, illustrating the wide scope of designs and themes used over the 25 years. Mike Trickett put up a rare example of a very early cover taken from Lundy to Bideford for postage, before the introduction of the local puffin stamps, as well as an airmail stamp used for mail takn to the mainland by plane from the small airfield on the island. Many examples of different papers, printings and other varieties were included. David Wilkins closed the evening with a frame of stamps from their inception, from the Island of Formosa. An excellent and varied evening which everyone enjoyed.

Mike Trickett opened the evening with a “mixed bag” of subjects, areas, format and interpretation of Space, starting with a selection of postcards, stamps on outer space, including humorous postcards of Germans looking at the passing of Haley’s comet, and ending with some pictures of the Satellite production and testing facility on the Isle of Wight from which 22 launches took place. Mark followed with a range of stamps from his “poor quality” collection, including stamps printed with cancellations already applied. Sets from Ecuador and Venezuela were concentrated on. Rick Wilmot put up a frame of used covers posted from all round the world, but all with Czechoslovakian stamps, featuring astronauts, each cover being well illustrated. The next frame was packed with stamps and a few FDCs from Ken Parrott, depicting sets from a host of countries, A to Z, covering many aspects relating to the space programme, all most colourful. Chris Wheeler interpreted space as an open area, with a frame of postcards showing views of Central Park, New York, explaining its development from rough ground 2½ miles by ½ mile, back in the 1850s. Tony Arnold displayed six frames, starting with stamps on a stellar wallpaper background, which was very effective, followed by postcards, miniature sheets, covers and the large holographic sheets issued by different countries showing the earth and space. Postmarks and space-related cancellations were included. The evening closed with a short article from The Telegraph showing the only Brexit stamp, one from Austria with Great Britain just a space on the map!

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There was a good variety of lots for sale, which included coins and memorabilia, as well as stamps and albums, with plenty of buyers at the evening's Spring Auction. It was good to be able to re-introduce the raffle which raised £29.00

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Thursday 16 September 2021
Members’ displays Acquisitions and write-ups since lockdown

At last the Club had the chance to meet in person, after an eighteen month break due to COVID-19. Following a discussion on the urgent need for a new committee, seven members displayed what they had been working on during lockdown.

Mike Mawdsley was unable to be present but provided four sheets of stamps whose designs particularly appealed: three sheets of Barbados featuring birds, orchids and flowers, a sheet of Bermuda showing wildlife and one of the British Virgin Islands showing fishes.

Ken Parrott has been working on the numbered handstamps applied by postmen in Malta to incoming mail from the Queen Victoria period. This is still a work in progress, and a selection of incoming foreign postcards were shown.

Bob Small showed a Napoleonic prisoner of war letter of 1813; plus a lockdown project. In 1797 the British Admiralty commissioned the building of a new prison for up to 7,000 Napoleonic prisoners of war. A painting was made of this prefabricated building and from this Bob built a 1:32 scale model of the blockhouse.

Alan King tested his nerve in an EBay auction for an early French stamp: the 1 franc vermilion in the Ceres head first issue of France, variety of colour. Trusting his judgement on colour he held out and purchased a bargain. He also showed examples of early French perforation experiments.

Tony Arnold brought some nostalgia with postcards and first day covers collected together as “When we were young” featuring various nostalgic subjects including Enid Blyton, Thunderbirds, the Wombles, and the circus.

Rick Wilmot started by passing on greetings from ex-member Mike Trickett, now living in Spain. He then put up a collection few in the audience knew about: the Philatelic Department run by the London department store Selfridges, which provided a British Colonial New Issue Service as supplied by the Crown Agents. While the store itself is well-documented much less is known about that department.

Bill Pipe finished the evening with his lockdown projects: two new collections, firstly Railway Letter Stamps then Postal and Internal Markings of the Royal Navy.

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At our second meeting since the club started up again post-covid eight members displayed items on the theme Going postal.
Ken Parrott started the meeting with registered envelopes and fieldpost covers, most of them featuring censor marks; plus sea mail and miscellaneous covers.
David Wilkins concentrated on Belgian railway parcel stamps. Belgium had a comprehensive railway mail system, and if an item was very light it went by road, if it was very heavy it went by rail, but otherwise senders could choose the mode of transport, with post offices selling railway stamps and railways selling post office stamps.
Ted Kemp showed a detailed study of early Turkey. Prior to 1840 Turkey had been part of the Ottoman Empire, and latterly became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had over 40 post offices in Turkey. The first postage stamps were issued in 1842, with the use of seals before that.
Rick Wilmot brought along a new interest of his – the Spanish Civil War. Many of the covers featured added labels and censor marks, some were advertising covers, including one with an advertisement for His Master Voice (but of course in Spanish).

One sideline to stamp collecting which few of us consider is keeping a file of newspaper clippings to do with postal services. Tony Arnold put up a very entertaining collection, including headlines “End of hero messengers who resisted the tyrants, honeytraps and pirates”, “Fleasy Street”, “Sting in the mail”, “Postman nicks Queen’s letter”, and “Final moments of war hero pigeon”.
Barry Hobbs used lockdown to start a new collection: the private mail carriers of Colombia. A terrain that stretched from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans plus the Andes running through caused major challenges for the rail companies in building their lines. Legislation in 1859 decreed that the mail service should not be a monopoly of the federated state, so towns, cities, small companies and individuals set up their own services, most of which have never been properly documented.
Mike Houchen’s collection concentrated on lighthouses, but here he put up Jersey issues showing not only lighthouses, principally Corbiere, but also Martello towers, resulting in a display of the navigational marks of Jersey.
Wendy Buckle finished the evening with a frame of Latvia postage dues; firstly those covers posted in Latvia sent either internally or abroad, then covers posted abroad sent to Latvia. Charges were indicated either by cachets, including the international ‘T’ mark, or – for foreign mail – by postage due stamps.

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The meeting opened with Mike Houchen informing the group that Wendy Buckle has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London (FRPSL). This news was well received.

The theme tonight for members displays was ‘Stamps only’. The review of responses for committee members was postponed until the AGM on 2nd December.

Mike Houchen began with ‘Lighthouses of Croatia’. He had also brought along three books on the topic.

