Autumn 2015 Newsletter

JAMAICA IN WARTIME: WARTIME FUNDING

IAN JAKES

When war with Germany was declared on 3 September 1939, the European allies tapped into the patriotic fervour of the Jamaican population by issuing labels for sale in Jamaica and to raise funds for the war effort. One such label bearing a Geneva red cross with the word ‘JAMAICA’ above the cross and the words ‘WAR FUND’ below was issued by the Jamaica Red Cross Society (being part of the International Red Cross) to support the work of the Red Cross during the war.

The St. Dunstan’s League, another international organisation specialising in aiding persons who had been blinded in wars, also issued a label to raise funds. This label comprises a lighted torch across which is a double slanting frame enclosing the words ST DUNSTANS on white mixed ‘sans serif’ type on a black background. Below, in similar format, appears the wording JAMAICA B.W.I. Above the torch, in mixed red script type, are the words ‘Help the War Blinded.’

The Fellowship of the Bellows, an organisation founded by Mr Cargill of Kingston, Jamaica, issued war fund labels to its members to raise funds for fighter aircraft. At the end of each month, the number of enemy aircraft shot down was calculated. Each member then purchased the equivalent number of Fellowship of the Bellows labels at one halfpenny each. The labels perforated 11.5 were printed in red, white and blue and depict a ‘winged bellows’ and enemy aircraft being shot down. The foot of the label bears the words FELLOWSHIP OF/ THE BELLOWS in red block sans serif type on a black background.

There was a fellowship of the Bellows squadron 263 in the RAF formed in 1939 at Filton and equipped with Gladiators. Subsequently, the squadron operated in Norway on frozen lakes and shot down 50 enemy aircraft during the Norwegian campaign. Later, all aircraft and pilots were lost when the aircraft Carrier Glorious was sunk. In 1940, the squadron was reformed with Hurricane aircraft and later with new Whirlwinds.

Probably the rarest of the Jamaica war fund labels was issued by British Community War Fund. The label depicts a lion’s head with sky, sea and palm trees forming a blue background, all within a double line circle enclosing the words ‘BRITISH COMMUNITY /WAR FUND in red block sans serif type.

EARLY TELEPHONE KIOSKS IN COPENHAGEN

SANDRA POOLE

An engraved steel plate tells you all this and more about the Koch kiosks in general: they are 9m high with a floor area of c.4 square metres and all have copper roofs. It also describes how six wooden reliefs under the arches at the top represent the twelve signs of the zodiac, two in each arch. Above these are various symbolic images of shipping, industry, animals, plants and modern technology. Back to Nytorv in Copenhagen for a different style: Martin Jensen took over from Koch in 1913 and favoured something even more flamboyant

About 7 hours later, on foot and with no food or drink, we had ‘collected’ most of the kiosks, plus the offices of the Kjobenhavns Bypost. We made it back to the ship for tea with just 4 minutes to spare. (Sources: Article by Birgitte Wistoft (Post & Tele Museum) and Wikipedia).

THE DINOSAUR PARK IN CANADA

DOUGLAS HARVEY

ROYAL MAIL STAMP PLAQUES

SANDRA POOLE

July this year marked the 50th anniversary of Royal Mail’s modern Special Stamps Programme. A press release issued by them in June announced that they would be installing 50 special stamp plaques showing some of their most popular stamps on 50 postboxes in 50 UK locations that have a special connection to a particular stamp. These are all listed on the RM website and include the oak stamp (British Trees, 1973) to represent Notts; Leicester University (1971) and Sherlock Holmes (1993) in Baker St- just a few minutes walk from the Royal Philatelic Society, although I doubt that this had any bearing on Royal Mail’s choice!

2,663 special stamps representing Britain’s heritage and culture have been issued over the last 50 years, starting with the July 1965 Winston Churchill stamp. It must have been extremely difficult choosing just 50 out of all these and ensuring that the locations were widely spread and the topics were suitably eclectic and popular. In my view they did a good job. Unfortunately, there was nothing specific to Nottingham and the oak stamp is not actually the Major Oak, which is thought to be1000 years old and is probably the biggest tree in the country, but it does come close and Sherwood Forest is a well-known tourist spot. And it took me no time at all to find the letterbox in nearby Edwinstowe. As for no Robin Hood on a stamp, all was not lost. At the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre, I bought the Universal Mail Stamp on the right!

