Please note: The FPHS Newsletter is compiled by the Hon Secretary (Michael Dobbs) Comments / submissions to him please (address on page 2) or by e-mail: Michael.dobbs@ntlworld.com

Affiliated to The Association of British Philatelic Societies

Editorial

Back down to 8 pages this issue - but it includes notes of the AGM and two other meeting reports and on “The Back Page” we have a profile of Alistair Kennedy.

Other dates of interest:

15-16 July 2016: York Stamp & Coin Fair, The Grandstand, York Race Course YO23 1EX

The Philatelic Congress of Great Britain Belfry Hotel, Cambourne, Cambridgeshire CB23 6BW 21-24 July 2016 Website: www.gbcongress.uk

14-17 September 2016: Autumn STAMPEX, Business Design Centre, Islington, London N1 0QH

Other future dates:

8 July 2017: MIDPEX, Warwickshire Exhibition Centre

27-30 July 2017: The Philatelic Congress of Great Britain, Cardiff

2-9 May 2020: London 2020 International Stamp Exhibition, Business Design Centre, London N1 0QH

MEMBERSHIP CHANGES

New and re-joined members - we extend a warm welcome to the following new members:

1510 Mr Phillip Martin (USA)

Lapsed / Resignations / Non-renewals:

(735) James Boyden; (1461) Michael D Dixon, PhD, FRPSL; (1236) Barrington Friedman

Members in the News: I’m pleased to announced that German member Ingo Egerlandt was awarded a GOLD at NORDPOSTA 2016 in Hamburg for his entry on “British Field Post Offices of the British Expeditionary Force 1939-1940” Member Charles R Entwistle (dealer in Wartime Postal History) recently issued his Price List No 400 in which he commented “little did I think that my hobby, started back in 1972, would provide an income. Not a recipe for great wealth but it beats working for a living!” - Congratulations on reaching 400, long may you continue. Contact Charles on charlesentwistle17@msn.com

FPHS Newsletter No 308 Summer 2016

DATES 2016:

12 March 2016 - 15-sheet Competition for the John Daynes Plate

9 April 2016 - AGM and ‘Live’ Auction - starts 10.30am

14 May 2016 - The Kingdom of Hannover: 1714-1870 (incl Napoleonic Wars and the King’s German Legion) - with Frank Simpson

11 June 2016 - ‘Rule Britannia’: The Royal Navy - Members’ displays

9 July 2016 - Military Ephemera - Members’ displays

Reminder - subscriptions 2016/17

A reminder for anyone who has not paid their 2016/17 subscription that now is the time to do so - please send a cheque to our Treasurer (Alan Baker - address on page 2) or re-new online using PayPal. The cost is £20 for a paper copy (UK) (£27 Europe and £33 Rest of the World) and £15 for a paperless subscription (all members) with Journals available online. If paying by PayPal please add £1 to cover costs.

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SOCIETY Officers

SOCIETY Meetings: 13th February 2016 - Billed as “An afternoon with John Cowlin” - the title belied the sheer exuberance of colour that was thrust upon us with a wonderful display of postcards from a variety of conflicts from around the world dating from about 1899 to 1945. John let the cards do the talking and so we given three showings - for the postcard collector this was indeed a display to behold. As a means of communication and getting one’s message across, many of the postcards shown were of a political and/or satirical nature. We were also joined by two members from further afield - Heinz-Jurgen Kumpf from Germany and Neil Ritchie from Sheffield: welcome to you both.