Ken Parrott showed stamps of Tuvalu and Kiribati both being renamed from the Gilbert and Ellis Islands. I nice display including Fish, Birds, Flora etc. including Specimen stamps.

Rick Wilmot displayed the complete year, 1935, of stamps from the USSR. These included the opening of the Moscow Underground, the ill-fated SS Chelyuskin and the single overprinted stamp of the flight between the USSR and the US.

Tony Arnold showed the group a collection of ‘Stamps on Stamps’. An interesting lot from many different countries.

Mike Mawdsley showed stamps of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies, Graham Land etc. Included were the Silver Wedding stamps and the Map stamps of the area.

Shirley Kemp showed two topics, first the Europa stamps from c. 1956, from different European countries, and secondly to reminding us that Christmas isn’t far away showing stamps with Christmas motifs.

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Mike Houchen opened the meeting stating that although most positions have been filled to keep the club alive there is still a need for a new Chairman. The next meeting on 2nd December will be the AGM where decisions will need to be made.

Mike Houchen started with a journey around the British Isles showing Cinderella stamps with Lighthouses.

Ken Parrott showed his collection of Malta beginning with the early QV stamps through to QEll.

Alan King had brought his collection of Cape of Good Hope triangular stamps explaining different prints and papers used, and the connection with these stamps to Stanley Gibbons. Also, a page of forgeries.

Brian Snape showed a collection of 1945/6 Hungarian stamps explaining the ultra-inflationary period of the time.

Tony Arnold brought a display of New Zealand material including postcards and, covers and postmarks from different towns in NZ.

Shirley Kemp showed two topics of Czechoslovakian stamps beginning with Czech Art and Artists and followed with Flora and Fauna of Czechoslovakia.

David Wilkins brought a collection of Indian Feudal States together with a written page on the principle Indian native States.

Wendy Buckle brought some of her Latvia collection. These were the 1918/19 definitive stamps, some printed on German maps, and other different types of paper.

Rick Wilmot showed an early collection of Australia from 1913 – 1932 including overprinted and perforated official stamps, and followed with stamps of the Australian Antarctic Territory.

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Thursday 2 December, 2021
AGM. Plus members’ displays One sheet from everyone

This meeting being the AGM began with the business of officer’s reports. All posts for a new committee had been filled ensuring the future of the club.

The evening’s theme was ‘One sheet from each member’. These were as follows:

Beginning with a M/S from David Wilkins. Mike Houchen showed ships from Mozambique. Brian Snape followed on from the last meeting with a page of Hungary Inflation stamps. Alan King showed three designs of the first Canadian Christmas stamps from 1898. Ken Parrott showed multiple value strips of Machin GB definitives. Rick Wilmot brought 2012 joint issue from France and USA showing Miles Davis and Edith Piaf. Robin and Maxine Humphries showed some overprinted stamps from Anguilla, the 1977 Royal Tour of the Caribbean. Mike Mawdsley showed a page of the 1978 Bermuda wildlife stamps. Tony Arnold had a picture postcard of an old post box in Birmingham. Ted Kemp showed first world war overprints from the Ottoman Empire. Shirley Kemp brought a page of music in philately with the Gilbert and Sullivan GB set. Wendy Buckle showed a copper engraving used for a Swiss postage stamp.

Twelve members plus ones, came along to the Christmas social evening. David Wilkins (Chairman) welcomed everyone. There was plenty of food and drink available.

The raffle in memory of Theresa Saunders, who had sadly passed away recently, raised £25 for club funds.

There were just two displays, one from Tony Arnold with some local pictures of Lytchett Minster, and the other from Shirley Kemp with a display of the art work of Czechoslovakian artist Vaclav Jansa.

The evening ended with the chairman thanking everyone for their contributions and, hopefully, looking forward to an interesting philatelic 2022.

Brian Snape began with a selection of material from Eastern Europe. Mike Houchen with Lighthouses from the former Yugoslavia. Alan King also showed Yugoslavia together with African countries beginning with Z. Similarly, Michael Mawdsley showed material from Zanzibar, Zimbabwe and Zambia. New member, Simon Adams brought interesting perfins, Y pictured below. Dave Wilkins had decided that X could be interpreted as EX and showed some ex Italian colonies. Rick Wilmot showed a Danish cover depicting Xerxes, a mural in a Danish church, together with some Yemen miniature sheets. And finally, Mike Goodman had brought some novel USA material including a leather postcard.

The meeting opened with Wendy Buckle speaking about the forthcoming
competition evening on 3rd March and encouraged members to take part.

Ken Parrott, with modern pop music including several examples of Paul McCartney on stamps.
Mike Houchen, Austrian musicians.
Brian Snape, folk music and dance of Eastern Europe.
Rick Wilmot, several Romantic Era stamps and covers inc. a 1933 Austrian stamp showing the first ever musical bars on a stamp
.Alan King, Musicians of France, Edith Piaf, Jazz.
Tony Arnold, showed a good mixture of musical material, personalities, instruments etc.

After a break Rick Wilmot showed 5 sheets relating to Jenny Lind, aka The Swedish Nightingale.
Mike Goodman showed some USA material, a sheet with opera singers, and other USA stamps with American musicians.
And finally, Dave Wilkins put up various music related stamps inc. the British Gilbert & Sullivan set.

Ken Parrott. A selection of Commonwealth stamps and covers including Malta.
Alan King. 21st century material from France, Australia and NZ.
Rick Wilmot. Mushrooms from Malawi and Lesotho plus cards showing herbs.
Dave Wilkins (Chairman). Selection of stamps from South America.
Tony Arnold. Large display of everything to do with food.
Mike Mawdsley. Selection from Nicaragua, Australia, Newfoundland and Canada.
Finally, Brian Snape. Eastern Europe stamps showing recipes such as fried snake and elephant soup.

The meeting closed with the Chairman reminding members about the competition evening on 3rd March.

The first auction of 2022 brought in 22 members and one visitor. There were plenty of lots available.