To view the Special stamps- 1 from each set- arranged in reverse chronological order, go to http://www.rmspecialstamps.com/postbox and scroll down until you come to the 50 years of special stamps gallery.

MISCELLANY

In Celebration of Anthony Trollope’s Bicentenary- Sandra Poole

In an earlier press release, Royal Mail announced that they would be celebrating novelist Anthony Trollope’s bicentenary with a limited edition commemorative sheet of stamps. on 24 April, his birthday. Also, a special postmark would be used for just one week, beginning on 24 April. Here is that postmark, sent on the first day

Trollope’s second claim to fame was to introduce the first pillar boxes to the Channel Islands in 1852 and to Carlisle in 1853. Pillar boxes were first erected on 5 streets in London in 1855, and Royal Mail announced it would be commemorating this event by attaching a special plaque to a postbox on each of these streets: Fleet St. The Strand, Piccadilly, Pall Mall and Rutland Gate. I will try and have a photo for the next newsletter.

Snippets of a trip to Italy-Allen Wood.

A visit to the post office to purchase stamps for your postcards home: Of the five post offices visited, not one had postage stamps on the counter. Most personnel, having taken your money, disappeared into the back office, eventually returning clutching the precious items.

Posting your letter late in the day: Don’t think of posting any item after 12 noon, as that was the latest collection of the day, even at a major post office. Also, there was no collection on Saturdays.

Visit to a Stamp Fair: I found many PCs from the UK with a European rate stamp having been used. The price of each item- 15 euros each! Another dealer with 1896 covers from Eritrea to Egypt- the two stamps on the cover are catalogued by Stanley Gibbons at £110 the two (£55 each). Asking price:1,000 euros. I should explain the Sassone catalogue helpfully catalogues early stamps on cover. These two stamps on cover are catalogued at 1,000 euros, hence the asking price, If you have the opportunity to visit Bolzano, please visit the Ice-Man Exhibition. It will be worth every minute of your time.

Alfreton and After- David Shipstone:

Unfortunately, only those members who attended our traditional visit to the Alfreton Society this September will fully appreciate the ending of my little tale. We had been told in advance that Maddie and Minou would each be providing a cake this year but had no warning that members of the Alfreton Society would be laying on a buffet. So we had all eaten (and in my case very well!) before leaving home. As a group, though, we nevertheless did justice to the food so generously laid out before us. After the meeting I drove Sandra back to Nottingham, got back to my home in Bramcote, at about five past eleven and was just putting the kettle on when the doorbell rang. At the door, I was confronted by a Chinese gentleman with a flashlight, at the correct house number on Derby Road, but in NG9 instead of NG7, who said he had brought the takeaway that I had ordered!

A.A.A.D.D.-Does this Ring any Bells?- Anon.

I received this email 11 years ago and, being a hoarder, I kept it! Although it has nothing to do with philately, it does ring a bell with philatelists- and many others, for that matter .

Recently, I was diagnosed with AAADD- Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests itself I decide to wash my car. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the hall table. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my keys down on the table, take out the bills, put the junk mail in the bin under the table and notice that the bin is full.

So I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the rubbish first, but then I think that since I’m going to be near the letterbox when I take out the rubbish anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my chequebook off the table and see that there is only one cheque left.

My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where I find the can of coke that I had been drinking. I am going to look for my cheques, but first I need to push the coke aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over.

I see that the Coke is getting warm and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head towards the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye- they need to be watered.

I set the Coke down on the counter and I discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning. I decide that I’d better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowersI set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV, we will be looking for the remote, but nobody will remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers.

I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day, the car isn’t washed, the bin isn’t emptied, the bills aren’t paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers aren’t watered, there is still only one cheque in my chequebook, I can’t find the remote, I can’t find my glasses and I don’t remember what I did with the car keys

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got gone today, I’m really baffled because I know I was really busy all day long and I’m really tired. I realise this is a serious problem and I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my emails.