John started off with cards from the Boxer Rebellion of 1899/1900, including both German and French mocking cards. This was followed by the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. These were visually dramatic with many hand-painted on hand-made paper. Many postcards were of very limited editions with only 50 or so cards produced. “Apart from some official sets issued in large printings by the Ministry of Communications, it is estimated that around 4,500 different designs were commercially produced in Japan commemorating the war” [John W Dower - http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/asia_rising/ar_essay01.html]. We were also shown cards from the Moroccan crisis 1905 and the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1905. In Morocco in 1904 France had concluded a secret treaty with Spain partitioning Morocco and had also agreed not to oppose Britain’s moves in Egypt in exchange for a free hand in Morocco. Germany, however, insisted upon an open-door policy in the area; and, in a dramatic show of imperial power, Kaiser Wilhelm visited Tangier and from his yacht on 31 March 1905 declared for Morocco’s independence and integrity. The resultant international panic, the First Moroccan Crisis, was resolved in January-April 1906 at the Algeciras Conference, where German and other national economic rights were upheld and where the French and Spanish were entrusted with the policing of Morocco [Encyclopædia Britannica - http://www.britannica.com/topic/Moroccan-crises].

He then showed a number of postcards which featured Guillaume II - King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany 1908; Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria 1908, French political satirical cards 1904-05; Chine 1905

We then came on to Boer War postcards - a comprehensive display of cards from all sides which can be found in about 14 different languages. Many were cartoons, often satirical and sometimes offensive in the context of 1900, the cartoons were originally published in Dutch, French, German or Italian newspapers. Indeed John published a book in 2014 - “My Propaganda & Satirical Postcards of the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902”, 20 pp., very well illustrated mostly in colour, art paper, spiral bound and still available from good philatelic booksellers or on the internet.

PRESIDENT: Edmund Hall VICE PRESIDENTS: Robin Davis FRPSL, Richard Berry FRPSL & Geoff Hanney Hon Secretary Michael Dobbs 52 Leamington Avenue, Bromley, Kent BR1 5BL Email: michael.dobbs@ntlworld.com

Hon Treasurer Alan Baker 5 Dark Lane, Sunningwell, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 6RE Email: scapabaker@btinternet.com

Journal Editor Colin Tabeart 238 Hunts Pond Road, Titchfield Common, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 4PG Email: colintabeart@btinternet.com

Librarian Nick Martin Angel House, Station Road, Sutterton, Boston, Lincolnshire PE20 2JH Email: njm.angel@btinternet.com

Membership Secretary Martin Hopkinson FRPSL Trewinney Barton, Mevagissey, St Austell, Cornwall PL26 6TD Email: martinhopkinson@hotmail.co.uk

Packet Secretary Ian Muchall Holmegarth Louth Road, North Cockerington, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 7DY Email: raffian@raffian.plus.com (note new email address)

Postal Auction Manager Geoff Hanney 14 Allington Road, Orpington, Kent BR6 8BA Email: geoff.fphs@btinternet.com

‘Live’ Auction Manager David Pearce 20 Dene Road, New Southgate, London N11 1ES Email: dmpearce2003@yahoo.co.uk

London Meetings Organiser Peter High 94 Winkworth Road, Banstead, Surrey SM7 2QR Email: peter.high94@hotmail.co.uk

Publicity Officer Peter Harvey Malt Shovel Cottage, Walcote Road, South Kilworth, Leicestershire LE17 6EQ Email: peter.harvey@militarymail.co.uk

Journal Distribution Alistair Kennedy FRPSL 48 Grange Bottom, Royston, Herts SG8 9UQ Email: akennedyroy@hotmail.com

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On to World War I and a flurry of French and Italian anti-German propaganda postcards as well as a number of humorous cards from 1914. WWI continued with a showing Russian anti-Turkish postcards published on 30 October 1914 - John has only got three of these and said that they were hard to get hold of. He then went on to show Italian and Russian postcards, but very few British cards - he tried to put the name of the artist in his descriptions it he knew who it was. This included Russian postcards by the A F Postinova Factory; a selection of French anti-German cards by Jan Metteix and a selection of French postcards illustrated by E Muller. His display included hand-drawn postcards, ration tickets and cards as well as matchbox labels as well as bread-ration tokens issued by the German police in Poland 1914-18 and camp currency from various PW camps in Germany.