Everybody who had entered this year’s annual competitions was invited to show their exhibit and tell the audience a bit about it. The winners were:

General Philately winner: Rick Wilmot with Stamps of Slovenia 1919 – 1921. The Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was created following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I. The exhibit shows the various series of stamps issued by Slovenia shortly after independence: the Chainbreakers, the Three Falcons, Angel of Peace, King Peter I, newspaper stamps and postage dues.

Thematic Philately winner: Rick Wilmot with Philately of the German Leipzig Fair paintings. The Leipzig Fair dates back to the Middle Ages. First mentioned in 1165, Otto the Rich, Margrave of Meissen, organised the fairs under his protection. This display covered the history of the Fair, including its famous double-M symbol and the series of 12 art stamps issued to commemorate the Fair, shown through covers and cards.

Open Philately winner: Tony Arnold with First hundred years of the TT races. First day covers, PHQ cards and stamps all illustrated the Isle of Man TT races from 1907 – 2007. Famous riders were shown, including Sammy Miller, now aged 89, who raced in the 1950s and 1960s, and who now runs the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum at New Milton.

Picture Postcard winner: Ray Saunders with World War II vintage movie posters. These picture postcards were graphic reproductions of 24 World War II films, including famous ones such as ‘Reach for the Sky’ and ‘The Cruel sea’. Many of them can still be found on television channels today. The posters are themselves art works of stunning design.

The other competitors who showed their exhibits were Mike Goodman, Mike Houchen and Brian Snape.

Mr. John Davis was the guest. He gave us a very comprehensive display of philatelic material of Venice. Many stamps and postcards depicting bridges, buildings, the Grand Canal and St Mark’s Square. A fascinating journey through the history of Venice. Many stamps from different countries dedicated to preserving the artistic heritage of Venice and the USA and UNESCO Save Venice Campaign. The cover addressed to Moscow is particularly interesting because it shows being posted on 7 June 1896 and received 29th May 1896, due to the difference in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Later in the display a complete series of stamps from Trieste, Zones A/B, 1947-1954, and Istria followed by some modern postcards nicely rounded of an enjoyable evening.

Mike Mawdsley began the evening with a display of Saints on stamps including St. George, St. Patrick, followed by Ugandan Saints, Indian and more from different countries. Ken Parrott showed Saints from Malta which is predominantly a Catholic country. Then other Saints found around Britain. Rick Wilmot followed with an Italian cover showing a stamp of St. Francis of Assisi together with Elvis Presley stamps from St Vincent. Also, a copy of an article from a 1937 Stamp Magazine entitled ‘Saints on Postage Stamps’ by Henry Cater. Ray Saunders brought several pages of stamps from St. Lucia, St. Christopher, St. Helena and others, a really good display. Tony Arnold mentioned St. Dunstan from the building next door and other local material. Also showed stamps of St. Lucia and St. Vincent. Finally, Wendy Buckle brought a display of Saints on paintings including those of the four gospels, then the Book of Kells and other bible stories on stamps.

The Chairman and Secretary gave their reports. The Treasurer's report was adopted, and all previous committee members were re-elected unopposed.

Members had been asked to bring one sheet for display. Rick Wilmot began with a complete sheet of 100 in a frame depicting 1914 Russian charity stamps. Mike Houchen; Ladybird Book stamps 2017 GB. Ray Saunders; QE2 Europe stamps and booklets. Alan King; advertising on reverse side of stamps. Tony Arnold; Shakespeare covers. Ken Parrott; early Malta. Simon Adams KGVl stamps of Swaziland showing shade and perforation differences. Wendy Buckle; Cayman Islands and hand painted postcards of different material. Finally, Cheryl with a page of commonwealth UPU stamps.

Tonight’s topic was ‘Designers’. Ken Parrott began with a display of Arnold Machin, David Gentleman and other British designers together with Emvin Cremona, a Maltese stamp designer.

Mike Houghton showed lots of Lighthouses and their designers. Interesting stuff on the building of lighthouses including history of John Smeaton, among others, who designed the famous Eddystone Lighthouse.

Rick Wilmot contributed with stamps designed by Edmond/Edmund Dulac of the 1945 French stamps of Marianne printed in London. Other designers shown were Czeslaw Slania and Martin Mörck.

David Wilkins also showed Dulac’s design of Marianne together with other series of Free France, printed in London.

Wendy Buckle showed line engraved stamps and spoke about the art of line engraving with stamps from Argentine also Slania material..

"Our guest speaker Mr. Len Yandell gave a very comprehensive talk on his Le Havre display. He spoke about the history of Le Havre and the twinning with Southampton.
The number 1769 cancellation on stamps of old France was the number of Le Havre.
Apart from the main topic there were some nice items depicting the SS Normandie which are collectable in their own right.
The ship, registered in the Port of Le Havre had its Maiden voyage: 29 May 1935.

The auction evening went reasonably well with several bidders in the room. This was the last auction in its present format and the next two auctions will be trials to see if they can be run better (see below).

Firstly, thank you for your support for our auctions whether that has been as a seller, bidder, or helper.

The Club’s Committee met in May and decided to make some changes in the format of our auctions which we hope will result in
More emphasis on philatelic items
Better descriptions to help buyers
Attracting more material and more bids for that material.

Today’s event on 7th July has been conducted as before but our remaining philatelic auctions this season on 1st September & 17th November will be in the new format & we regard these as a trial & a learning experience!

The proposed changes will affect mostly sellers:
I will compile a list of lots and email this to everyone interested about 3 weeks before the auction date. I will need your auction entries emailed to me as plain text or as a Word document attachment about 4 weeks before the event. The deadline for the auction on 1st September will be Friday 5th August. If you need help with your description, please phone me first.

The auction list will include a lot number which I will issue, the seller’s description & his/her reserve. The minimum reserve, as now, will be £1. I will try to correct obvious errors or typos but I must stress it’s the seller’s responsibility to give a good description to include (for stamps) country name, date & name of issue, appropriate cat numbers, plus the usual u/un/lmm/umm descriptors. Covers & postcards need a publisher, date if known, subject matter, colour/B&W/used/unused/stamped/addressed descriptor. Collections can be well described by noting the album type and terms such as clean, remaindered, scruffy, etc etc.

