Bromley and Beckenham Philatelic Society (Club/Society)
Beckenham Public Halls,
4 Bromley Road, Beckenham
BR3 5JE
tel: 020 8778 7001
LOCATION MAP
|
|
|
On the 12th September 2007 Grace Davies gave her display Peace, and the Noble Prize. The first half dealt with Peace in all its many facets, illustrated with stamps, covers, postmarks and related material. She high-lighted a wide range of events such as Peace and Disarmament Conferences, the ill fated League of Nations and its later successor the United Nations, the various Peace “Movements,” and activists, various Treaties, even Hotels. Finally the Peace rose and the universal symbol of peace, the Olive Branch, traditionally carried by the dove.
In the second half Grace told us about Alfred Nobel and his background, his wealth which was derived from the oil-fields in Baku by his father, his own profitable success in the field of explosives and how on his death in 1896 he provided the where-with-all to set up the five Nobel Prizes.
Four prizes are presented annually, by the King of Sweden in Stockholm, but the Peace Prize is administered and presented in Norway in the presence of the Norwegian royal family.
Grace showed philatelic material for almost all of the winners since 1901. She noted how in the early days it tended to be awarded to peace activists, between the wars to politicians, and more recently to organizations or joint winners who were perhaps more socially than militarily active. Two items stood out, personal letters written to her by two winners, Yitshak Rabin in 1994, and John Hume in 1998. She also showed a number of other men who were nominated, but were never winners, such as Einstein and Ghandi.
..........................................................................
On the 26th September, four members from RTW PS came to put on displays. These were as follows: -
Ian Marshall showed Scottish Postmarks. He included the Maltese Cross, Local cancels, Experimental marks, the “Madelaine Smith” date stamp, duplexes, dotted circles, the Brunswick Star, and later TPOs, roller cancels, Too Late marks, More to Pay marks etc.
Bill Hedley showed Hungary, including very early items from 1748, 1754, a Napoleonic PoW item, early Registration material, Coach Mail etc. Then followed early stamps, later material including the hyper-inflation issues of 1945/6, miniature sheets, etc and even the recent issue in 2005 of the History of Hungarian Chess.
Henry Hupfield showed Sudan with early material, a range of the overprints on Egyptian stamps showing the different settings, also forgeries, then the popular Camel Postman design and later air and commemorative sets.
Richard Park showed Boer War material with emphasis on the Railway services, interrupted mail via Mozambique, the Imperial Military Railway, company imprints and picture postcards
..........................................................................
On October 10th, Peter Lister gave his gold medal winning display of the 1911 Coronation Air Post.
The principal organiser of the post for these flights was Sir Walter Wyndham, and collateral material included Advance Publicity, Invitations, Committee items etc. Then followed a series of Essays, Proofs, Printers samples of the various envelopes and postcards to be used by the Committee, Privileged users and the general public. Changes in the designs and colour choices were highlighted, as were varieties to determine the different printings.
Peter then showed a wide range of flown items, from all the flights, both to and from Windsor, including many signed items by the pilots and other luminaries. Quite a number of items are only known in single-figure numbers; some such as the Waybills, Bag Labels etc are unique. The specially engraved silver vesta case presented to one of the Pilots by the Mayor of Windsor was also on show.
Two glass negatives showing the aircraft and pilots taken at the time were shown, together with recent contact prints made from them.
The stationery was widely used by advertisers, and Peter showed a wide variety of these, such as Oxo, Welsh Lamb, Whiskey producers, Nobel Explosives, Newspapers such as the Guernsey Evening Press, Daily Chronicle, NCR, HMV, Lincoln Stamp Dealers, Insurance Companies, Soap, D H Evans etc, as well as less well known and privately produced items.
Whilst most of the flown mail was to UK addresses, Peter also showed some to other parts of the world, including New Zealand. There were also over-franked and under-franked items, the latter with Postage Due markings.
It was pointed out that the service was run as a charity and the profits from it were given to the Windsor Hospital, where a bed was fund-sponsored for many years.
.......................................................................
At the meeting on the 24th October PETER O'KEEFFE gave his display World War I, delivered with an informative and entertaining talk, providing much additional background to the material on display, and highlighting the difficulties, inadequacies and inconsistencies of running an enormous postal service in time of war.
It included a vast array of covers, cards and postal stationery, with both military and privately produced items, picture postcards, patriotic, Christmas and other material. Peter highlighted the many different postage rates and privileges available to the soldiers, their families, both officers and other ranks.