There were also a number of anti-British postcards as well as one showing an image of the Emperor of Austria pulling a toy horse - the Austrian cavalry did not have saddles.

My apologies to John and everyone else, but I appear to have mislaid the remainder of my notes on John’s display - sorry. Should I come across them I will include them in a future Newsletter. 12th March 2016 - 15-sheet competition - “John Daynes Plate”

Only seven entries this year compared with twelve last year, but nevertheless the standard and quality of entries was high and we also had a first time entrant.

The winner was Tony Walker an entry entitled “The Dover Patrol in World War I”. Tony couldn’t be present and so had posted his entry to the Secretary. At the outbreak of the war the Dover Patrol was part of the East Coast Command based at Harwich, its significance after several centuries as a major naval base having been diminished by the major antagonist now being further north in Germany rather than France. However it soon became apparent the Dover Straits was destined to become just as important as the east coast and the Dover Patrol became a separate command when the Kaiser’s troops moved westwards. The Dover Patrol was tasked with intercepting all German and neutral ships and examine them for contraband within an area of 4000 square miles. This required a wide range of vessels and the port was the base for Hospital Ships bringing the wounded back from France and beyond, the ‘Turtle Back destroyers, cruisers, monitors and many, many more (sheet 1). The display outlined the facilities developed at Dover, including a fine original watercolour of the Admiralty Pier painted on a newspaper wrapper bound for Canada (sheet 5). Two doubly censored covers give an insight to mail handling at the port (sheets 6 & 7). A selection of censored covers from some of the Hospital Ships and Destroyers based at the port completes the display. In equal second place as joint runners-up were David Milsted and Chris Stephany-Weddell. David’s entry was “Army Official Mail during the Boer War 1899-1902” - GB overprinted issues on mail from South Africa are scarce. The British Army Paymasters in the Cape were not supplied with official stamps and used local issues on mail to the UK. The Empire rate was introduced during the Boer War with a 1d paying the letter rate. Large

registered covers could have contained maps or payrolls and several O.H.M.S. covers were shown. Chris was our first time entrant and his entry was titled “Mail Posted from German Naval Vessels during the Spanish Civil War 1936-1938” - German official naval and sailors mail posted from various German naval vessels which were present during the German non-intervention patrols and blockade during the Spanish Civil War. The covered showed some of the cachets and cancels used by the German navy during this period. The picture postcards showed some of the vessels the mail was posted from.

The remaining four entries were as follows:

Alistair Kennedy with an entry titled “The Somme 1916” which comprised covers from British Forces involved in this campaign, July to November 1916, including covers from the Crouch brothers (Lionel and Guy) to philatelic correspondents.

Peter High with his entry on “Casualty Clearance during the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905” - throughout any war or conflict there will inevitably be casualties which, as well as requiring medical assistance also needed to be transported home and the Russo-Japanese War was no different. Most of the battles took place on land quite some distance from the armies’ homeland - in Manchuria, China. Between 8 February 1904 and 5 September 1905 approximately 2,000,000 Russians and 400,000 Japanese soldiers were deployed and the same period saw 38,000 Russian and 58,257 Japanese deaths from battle wounds. Added to this were some 18,830 Russian and 21,830 Japanese deaths from disease. Also many thousands from both sides suffered wounds which required hospitalization. For Japan, the use of hospital ships to treat and transport their wounded home to mainland Japan was part of a

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well thought out plan. For the Russian army it was a far different story: ‘home’ was a far distant land reached only by rail and this meant many days and weeks travel by ambulance train along a single track railway line which had to accommodate troop and supply trains coming in the opposite direction and taking priority. The entry featured covers and cards sent from some of the Japanese hospital ships and a few of the Russian ambulance trains. It included two acknowledgement cards for tobacco or other gifts sent from Russian hospital barges at Kharbin in Manchuria (a dirty disease ridden town) used to treat soldiers with infectious and venereal diseases. They were pre-addressed to the Empress Maria Feodorovna in St Petersburg - why pre-addressed? Very few of the ordinary Russian soldiers could read or write. Also shown was a lettersheet written on one of the Japanese hospital ships tells clearly of the nurse writer’s witness to the first guns of the decisive Battle of Tsushima.