We will take as lots other collectibles such as coins & books or paper items intended to provide background information for members’ collections or displays. Lots should be well packed to withstand the viewing process, or in tins, packets, boxes, etc etc. Bric-a-brac (toys, ornaments, household items etc) will not be accepted for our philatelic auctions, but we will hold a first non-philatelic auction on 1st December & regularly thereafter if this proves popular.

Sellers will be allocated lot numbers, which please show clearly in red on your lots. A description or the seller’s identity is not needed. There will be NO lotting or entry fees, but the 10% commission charge remains.

As now, sellers should bring their numbered lots on the night at 19 00 & place them tidily on the tables where places for each group of numbers will be shown. If you are unable to bring them yourself, please ask another member to do this for you (& take away any unsolds). Payout of realisations will be on the night as now. Late lots will not be accepted. Lots which are missing on the night will be considered as withdrawn.

Bidders will not notice any difference, except that you will have the lots list emailed to you well before the night. If you want a hard copy you will need to print it yourself. If you don’t have email, please let me know so that I can make a printed copy for you to pick up at the last normal Thursday Club meeting before the auction. Please understand that the high costs of printing, envelopes & postage make it impossible for the Club to consider mailing out auction lists to everyone. But there will be NO buyer’s premiums.

As usual, the auctioneer’s decisions are final & he has complete discretion over the conduct of the sale in the room.

The meeting opened with a visitor from Kent who spoke about a project called The South East England On-line Philatelic Society. It is open to everybody and they already have members from Europe. (See flyer attached).

Because of the postponement of Brian Snape’s display the topic on ‘Occupations’ scheduled for 4 August, was brought forward to this evening.
The topic of "Occupations" covers masses of philatelic material and all ten displays covered many of them.

Mike Houghton began with material showing ships, lifeboats etc and the people who worked on them.
Ken Parrot - many occupations including military, fire and rescue, red cross, buses of Malta and others.
Alan King – WW2 occupation of the Channel Islands, stamps and postcards.
Tony Arnold – American occupations including tradesmen, blacksmiths, leather workers, railway men etc.
David Wilkins – Italian Occupations during WW2, mining, steel and agriculture on German stamps. Also, eastern European occupations including the Russian definitives Workers, Soldiers, Peasants. Finland Red Cross and Belgian railway stamps.
Mike Mawdsley – Commonwealth countries, tourism, health, transport, local government, flying doctors and others.
Rick Wilmot – Occupations of Copernicus, who had a dozen or more occupations during his lifetime including astronomer, mathematician, writer, economist, diplomat etc.
Mike Goodman – postcards of Egypt and the Red Sea.
Wendy Buckle – Brief history of paper making and watermarks.
Simon Adams – WW2 Channel Islands and the making of the occupation stamp.

The evening was dedicated to a three part display by Brian Snape on the Hungarian engraver Sándor Légrády.

"Sándor Légrády (1906-1987) studied at the Goldsmith’s Department of the Academy of Applied Arts and at the Decorative Painting Department of the Faculty of Glass Painting at the Budapest School of Applied Drawing. In 1929 he became a graphic artist at the printers Állami Nyomda, where he designed postage stamps and securities. His first stamp was issued in 1932. This set of stamps on St Elizabeth not only marked the beginning of his career – it was also a milestone in the history of the printing works as these were the first stamps made there using photogravure technology. After this, he received a string of commissions for designs. He continued working during WW2 and was appointed state secretary in 1941. His name is associated with saving the treasures of the Matthias church. In 1948 he resumed work as a stamp designer. In 1953 he received one of the highest accolades in his art at the “Madonna Stamps” exhibition in Aachen, where he won third prize for his stamp ”Patrona Hungariae”. His work includes 100 commemorative and regular stamps, sets of stamps and miniature sheets featuring outstanding figures from Hungarian history and culture, and major events. He worked in the Állami Nyomda in Budapest’s Castle District until he was 74."

"The History of the Salvation Army",
then
"The Cause, Cure and History of the Plague Pandemics"

Beginning as The Christian Mission, the Salvation Army began with William Booth, the founder and subsequently his wife Catherine Mumford. The display followed the history of the organisation. The SA became involved in many disasters including the major 20th century wars where they established canteens, organized recreational activities such as concerts or sporting events, provided reading material and stationery, comforted the wounded, or even helped bury the dead. In short, they did whatever was necessary to help maintain military morale. The SA had structured itself on army principles with officers etc. and brass bands which were popular on the streets of the UK. In the early days the SA campaigned for social rights, women’s suffrage. The SA is now a world-wide organization. The story from beginning to end was well received by the members and there was plenty of material for discussion.

The second half of the meeting was equally well received with the History of Plagues. Lots of philatelic material was used to portray the significance and disasters of plagues. The Bubonic Plague was the main subject and how it spread from fleas and rats to the human population through clothes and even letters. The airborne Pneumonic Plague was equally disastrous attacking the lungs of humans. And for all of our advances in medicine, plagues have not been defeated.

The meeting closed with a presentation to Chris and a plea from David Wilkins to return with more of his amazing philatelic knowledge.

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"This was not the first auction the Club has held this year, but it was the first where we have been able to circulate a list of lots in advance, set out under headings such as 'covers', 'cards' and 'stamps-Europe'. We hope this makes it easier for buyers to find material of interest. Indeed, European and foreign stamps attracted most of the bids, with "GB" lagging behind as usual, except for some specific booklet panes which found a keen new owner.

We have worked hard to devise our new arrangements and maybe there is still some refining to be done, but many thanks to the behind-the-scenes team for pulling off an event which we hope buyers will find increasingly attractive and our vendors will find increasingly rewarding. And of course I must mention our indefatigable auctioneer, Tony Arnold, who achieved a greater salse rate than at our last auction, and the raffle tickets sold by Cheryl Whitby. Our clubs and societies continue to face difficult times which prompt us to improve our attractiveness to members and stabilise our financial position."

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The topic was ‘Flight’. It proved to be wide and varied and somewhat amusing with flying insects to flights of stairs.

Mike Houchen began with birds from around the coast including I.O.M. and Lundy, insects and more birds on Austrian covers. This was followed by Lighthouses on postcards showing lighthouse steps.