Now I can at last get rid of this email after 11 years of keeping it in case it came in useful, but first I’ll… >

A Meeting at Crewe P.S.- Report by Steve Speak.

Crewe PS was founded in 1937 and belongs to the NW Federation. The Society meets twice a month on Wednesday nights, but takes a break in the summer. I received a very warm welcome both from the ‘Top Table’ and the seventeen members present. I suspect they had not had a new member for some time. On an evening devoted to postcards, the members were soon able to demonstrate a wide and very varied level of expertise and knowledge. Displays included cards depicting the local area, WWI silks, railway related cards (Crewe, of course, has always been an important railway town) and several other themes. Most members displayed and were eager to take questions and discuss their displays. The evening was arranged in two parts, with a hot drink and biscuits at ‘half time’. The Society’s programme is collated by the Secretary; several members’ evenings feature throughout the year. Two small auctions are held annually, one dedicated to local charities.

Warning. Take care when bidding in foreign auctions. Being well aware that Europeans use dots to break up large numbers eg ‘100.000’ instead of ‘100,000’ and commas to separate the main currency from the smaller (eg 20,60kr instead of 20.60kr) did not prevent me from recently submitting a bid the English way. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw ‘50000’kr come up, the equivalent of around £5,000 instead of the intended £50, and that’s before the 20% commission is added.. .Luckily, I realised the error before confirming my bid. (S.P.)

‘An Unexpected Philatelic Dividend’- Minou Button.

On the evening of 8 August 2015, Douglas Harvey, our webmaster, delivered to me an unexpected and welcome bolt from the blue. I could hardly sleep after that. This came in the shape of an email, which had been sent to him from a Belgian philatelist. This particular philatelist is Baudouin Contzen, who had come across an article which I had written for the Winter 2008-9 Newsletter,* entitled ‘A Humble Postcard’, an item I much prize. Along with the postcard itself, the article was illustrated with a photograph of my great-grandmother, my grandmother and the dog Peggy. The latter two were participants in the evacuation referred to on said postcard. Baudouin was struck by the names of the two ladies as, to cut a long story short, he knew these names. He is a relation, my cousin. I am now busy digging in the family archive to send him whatever documents and photographs I have, so that our, common, family tree might be enhanced. Six degrees of separation, hum…that must be true. Philately has many attractions and benefits, but this one is outstanding. Him in Belgium, me in England, a small postcard, an article and…Keep writing; you never know.

-------------

This story is true, but to save his blushes, my lips are sealed as to his identity, although he can laugh at himself and happily gave his permission for me to publish the story here. A fellow philatelist told me at a stamp meeting, that he and his wife were clearing out an aunt’s house and had already taken a lot of things to charity shops and elsewhere, when his wife suddenly asked what they should do with the projector she had just found. ‘Where do you put in the slides do you think?’ he asked. After some investigation, they realised the ‘projector’ was an old hoover! I am still trying to work out how the two items were confused. (S.P.)

MEETINGS REPORTS

"The History of the USA"; Mick Inger, 16 October 2015

The United States Postal Service has produced many commemorative stamps illustrating the country's history, not the least being the issues for the Bicentennial Year (1976). Mick Inger has assembled all of the stamps into an excellent thematic display, arranged in the chronological order of the events depicted, starting from dinosaurs and finishing with the space exploration achievements. War conflict played an important part in the history, commencing with the War of Independence, then the Civil War which had the postal effect of dividing the country, with separate issues from the Confederate States. Later, the two world wars generated philatelic interest. David Shipstone congratulated Mick on the quality of the presentation and the background study that was illustrated in the display. (D.H.).

"The Variety of Collecting Belgium"; Nick Martin, 25 September 2015

The focus of the first part of the evening was on the postal history of Antwerp. Nick Martin, who has lived in Belgium, explained that Belgium had become independent from Dutch and French administration in 1830, but postal communications pre-dated this. After the introduction of adhesive stamps, communications grew extensively and Antwerp had 14 post offices. Commemorative and collectable postage stamp issues commenced in the 1930's with support for the anti-tuberculosis charity.