John Leathes with “Royal Navy Operational Submarine Flotillas in World War II” - the Royal Navy in 1939 started the war with five Flotillas and it ended up with 11 and of these 11, five were purely operational. The postal and naval history of these is backed up with contemporary photographs and consists of surface and airmail letters, airmail letters cards in various printings, airgraphs and POW mail. Ian Muchall with his entry on “The Illustrated Airgraphs of Fred Manley (RAF)” - there were 15 airgraphs illustrated by LAC Fed Manley during his overseas service in Libya and Egypt with the final one from India. He was also an accomplished artist and had a sense of humour. The illustrations depicted incidents from his RAF service and should bring back memories for some!! 9th April 2016 - Annual General Meeting & ‘Live’ Auction

The AGM started with our President (Edmund Hall) welcoming those present to the meeting. He then led a moments silence in the memory of members who had died during the year, in particular Nigel Lutwyche, Mike Knott, John Slingsby, Tony Eastgate, Hilary Shaw, Erik Lørdahl and Mr G M Proctor. On a proposal by Peter High, seconded by Ian Muchall and agreed by all those present, the Minutes of the 63rd meeting were approved with no matters arising. Apologies were recorded in the attendance book.

In his opening address our President (Edmund Hall) said that there was very little different from last year. Of the ‘stamp clubs’ he belonged to the FPHS was the most vibrant and active. Regular meetings had been well attended and the excellent Journal well supported by our members. Luckily the Society had an active committee of which some devote much of their spare time. The Journal was produced and distributed regularly four times a year. Hopefully may it remain so but this depended on you the members supporting the committee by bringing material to meetings and writing articles. Finally, he had no doubt the coming year would have the same vibrancy as the last.

Hon Secretary (Michael Dobbs) reported that he had prepared the usual four Newsletters that go out with our Journal - the number of pages and illustrations varied depending on what he was able to achieve. This involved writing up reports of our meetings which he knew some members found extremely useful. He sends out an email

on at least a monthly basis as a reminder of our next meeting and he also forwarded relevant emails from other organisations such as ABPS, The Postal Museum, Stamp Active Network and occasionally for other philatelic organisations. He liaises with our webmaster (Bob Bruce) to try and keep our website up-to-date - in doing so he supplies copies of meeting reports and sometimes additional photographs to accompany such reports. He also maintains access to the Discussion Forum and contributes to that Forum. As always his grateful thanks go to Bob for maintaining our website and the work he has done and continues to do on our behalf. Michael also liaises with the Union Jack Club over our monthly meetings, future meeting dates and changes to meeting rooms or dates as situations change. In addition he also liaises with other officers on such matters as the compilation and production of the Programme Card, winners certificates and medal engravings - the latter two being down to him to organise. Lastly, he is also the first port of call for enquiries to the Society - some via our website and others direct. He tries to answer those he can, places others on our Discussion Forum or pass to other members if he feels they can assist. For 2015 he received around 57 enquiries via our website and a few others direct.

Packet Secretary (Ian Muchall) reported that this past year we had received £149.30 commission on sales which was a similar sum to last year. The total value of material circulated was £4,636. Since the year end he had already circulated 3 packets and 2 more were in circulation. For several years now he had been reliant on 3 or 4 members sending material for the packet and he desperately needs more to keep the packet going. Members are therefore encouraged to contact Ian regarding placing their spare material into the packet.