Rick Wilmot showed the complete issues of the Free France, Fairey Airplane, stamps from the 13 French Settlements around the world issued at different times during WW2. Also, two USA covers with Earhart and Lindbergh cachets.

Tony Arnold’s display included almost everything from Bats, Flies, Butterflies and Concorde.

Brian Snape had a frame of postcards depicting flights of stairs in a hotel in Newcastle.

David Wilkins followed with flight related material from Lithuania, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, Romania. He also spoke about the Aviation Funds of the latter two countries.

Alan King’s display included historical postcard of an airfield in Bournemouth c.1910. Also some pretty scarce Air stamps from France including the Merson stamps with overprints.

Simon Adams showed some interesting SW Africa and Sudan stamps, including a Selfridge cover with an aircraft in the cancellation.

Tony Arnold rounded of the evening with more Flight related material including Flying Flags…

Nine members turned up for the ‘Centenaries’ evening. Five displays of varying character including;

Mike Houchen with a display of Austrian stamps saying that nearly all stamps of Austria were centenaries of something or other. A good display.

Mike was followed by Tony Arnold who had covered five of the six boards with a plethora of centenarian material mostly from GB.

After a break Rick Wilmot (making sure the door was open, just in case) put up eight sheets showing centenaries of early 20th century Ireland including a full set of the first stamps of GB overprinted with Provisional Government of Ireland. Also, historical commemorative stamps and covers of the Dublin Lockout, James Connelly, Jim Larkin etc.

Next, Alan King showed centenary stamps from France, GB, Australia and Canada. Including a complete sheet of the 1949 Ceres Centenary stamp, (lucky man). The Australia stamps were centenary stamps from each State.

Finally, our Chairman, David Wilkins, showed stamps from Mexico, Austria and some nice material from the USA of the 1776/1976 Bicentennial stamps.

The meeting opened with 20 members in attendance.

Opening comments explained the vastness of Space Philately and how this display hardly scratched the surface. Beginning with Dr. Edmund Halley and then Tsiolkovsky himself, who was greatly influenced by Jules Verne, the Journey into Space took off.

Covers stamps and pictures showing the first Earth life to be sent into Space before humans included Fruit Flies, Rabbits, Dogs, Cats and Chimpanzees among many other species. This was followed by Sputnik in 1957 and lots of material on the first Cosmonauts and especially the Chief Designer, Sergei Korolev. Gagarin, Titov, Tereshkova, Leonov were the first better known Cosmonauts, and many others followed on stamps and covers, some signed, of the time.

Several covers signed by Cosmonauts at the 29th IAF Congress held in Dubrovnik in 1978 were included in the display. Material from the ESA (European Space Agency), covers and stamps from the European Space Port situated in Kourou in French Guiana where rockets carrying satellites are launched. Stories on Space disasters were backed up with philatelic material from East European countries. Other Space material from around the world was on display, also a Russian newspaper, Pravda, announcing the untimely death of Yuri Gagarin.

With all the disasters, competition between world powers, Soviet and American collaboration on the ISS shown in the display, the last of 180 sheets mentioned Elvis Presley. In 1973 a concert entitled ‘Aloha from Hawaii’ was beamed around the planet using a Global Communication Satellite floating around in Space. Finally, an interesting note. Alexie Leonov, the first cosmonaut to leave the Space Ship and ‘walk in Space,’ was also an accomplished artist. After his space walk, he designed a stamp to commemorate the event. The design was refused by the Soviet authorities because the drawing was of the actual space ship used. Back to the drawing board, Leonov designed another stamp which was accepted.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 3rd November 2022

"Cinderellas" - Members

First up was Mike Houchen with Cinderella material from around the UK including Drake Island, Bardsey, Eynhallow, Sanda, Davaar, Herm and other Channel Island labels etc. Lots of interest esp. the location of these islands.

Brian Snape amazed everybody by showing stamps and labels actually portraying the Cinderella of glass slippers fame.

Tony Arnold had many Cinderella stamps and labels of scouts, cigarettes, strike stamps and emergency post stamps.

Wendy Buckle displayed a selection of Exhibition sheets from Stampex and other attractive Cinderella material.

Rick Wilmot brought his collection of the Hutt River Province which was located in Western Australia, the story of which had come to an end in 2020 after 50 years in existence.

Mike Goodman rounded off the evening by showing some weird Cinderellas, and a newspaper cutting with a story about Angus McDonagh, who calls himself the ‘anarchist philatelist’, from the Telegraph in 2012.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 17th November 2022

Winter Auction

"The last auction of the year took place last night, 17th November, with 18 people including visitors present. As usual there was a large range of material on offer with some items, especially stock books, exceeding reserves. There was postal history, commemorative covers, specialist GB booklet panes and one-country collections that were eagerly bid for with satisfied collectors taking away their wins! And a super raffle with lots of prizes.

As always, Tony Arnold, Chief Auctioneer, was on top form and managed c. 260 items.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 1st December 2022 - "Festivals"

Ken Parrott began with Christmas in Malta and mentioning Bethlehem in Wales. Bethlehem is a tiny farming village in the county of Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Brian Snape showed us some material from Hungary and gave a brief history of Christmas in that country from pre-communist days, through the communist period and its eventual return to Catholicism. Some interesting cards and covers.
Rick Wilmot brought philatelic items and publicity material of Elvis Presley based on the Elvis Festival held annually at Porthcawl, South Wales. Covers from the USA and Germany were part of the display, including a card sent to members of the public in the USA to choose between two designs of Elvis for the forthcoming issue in 1993.
Mike Mawdsley displayed material depicting the Festival of Britain, Europa Festival, the Garden Festival in Liverpool, together with stamps of festivals in Tanzania.
Tony Arnold Had the largest display which he split into two halves. Plenty of Christmas covers and postmarks of festivals mainly GB material.
After a break Chairman David Wilkins showed stamps etc. of GB and Switzerland.
Wendy Buckle showed material of Book Fairs in Germany and other countries. She also showed UNESCO World Book Day/Week promoting literacy around the world.
Mike Goodman displayed Canada Royal visit 1959 and the first sheet of the USA ‘Celebrate the Century’ series which is the name of a series of postage stamps made by the United States Postal Service featuring images recalling various important events in the 20th century in the United States. Also, a range of M/Ss showing a Chinese festival, Ramadan and others.
Finally, Tony Arnold Part 2. Many more Christmas covers and postmarks.