In the second part, an assortment of thematic displays of postcards and stamps included Orval Abbey reconstruction, the long series of birds stamps, exhibitions in Antwerp and Brussels, the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games, Ghent Flower Shows, Stamp Day issues and Railway parcel labels. Douglas Harvey congratulated the speaker on the quality of the display and the background research. (D.H.)<

Society Visit to Alfreton P.S. 18 September 2015

Seven members presented, as usual, a varied selection of displays at Pentrich and four others went along as support - this meant that the competition to provide the most members at this event resulted in an honourable11-11 draw! Last year, to celebrate their 70th anniversary, Alfreton PS provided us with a special buffet; we were surprised and delighted to see that they had done it again this year! Maddie Tennant and Minou Button, on behalf of our Society, had each baked a cake to keep up Allen Wood’s tradition of always taking a cake.(Allen had to miss this year’s visit due to illness). It has always been a friendly event and this year was no exception. (S.P.)

"Military India, Part 2": Mike Siverns, 4 September 2015

Mike Siverns display, through philately, portrayed both the social and military history of India during World War II. When the war broke out, civil censorship began and all sorts of marks and labels were used. Pre-printed reply cards also became available for servicemen. As the war progressed, unofficial concessionary mail appeared, special postal stationery was issued and airgraphs were regularly used. All these were on view, along with prisoner of war mail, an RAF base postal section, naval mail, comic postcads for British troops, an assortment of Christmas illustrated airgraphs, anti-British propaganda stamps and even an illustrated first day cover celebrating the maiden voyage of S.S. Extavia!

The second half, arranged chronologically focused on mail from the military campaigns, starting with the Sudanese, Eritrea and Abyssinia campaigns,1940-1943. Again, there was a wide range of different censor marks, labels and postmarks.

George Kirkham gave a vote of thanks for a first class display. (S.P.)

"South Atlantic Islands": Alan Squires, 7 August 2015

Alan Squires' third presentation featured the Falkland Islands and Tristan da Cunha. The first part centred around the wealth of commemorative and thematic Falklands issues which initiated with the Crown Agents 'omnibus' issues from the King George V Silver Jubilee and the Coronation, Silver Wedding, Victory and UPU. from the reign of King George VI. The extensive definitive, commemorative and thematic stamps issued in the present queen's reign formed a colourful display, notable for completeness of the sets, documentation of the subject matter and credit to the designers and printers. Alan has also made an extensive study of life and wildlife in the Falklands. After showing the issues for the Falklands Dependencies, the second part featured the issues from the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, which commenced in 1952. The demand for stamps prior to that time had been realised and was illustrated by the 'potato essays' of Allan Crawford which were actually sold for potatoes and featured on recent stamps. Postally aligned with St.Helena, the island used their issue overprinted, both in 1952 and when the evacuated population returned in 1963. The subsequent definitive and thematic issues were shown. Brian Clayton recalled his visit to the Falklands in his vote of thanks for another interesting presentation. (D.H.)

SOCIETY AND OTHER NEWS

Sad news- Jim Weston, a member of the Society since 1998 and a member of the GNCPS, died unexpectedly on 30 September. He had several philatelic interests, including perfins, GB FDCs, slogan postmarks and several themes.The funeral at Bramcote Crematorium on Monday 19 October was followed by a service at St.Leonard’s Church, Wollaton. The President and several other members of the Society were present. (S.P/D.H.)

Welcome to new member Jack Hailwood. Jack collects GB and British Colonials.

Members’ Displays to other Societies-

Alan Squires gave a display on‘South Atlantic Islands’ to Chesterfield PS on 13 October and Chris Tennant, presented four frames of Revenue Stamps to the RPSL two days later as a representative of the Revenue Society.Society

Forthcoming Displays at our Society

6 Nov Mainly Black- Mike Brindle

20 Nov An Evening with………... John Jackson

4 Dec East Essex Scouts- Sandra Poole and Africa- Gerry Rose

18 Dec Christmas Social and Egg Cup Competition- Members

8 Jan Denmark in the First and Second World Wars- Chris and Birthe King

22 Jan Overprints and Errors- David Gabe and Brian Phipps

5 Feb Roumania 1940-1948- George Kirkham

DISCLAIMER: While every care is taken during the production of the reports, neither the editor or Society Officers can accept any liability for views or unintentional publication errors that may occur.

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