Librarian (Nick Martin) was not able to attend and sent his apologies, but in his report he said although the Library is underused in proportion to its value as a comprehensive resource of military postal history there had been continuous demand even if only from very few members. Several members are returning borrowers. He reminded the members that several specialist society libraries had been disbanded and permanently disposed of during the last few years. Due to professional pressures Nick was standing down as Librarian. Members will be aware that we had sought a replacement Librarian otherwise there had been various proposals on the possible disposal of the Library. However, at the last moment a new Librarian had been found - refer to the election of officers for details. The meeting placed on record its grateful thanks to Nick for undertaking the role of Librarian for the past 11 years, a role which he took over from the late John Daynes in 2005.

London Meeting Organiser (Peter High) reported that the past 12 months had seen a variety of displays including one invited display from a non member and two full displays from members. The two competitions had proven popular with near record entries, a healthy sign for the future of the Society. He went on to say that the current year’s

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programme again included an invited non member display, as well as full displays from members. Peter would like more members to be brave enough to give the London meeting a full afternoon display. The trend being to keep the talk short and the display viewing longer – which he thought was a good trend. The joint meeting with the Postal History Society had become a regular event in December; an event enjoyed by all he thought. He then suggested that if you belonged to another society how about suggesting a joint meeting with them? Peter went on to say that we had not had an away weekend for some time so he proposed that we hold a weekend at the York stamp fair during July 2017. He hoped that this would prove popular and that it would attract some members who live too far away from London to attend the UJC meetings. In conclusion, he thanked those members who had made suggestions for subjects for our London meetings - he was always looking for more.

Journal Editor (Colin Tabeart) sent his apologies and with it his report: short, sharp and to the point - with the number of colour pages for the Journal resolved at a committee meeting, following his Editorial in the Spring Journal he reported “all’s well”! Nevertheless, as every Editor would welcome - more articles please!

Membership Secretary (Martin Hopkinson) was sorry he could not be with us again this year, but reported that after three years of reporting between 15 and 18 new members during the year since the previous AGM it was disappointing to report only 12 new and re-joined members on this occasion. It seemed almost the norm now for new member applications to start with, or come in via, the website (8), and with payment by PayPal (also 8) underlining how important was the associated provision of payment by PayPal. Two applications were the direct or indirect result of Europhilex and of the 12 new members the balance between those taking the paper Journal and those electing to go ‘paperless’ was exactly balanced at 6 each. In addition to the new members reported, there were several initial enquiries about membership made via the website but which did not lead to a firm application despite follow-up letters. He added that he would be happy to continue as Membership Secretary if the AGM approved.

Postal Auction Manager (Geoff Hanney) reported that both he and David Pearce (‘Live’ Auction Manager) had managed to successfully run either a Live or Postal auction with every issue of the Journal in the past year. Both thanked all those who supported the auctions either as seller or buyer. However, in closing he stated that they do need more members to both sell and buy from the auction. Peter High commented on how efficient both types of auction were run and congratulated both auction managers - this was echoed by the members present.

Publicity Secretary (Peter Harvey) also could not be with us at the AGM but in his report he stated that we were in the press - during 2015 and early 2016 we had continued to be out there in the philatelic press in magazine publications. We also had some success with promotion of the societies meeting programme online and the society had advertised free of charge in two auctions catalogues in the UK. Recent agreements with two major auction houses mean they will run FPHS advertisements alongside appropriate lots during 2016. He went on to report that it was hard to measure the success of the

publicity we have. The FPHS was well known as a specialist society in the UK and overseas with the society promoted through the Internet by similar organizations in the USA, France, Canada and Australia. We also had two specialist dealers advertising the FPHS however these adverts were only likely to go to existing members. He reported that by far our greatest promotion remained the War & Philately event organized by Peter High. In 2015 whilst dealer numbers were down this event was well promoted (from March onwards) and attracted new faces from around the UK and one or two visiting overseas collectors. Initial promotion for 2016 was looking good and he requested that if members could help by giving out our leaflets to their local society meetings or at local fairs then please contact him.

Journal Despatch (Alistair Kennedy) said that the paper journal was now posted to members by the printer and reduced rate electronic subscribers access the Journal etc on line. His residual duties were to distribute paper copies to statutory, complimentary and exchange recipients. He also stated that he held a stock to permit despatch to new members and on a rare occasion to replace a faulty copy.