All in all, an interesting evening.

Rick Wilmot

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Thursday 8th December 2022 - Christmas Social
(with displays of anything non-philatelic)

It was fun and games at the Xmas social with members and guests enjoying a good feed. Members brought ‘anything but stamps’ and displayed them around the room. It is amazing what people collect. Some examples; navigation aids including a sextant; fishing rods; ceramic bottles from KLM the Dutch airline; books of Tea Cards; a page of trade union badges and four frames of funny road signs…

Tony Arnold (of the funny road signs) brought a couple of guessing games. All good fun.

A successful raffle brought in a few quid for the Club.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL WHO READ THIS AND HAPPY STAMPING IN 2023.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Club Programme for 2023

January	5th	Members' displays	"1923"
January	19th	"Guest" - Brian Snape	Janos Kass
February	2nd	Members' displays	Overprints, watermarks and postmarks
February	16th	Members' displays	Kings and Queens
March	2nd	Competition Evening	Green Cup, Harry Parsons Shield, Thematic Cup, Barry Proctor Cup, John Hilton Trophy and Novice Trophy
March	16th	Spring Auction	Formal auction
April	6th	Competition evening two and awards	Bill Way Shield
*April*	*8th*	*Ferndown Fair and Inter-Club Competitions*	*At Hamworthy Club*
April	20th	"Guest" Barry Hobbs	Mind your Ps and Qs - Pills, Potions and Quackery of North America
May	18th	AGM	Single sheet from all
June	1st	Guest Chris Wheeler	People of Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire on Stamps
*June*	*3rd*	*Ringpex 2023*	*At Greyfriars Community Centre*
June	15th	Guests Nick & Janet Nelson	An Evening in Brazil
July	6th	Summer Auction	Formal auction
July	20th	"Guest" Ted Kemp	Turkey
August	3rd	Members' displays	Holidays
August	17th	"Guest" Mike Goodman	United States of America 1851 - 2011
September September	7th 9th	Members' displays Club Fair (Saturday 10-4)	Agriculture and Horticulture At Upton Community Centre, BH16 5JA
September	21st	Autumn Auction	Informal auction
September	23rd	Hampex 2023	At Wickham Community Centre
October	5th	Members' displays	Postal services
October	19th	Guest Julian Jones	Transatlantic Mail between USA and GB
November	2nd	Members' displays	Crests, flags and banners
November	16th	Winter Auction	Formal auction
December	7th	Members' displays	Christmas
December	21st	Christmas Social	Members' displays of anything non-philatelic

Thursday 5th January 2023
Members - "1923"

Everybody wished everybody else a Happy New Year
Just four displays which were dominated by the disastrous inflation period across Europe in 1923.
Rick Wilmot began with the German inflation which ravaged the country and was the result of the chaos and occupation of Germany following WW1. Most of the stamps for 1923 were shown.
Alan King followed with stamps of France including the very desirable 1923 Merson stamps, mint and used, with the overprint, 1923 Philatelist Congress in Bordeaux. Also, the only 1923 stamp from NZ, and the Newfoundland 1923 set.
Next, Brian Snape showed stamps from Hungary during their period of inflation.
And finally, Chairman David Wilkins showed us several sheets of stamps from across Europe from 1923 and before and after including the Merson stamps overprinted in German Marks. Other stamps of the period came from Danzig, Hungary, Jugoslavia, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Fiume and Russia, among others.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 19th January 2023
"Guest" - Brian Snape with "Janos Kass"

Tonight’s meeting was given over to member Brian Snape. Brian showed a remarkable study of Janos Kass.

János Kass (December 26, 1927 – March 29, 2010 was a Hungarian illustrator, printmaker, graphic designer, postage stamp designer, animated film director and teacher. Born in Szeged, he was the storyboard artist for the first fully digital animated film and died March 29 in Budapest.
From 1961 to 1962, he was assistant professor at the Book-Art Academy in Leipzig, Germany.
Kass regularly took part in every major national exhibition at home and abroad. He had one-man shows in Italy (1963), Australia (1970) and Switzerland (1976). He participated in the Venice Biennial (1960), the Youth Biennial in Paris (1961), and Biennials in Lugano, Tokyo, Ljubljana, São Paulo and Buenos Aires, along with "Intergrafik" exhibitions in Berlin.
Some of the material by Kass are shown below including a photograph of Kass himself.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 2nd February 2023
"Overprints, Watermarks, Postmarks" - Members

Ten members put up displays on the topic as follows:

Ken Parrott, Watermarks of early Malta Crown CC and Crown CA, together with an array of overprints from GB and Commonwealth countries.
Mike Houghton, Many examples of Lundy overprints, Royal Visit and Balloon Flights. A splendid section.
Brian Snape, Hungary watermarks. Redrawn and intensely worked on to show the differences in watermark design.
Rick Wilmot, A large selection of 1960s slogan postmarks showing prominent life features in France at the time.
Alan King, Early GB with Maltese Cross cancellations on a great selection of Penny Blacks and Twopenny Blues; also, the Ceres stamps of France with different cancellations and overprints.
Tony Arnold, GB club postmarks and many others on many covers.
Following a tea break and a natter the meeting resumed with:

David Wilkins (Chairman), Third Reich overprints. An interesting study.
Mike Goodman, Something different with USA Tax stamps, Newspaper Issues and Canada Weights & Measures stamps.
Alan took the floor again with Tasmania Landscapes, TPOs, WA overprints together with Middle East overprints.
Simon Adams showed us material from Fiji and Tonga.
Ken returned with Concorde and Ships cancellations.
Finally, rounding off a very interesting evening, Wendy Buckle displayed a history of watermarks first documented in 1593, then through the centuries of paper making.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 16th February 2023
"Kings and Queens"