The material showed a wide variety of postal markings, cachets, civilian and military postmarks including the first slogan cancellations, postage due and other directions. Large numbers of different Censors were in evidence, as well as the printed message cards and the so-called “Greeny” honour envelopes.
Peter included a wide range of Prisoner of War and Internment Camp mail, both British and other nationalities, and these also included items from the immediate post war period. All the main divisions of the military were represented including the infant Naval Air Service and its successor the Royal Air Force.
Michael Dobbs proposed the vote of thanks and presented Peter with a Certificate and the Society
.....................................................................
On November 7th the Prersident of KFPS visited.
Colin Tobitt's display of Austria began during the period immediately following the end of World War 2, with particular emphasis on the censorship and other matters as operated by the occupying powers in the four zones.
Colin dealt firstly with the need for new stamps, and the obliteration of Hitler’s face/head on the remaining stocks, which were overprinted in various ways. Later he showed ranges of these also overprinted for charitable and rebuilding purposes by local towns and cities.
He then took each zone in turn and illustrated the censorship requirements, rules and cachets in use. He demonstrated how strict were the rules, how paranoid were some of the measures taken, especially by the Russians, how mail was returned, how the censors were themselves checked.
Some of the reasons given, or rules broken, included the over-franking of letters, sending picture postcards, using commercial envelopes for personal correspondence, etc
Colin showed examples of letters and covers, documents, telegrams, permits, ration cards, ID cards and other material. Among these were “Black Market” price lists. Also forgeries of censor and other marks on covers produced for the philatelic market.
.........................................................................
On 23rd January,Jean and Ted Needham represented Dartford PS
Jean showed modern Switzerland with some emphasis on the many joint issues, also the earlier Postage Dues, and Soldier Stamps. She then followed with some Lace thematics including the
scarce real silk Swiss sheet of 4, issued in 2000; and then some Owl thematics. Finally Jean showed a range of, mainly French, views of towns, cities and buildings on stamps with accompanying PPC and photos, all places she had visited during holidays on the continent.
Ted showed extensive collections of Fiji and Grenada GVI stamps including perforation, papers and design varieties. He pointed out a Madame Joseph postmark forgery on a Grenada 10s. There were also many plate flaws common to these issues. He then showed German stamps from 1889 to circa 1937
........................................................................
On the 9th April 2008 John Hammonds visited and gave a splendid display of the development of aviation and airmail services in France.
John commenced by describing the early balloon flights from the 18th and 19th centuries, including the first crossing of the Channel by air, and the use of balloons during the 1870/1 siege of Paris. He then moved on to airships and their use in France, and finally to fixed-wing aircraft.
John then dealt in detail with some of the key personalities involved, including Santos Dumont, Clement Ader, Hubert Latham, De Lessops and Henry Rolls. The 1908 visit by Wilbur Wright was important since it demonstrated the ability of an aircraft to manoeuvre in the air, instead of just flying in a straight line.
John also illustrated the 1909 Bleriot flight across the Channel, the first mail carrying flight in 1912 at the Nancy meeting, and many other meetings and special flights. He dealt in detail with the flights and the operators to South America and Indochina destinations, and the variations in the available routes.
Among the many flown covers, stamps and postcards were numerous other items relating to the subject – labels, leaflets, letters, timetables to mention just a few. Many aircraft were illustrated with picture postcards.
Among the gems were pilot signatures on covers, the famous 50Fr Banknote used correctly on a cover to make up the correct rate, flown Letter-Journals during the siege, and much else.
.............................................................................
At our meeting on the 7th May 2008, members from the Medway Towns PS came to give us their displays.
Eddie Shilling talked about the Private Posts of Germany, which operated between 1866 and 1900. During that time some 300 towns had their own private post and many of these were extremely successful: Berlin for example was carrying about 55% of the mail when it was taken over by the State Post Office in 1900. The talk was illustrated with extensive ranges of stamps from many towns, as well as Postal Stationery and letters etc.
Rosemary Dellar gave a two part display: firstly of modern Indonesia from 1949 onwards with mainly stamps, and secondly Netherlands’ Postage Dues with both labels and many covers illustrating the reasons for their use: Invalid Stamps, Under-franked Mail, Compulsory Registration, (coins in the envelope), Postal Stationery cut-outs not allowed etc.
Maurice Flack showed the stamps issued by the Homelands of South Africa – Bophuthatswana 1977 - 1994, Ciskei 1981 - 1994, Transkei 1976 – 1994 and Venda 1979 – 1994. Unusually this virtually complete collection was of “commercially” used stamps, much more difficult to find than the usual philatelic material.
| |  |