The Hon Treasurer (Alan Baker) presented his report and the accounts for the year 2015/16. He reported that income was up £806 from 2015, but this is almost entirely because of the large donation from the sale of the late Jim Hamlin’s material, organised by David Pearce. Subscriptions for the year were slightly down but income from auctions and the packet was higher and investing the bulk of our funds in a term deposit account had brought increased interest. Overall expenditure was lower although the cost of running meetings was marginally higher but we were continuing to see the impact of lower printing costs through reduced volumes. In conclusion the outturn for the year was a surplus but at a much lower figure than the Jim Hamlin donation. Without this donation we would have had a deficit of around £500. He went on to say that at the time of writing his report we had 270 members, down 7 from 2015. Whilst we picked up 16 new members in 2015/16, numbers were still on a downward trend and can be expected to continue similarly in the future. At the present time 71 members had opted to go paperless.

Alan stated that the last increase in subscriptions was for 2013/14 and went on to say that with reduced printing costs we had managed to avoid an increase since that time, but it was inevitable that the cost of running the Society would start to increase and that membership numbers would drift downwards. He therefore proposed that, in order to avoid deficits eating into our reserves, an increase of £2 to the subscriptions for all classes of membership to be effective from next year, 2017/18.

On a proposal by Robin Davis, seconded by David Tett and unanimously agreed, the accounts were accepted and the proposal to increase subscriptions agreed.

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The President (Edmund Hall) announced that choosing the winner of the Alan Brown trophy was a near impossible task made more so by so many excellent articles in the Journal this last year- all worthy of the trophy. I could well have chosen one of the four Journals at random, opened it at a random page and no doubt chosen the article there due to the high standard of each one. Keith Tranmer had several articles of note; BFPOs in Afghanistan, laying down knowledge for future philatelist; The Akpinar Provisionals of 1922, lovely and rare material. Peter Burrows Part Six and Final of his study of POW material, but he won it last year. It came down to Military Post Offices at the WW1 Training Camps 1914-1918 and Betasom Revisited by John Leathes which was my final choice for the trophy, which appeared in the Spring 2015 Journal (No 303).

All officers resigned at the AGM and were eligible for re-election and all current post holders (with the exception of the Librarian) were willing to stand again. Mike Grimwade proposed and David Tett seconded that they all be re-elected en-bloc - all agreed:

Hon Secretary

Michael Dobbs

Journal Editor

Colin Tabeart

Hon Treasurer

Alan Baker

Membership Secretary

Martin Hopkinson

Packet Secretary

Ian Muchall

Auction Manager

Geoff Hanney

Programme Secretary

Peter High

Publicity Secretary

Peter Harvey

At the same time it was announced that Richard Berry had stepped forward to volunteer to be Librarian and was proposed by Nick Colley and seconded by Ian Muchall - all agreed. Robin Davis, on behalf of the members, thanked Richard for volunteering to take over the library - this was echoed by all those present.

The three existing Committee members (Nick Colley, Alistair Kennedy and Peter O’Keeffe) had also agreed to stand again - they were proposed by Mike Grimwade and seconded by Geoff Hanney - all agreed.

Peter High proposed and Robin Davis seconded that Ian Muchall be elected as Hon Independent Examiner - all agreed.

Peter High mentioned that the War & Philately stamp and postal history fair is to be held at the Banstead Community Hall, Park Road, Banstead, Surrey SM7 2AJ on Saturday 13 August 2016 from 10am to 4pm. He expected some 20 dealers in stamps, postal history, postcards and ephemera and local philatelic societies' displays to be present. This was a general stamp and postal history fair with refreshments available and plenty of free parking spaces. He did request help in setting the Hall up on the Friday afternoon. There was a request for details of public transport to Banstead and Peter agreed to look into this.