A right Royal evening was enjoyed by 18 members with lots of philatelic (and other) material showing Kings and Queens from around the world.
Ken P. began with a range of monarchs from different countries including GB showing subtle differences in designs of QE ll aging. The Egyptian King Farouk appeared in the display.
Michael M. showed Queen Victoria on stamps from the colonies, monarchs around Europe and the Queen of Tonga who came to Britain for Coronation Day. Other material included Edward Vlll and the 1969 Guernsey series.
Rick W. had a display of one country’s royalty, namely Spain. Some letter sheets from the 1860s with stamps of Isabel ll, followed by many colourful stamps of the Kings of Spain post Franco.
Alan K. showed the stamps he could find of a King and Queen together on stamps, including the top value of the 1937 Australia set.. A GB series of Royal Houses from Norman to Windsor. Also, the GB omnibus series of 1937 and 1946.
Mike G. Showed Canada/Newfoundland noting that Queen Elizabeth ll had been on stamps for ninety years the first being the 1932 Newfoundland stamp with her as Princess Elizabeth.
Tony A. had a display with a difference showing material depicting Tutankhamun, 1066 (and all that), the SS Queen Mary, the legendary King Arthur, the King of rock-n-roll, and Tarzan King of the Jungle. Lots of covers and other Royalty were in the display.
Finally, Chairman David W. had brought along stamps of Belgium from WW1 and the following decades. Most stamps from Belgium have a charity surcharge, the money used for the sick, esp. those with TB.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 2nd March 2023
Competition Evening - Members

The judge this year was Julian Jones, who examined a total of five entries in the General, Postal History and Thematic classes, providing

helpful feedback at the end of the evening. During his judging, members cast their votes in the Open, Postcard and Novice classes. The full results are:

Green Cup
1st	Mike Goodman	One Cent blue USA
2nd	Ray Saunders	New Zealand Life Insurance stamps
Harry Parsons Shield
1st	Rick Wilmot	Spanish Civil War Mail 1936-1939
Thematic Cup
1st	Rick Wilmot	Famous European Composers
2nd	Mike Houchen	Lighthouses on the approach to the major ports and canals of Germany
Barry Proctor Cup
1st	Ray Saunders	Second World War retro movie posters
John Hilton Trophy
1st	Tony Arnold	Military postmarks
2nd	Mike Goodman	Brooks supports the world
Novice Trophy
1st	Robin Humphries	Commonwealth Silver Jubilee issues

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 16th March 2023
Spring Auction

A lively auction evening with 20+ people attending. Lots of bidding took place and very little was left at the end. Thanks, as always, to Tony Arnold who, despite leaving his glasses at home, got through the 134 lots. The material on offer was varied but GB dominated.

The next auction is scheduled for 6th July. Lists of Lots must be sent to David Wilkins (Chairman) by 8th June.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 6th April 2023
Competition Evening Two, the Bill Way Shield

The results for the Bill Way Shield (6th April) are as follows:

First	Rick Wilmot	Famous European Composers
Second	Rick Wilmot	Spanish Civil War Mail, 1936-1939
Third	Ray Saunders	New Zealand, Life Insurance Stamps

(Rick Wilmot)

******************************************************************

Thursday 6th April 2023
Competition Evening Two, the Bill Way Shield

The results for the Bill Way Shield (6th April) are as follows:

First	Rick Wilmot	Famous European Composers
Second	Rick Wilmot	Spanish Civil War Mail, 1936-1939
Third	Ray Saunders	New Zealand, Life Insurance Stamps

(Rick Wilmot)

******************************************************************

Thursday 6th April 2023
Competition Evening Two, the Bill Way Shield

The results for the Bill Way Shield (6th April) are as follows:

First	Rick Wilmot	Famous European Composers
Second	Rick Wilmot	Spanish Civil War Mail, 1936-1939
Third	Ray Saunders	New Zealand, Life Insurance Stamps

(Rick Wilmot)

******************************************************************

Thursday 20th April 2023
"Mind your Ps and Qs" - Barry Hobbs

"Barry Hobbs Mind your Ps and Qs: pills, potions and quack medicines of North America”

Barry gave us a history of medicine in North America from the 1850s to World War I, shown
by advertising envelopes whose companies were following the ad man’s adage “Advertise or
die”. At the start of this period medicine was a cottage industry but by World War I
companies had grown into conglomerates. Until 1906 there was absolutely no control at all
over the ingredients used in the medicines, and even after legislation was brought in - The
Pure Food and Drug Act - there were loopholes to be exploited. The result of this were
medicines which ranged from the placebo to the downright dangerous, and advertising claims
which went from somewhat over-stated to outright lies.
These claims were laid out in advertising postal envelopes and cards. Many sellers
adopted the title ‘doctor’, regardless of a complete lack of qualifications. With no controls
over ingredients in the early days there were frightening concoctions. At one end of the scale
the best one might hope for were herb-based remedies with no proven worth but which might
perhaps have a placebo effect. But at the other end the ingredients could be frightening. One
“cure” for the Spanish Flu contained potassium nitrate, today used in fertilizers. Alcohol was
a basic ingredient, causing addiction in some patients; but no matter - other medicines were
available which claimed to cure addiction. Even worse than that were drugs, including heroin
or cocaine. When Coca-Cola was launched in 1885 as a nerve tonic it contained coca leaves,
French wine and cola nut. A year later a non-alcoholic version was introduced, with the
addition of sugar syrup and carbonated water, and marketed as a patent medicine which
would cure morphine addiction, indigestion, nerve disorders, headaches and impotence. It
was not until 1906 that the cocaine alkaloid in the coca leaves were removed from the
product.
Some themes emerge in advertising. German companies were considered to be more
reliable than American ones. “Red Indians” were in general looked on as enemies but their
medicine men were highly respected and often featured. Advertisements often featured
testimonials from happy customers - allegedly. In fact, there was an entire industry of people
paid to write them. The sheer volume of advertising meant that newspapers became
dependant on them for their income. There was a symbiotic relationship between the
advertisers and the Post Office: the suppliers sold their wares primarily through mail order,
and the Post Office needed that mail order business for their profits.
The display included associated subjects. Items such as artificial limbs and crutches were
needed following the American Civil War. There was a great vogue for electricity and
magnetism cures in the late nineteenth century. There were other outlets for advertising
including trade cards, almanacs and calendars, often beautifully printed.
An amazing evening of social history."