Peter High had already given his programme report (see above) but David Pearce asked that members be reminded that an auction would take place at the all-day meeting on 8 October and requested that notice of an auction be placed in the programme card for 2017 - this was duly noted.

The Secretary formally announced that earlier in the year the Committee had decided to award the Harry Cope

Memorial Award for literature for 2015 jointly to Colin Tabeart for his "British West African Mail Packets to 1900, (Rates, Routes and Ships, Out and Home)" and to Nick Colley and Ian Muchall for their e-book "Censorship in the Royal Air Force 1918-1956", 2nd Edition - this was the first e-book to be awarded such a prestigious award - see website for details of both books.

Robin Davis wished to record the thanks of the Society to Bob Bruce (our Webmaster) for all the work he does on our behalf on maintaining our website. There is no doubt that we would not be able to achieve the website we had, including the forum and access to Journals online, etc, without his knowledge and expertise. This was echoed by all those present.

Peter High gave a vote of thanks to our Hon Secretary (Michael Dobbs) for all the work he does on behalf of the Society - this was echoed and accompanied by a round of applause by the members present.

Finally, our President stated that a start had been made on digitising our Journals (formerly Newsletters) and placing these on our website, access to which is through the Discussion Forum. They were in a searchable PDF format. In addition two index documents (1 to 290 and 291 to 307) had also been placed online, again in a searchable PDF format. In view of his health issues he sought a volunteer to take over the role of sending the Journals to the digitiser. Anyone who would be willing to take on this project please contact Ed Hall our President.

Newsletters received The January 2016 Newsletter (No 222) is made up of small items connected with the cover or postcard illustrated: a re-directed 1944 cover addressed to No 1 CACRU in England; 1973 re-directed MPO 333/CFPO 5000 cover; a highly suspicious 1977 censored (!) cover; 1918 Montreal to RFC POW returned to Canada; CFPO 31 1952 cancel on a US Navy troopship postcard during the Korean War; Canadian Joint Staff Official Mail Free Frank 1955; 1912 postcard of Staff Officers at Goderich Military Camp and a selection of Canadian/Swiss POW covers 1940/41.

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Auction Results: FPHS Auction No 307 - PRICES REALISED 9th APRIL 2016: Live auction run by David Pearce (dmpearce2003@yahoo.co.uk) (Note: the auction listing in both paper and online carried the incorrect No 305)

Lot Win Lot Win Lot Win Lot Win Lot Win Lot Win Lot Win

8 £4.00 47 £5.00 78 £5.00 103 £9.00 132 £5.50 161 £3.00 198 £15.00

11 £5.50 48 £4.25 79 £8.50 105 £7.00 133 £4.00 166 £3.00 199 £20.00

14 £5.00 49 £4.25 80 £12.00 108 £26.00 134 £3.00 167 £6.00 200 £10.00

18 £5.00 50 £6.50 82 £13.00 109 £56.00 135 £8.00 168 £3.00 201 £15.00

19 £5.00 51 £15.00 83 £9.00 110 £20.00 137 £8.00 169 £6.00 202 £10.00

20 £4.00 52 £12.00 84 £11.00 111 £51.00 139 £23.00 170 £3.00 203 £27.00

21 £5.00 53 £6.50 85 £11.00 112 £35.00 140 £4.00 171 £4.00 206 £20.00

25 £4.00 54 £4.00 87 £11.00 114 £4.00 144 £3.00 172 £9.00 207 £36.00

26 £7.50 55 £4.00 88 £13.00 115 £4.00 146 £13.00 173 £40.00 208 £15.00

27 £4.25 57 £4.00 89 £8.50 116 £3.00 147 £12.00 176 £4.00 209 £40.00

28 £5.00 58 £6.00 90 £4.25 117 £5.00 149 £4.00 177 £4.00 210 £120.00

29 £4.00 62 £6.00 91 £13.00 118 £6.00 150 £4.25 178 £6.00 211 £21.00

30 £7.50 65 £5.00 92 £5.00 120 £5.00 151 £3.25 182 £3.00 212 £15.00

31 £10.50 66 £3.25 93 £4.25 121 £12.00 152 £3.00 183 £3.00 213 £30.00

33 £4.00 67 £5.00 94 £4.00 122 £16.00 153 £3.00 185 £3.00 214 £15.00

34 £8.00 69 £10.00 95 £13.00 123 £6.00 154 £4.00 186 £14.00 215 £21.00

35 £16.50 70 £3.00 96 £4.00 124 £22.00 155 £4.00 187 £4.00 216 £15.00

40 £3.00 73 £4.00 97 £11.00 125 £7.00 156 £3.00 188 £3.00 217 £25.00

43 £4.00 74 £5.50 98 £10.00 126 £4.00 157 £3.00 192 £10.00 218 £15.00

44 £3.25 75 £31.00 99 £5.00 128 £3.00 158 £4.00 193 £9.00 219 £15.00

45 £12.00 76 £31.00 100 £11.00 130 £5.00 159 £6.00 196 £5.00 220 £15.00

46 £4.00 77 £6.00 101 £6.00 131 £4.50 160 £3.00 197 £5.00 221 £20.00

Below is an example of a card illustrated by Metteix (refer to John Cowlin’s display on page 2:

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A Profile of your Officers / Committee:

The third of our Committee profiles - this time that of our former Journal Distribution Manager and Committee member Alistair Kennedy:

Alistair Kennedy Committee Member & Residual Journal Distribution

I was born in Hertford in 1936, the second child of Scottish parents who had settled there. I worked in accountancy (initially my father's practice) subsequently other firms in Hertfordshire, not qualified, but experienced. I was deferred from National Service to study for exams (but gave up when the syllabus changed, which would have meant retaking some subjects which I had already passed). I was then called up for a medical just as the National Service scheme was ending, but was rejected. I am not married - maybe the volume of books and papers is too off-putting! I started collecting stamps aged about 6; after a few years I had the Cubs collector’s badge. Before leaving Hertford Grammar School I had discovered some stamps had interesting postmarks - covers came soon afterwards. I found in London a source of then current covers including FPOs.

I joined FPHS about 1956, encouraged by Bill Garrard (a fellow member of Hertford Philatelic Society.) I was soon attending meetings with notebook and pen in hand, recording British FPOs and censor marks. In 1977 George Crabb published "The Postal History of the British Army in World War I" which he had persuaded me to write. This included my greatest

philatelic achievement - in identifying virtually all of the security changes of the formation FPO datestamps of the British army.

I was President of the Society between 1991 and 1993 and for 25 years was the Journal Distribution Manager (i.e. stuffing envelopes with the Journal package and posting same) until relieved of that role at the end of last year when the task was passed over to our Journal printer as part of a review of our printing and despatch arrangements (with only a few minor responsibilities remaining). In 2008 I was honoured by being granted life membership of FPHS.

Many queries get passed to me, and I am often able to provide answers - these come either as questions in the Journal, online Discussion Forum or are passed to me by the Secretary. Over the years I have also written a number of articles for our Journal as well as other specialist and philatelic magazines. My collecting interests are not limited to British (or other) forces mail. I am a member of three local societies and nine other national or specialist societies. Other publications are the Hertfordshire section of the Willcocks and Jay County Catalogue, and Cricket in Standon & Puckeridge.

I hope I will be able to continue to enjoy the hobby and the friendships arising from it for many more years.

World Stamp Show NY2016

28 May - 4 June 2016

We know of a few UK members who will be attending, including our Vice President’s Robin Davis and Richard Berry; also Tony Walker. I have also been advised that any member going is welcome to make contact with our American member Mark Sommer. Mark can be contacted on: Tel: 201-841-1986 or e-mail: brocean@ad.com.

War & Philately Banstead Saturday 13th August 2016 from 10am to 4pm

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