Barry Hobbs and his Display	Trade card for Hops and Malt Bitters	Theodore Metcalf's Syrup of Heroin

Dr Pemberton's Coca Cola

(Wendy Buckle)

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Thursday 18th May 2023
AGM and Single Sheet from all

13 members attended the AGM, with 5 apologies recorded. The Secretary’s and Treasurer’s reports were adopted and the Annual Accounts approved. The Committee were re-elected. en bloc. The Treasurer announced that Ray Brown would be standing down as Examiner after 25 years in the job, and Simon Adams volunteered to consider taking on the role. David Morris gave an update on the Annual Fair to be held on 9th September.

Short displays from members followed:

Simon Adams - Ceylon: Correspondence with Kew Gardens
Tony Arnold - Post Boxes: Buckingham Palace Cancellations
Wendy Buckle - St. Chad’s Gospels
Mike Houchen - The Clipper Marco Polo
Alan King - Liberation of Paris 1944
Mike Mawdsley - South West Africa
David Mitchell - Cuba: Columbus Set
Ken Parrott - Royal Mail Post Buses
Ray Saunders - Canada: UNESCO World Heritage Sites

(Wendy Buckle)

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Thursday 1st June 2023
Guest Chris Wheeler with: "People of Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire on Stamps"

(21 members and guests at the meeting.)

Chris began by stating that the display contained 112 different people all connected one way or another to the three counties. Stamps depicting the people were shown together with well researched texts. The display was designed in alphabetical order beginning with Thomas Andrew of Southampton through to the last one, Christopher Wren.

The people, too numerous to mention, included their occupations. Most notable were; Jane Austin, Enid Blyton, I. K. Brunel, Charles Dickens, Francis Chichester, Ian Fleming, Amy Johnson, T. E. Lawrence, Arthur Conan Doyle, Freddie Mills, Nelson, Rolls & Royce, P. B. Shelly and many more. Occupations included engineers, writers, show business, politicians, military, sports, anthropologists, scientists.

The display was a philatelic adventure which must have taken many hours, weeks, months to put together showing true dedication to the topic.

The meeting wound up with a plea for as many members as possible to attend the next meeting, ‘An Evening in Brazil’. The speakers will be travelling a fair distance for the presentation.

(Rick Wilmot)

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Thursday 15th June 2023
Guests Nick & Janet Nelson - "An Evening in Brazil"

This much anticipated evening began with glasses of Caipirinha all round. Add in the An excellent attendance of.26 members and guests were present at the meeting. Nick introduced himself as ‘the warm up act’. And spoke about how and why he and his wife, Janet, became involved with Brazilian philately. As well as the display on the stands we had a slide show with excellent equipment which went without a hitch.

They spoke about the flag of Brazil and the countries anthropology before getting into the philately. This began with the ‘Bullseye’ stamps, being the first to be used in Brazil in 1843. The first perforated stamps appeared in 1866. In 1894 and onwards there appeared the ‘Republican Dawn’ series with perfs. Ranging from 5.5 to 48. Slides of stamps followed to the 1918 issue, the last before the ‘Reform’. That was when the Z in Brazil was changed to S, thereafter, Brasil.From 1920-1940 there were designs of Commerce and Industry with no less than 12 different watermarks. !927 saw the first Airmails. Santos Dumont was known as the Father of Aviation in Brasil and appears on numerous stamp issues. We heard about the history of the 1930s and the part played by Brasil in WW2. In 1968 there was a state visit by QE ll.

2nd Half. More and more commemorative stamps were being printed including Personalised stamps, self-adhesives etc.A special stamp for people on benefits appeared but was short-lived for obvious reasons. The evening ended with a small selection of British P.Os. in Brasil and a few 1934 air covers including Zeppelins.

Janet and Nick brought a very entertaining evening to a close, and I can recommend them, and their knowledge of Brasil, to any other Club.


Barba Preta, (Black Beards)	Newspaper Stamp


The Bullseye stamp	1878 1st Bi-coloured stamps

Perf. 5.5


Royal Visit 1968	1938 Philatelic Exhibition, 'BRAPEX'

(Rick Wilmot)

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2012
September 6th	Autumn Auction
September 8th	ANNUAL STAMP FAIR (Saturday)
September 20th	Members Displays - first half silent
October 4th	*Guest Frank Henson shows Memories of Old Poole, part 2, in slides*
October 18th	Members GB displays
November 1st	Members displays - postal history
November 15th	Wendy Buckle hosts a workshop on entering competitions, and Chris Wheeler gives a talk on Wikipedia and Philately - Please note changed date
December 6th	Winter Auction - Please note changed date
December 20th	Christmas Social & Anything but stamps
2013
January 3rd	D, E & F are for.....
January 17th	Members postcard displays
February 7th	Members Displays - first half silent
February 21st	Barry Proctor & Brian Cribb talk & display local, then members local material
March 7th	Spring Auction
March 21st	Competition Evening - Green Cup, Novice, Barry Proctor (Postcard) & Bill Way
April 4th	Guest James Hooper: Prague & Vienna Pneumatic Mail
April 13th	Ferndown Society's Annual Stamp Fair (Saturday)
April 18th	Committee entertains
May 2nd	Guest Peter Hardie: Postal History and Postmarks of Holland
May 16th	Annual General meeting followed by social
June 6th	Guest Evan Williams shows New Zealand
June 7th	We visit Bridport & District PS & PC (Friday evening)
June 20th	Summer Auction
July 4th	Members air mail & aircraft displays - Note changed date
July 18th	Guest Rodney Frost shows Ceylon to 1872 - Note changed date
August 1st	Members Cinderella & Fiscal material
August 15th	Visit by Bridport & District PS & PC

Back to top of page
Back to previous page		Last updated 10 September 2023

3rd January 2013 - D, E & F are for.....

John Hilton 10/2/13

A more simple system using pre-franked newspaper wrapper with stamps and cancel markings to include the date was introduced. These were then cancelled with the use of an inked roller.

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John Hilton
10/2/13