Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

FALKIRK SOCIETY VISIT

Four members from Falkirk society, led by their President, Ian Burns, entertained us with their diverse displays recently.

Ian started by introducing Dr. Ian Anderson with his display entitled "Domestic Cats". With stamps from diverse places as Vietnam, Fujiera, Mongolia, Bernera and Pabay (amongst others), Ian's display showed cats of differing colours & colour combinations, short haired cats including the Manx, Burmese and Balinese; long haired cats including the Persian and Chinchilla and finally, everyone's favourite the kitten with stamps from Denmark, Hungary and Romania.

Stanley Grey followed with a display of Indian material from the British Raj. Much of his material featured "Royal Visit" items from the 1903, 1905, and 1921 visits, the 1911 Coronation of King George V and "Durbar" material. A Durber is a gathering (usually large) where important information/news is related to the masses. His display concluded with  material relating to two earlier earthquakes; Bihar (1934; 100,000 dead) and Quetta (1935; 60,000 dead).

"Astronaut" Harvey Duncan started the second round with a "Disaster of a Display". Harvey's display featured space disaster material starting with Apollo 1 (US) and Soyuz 11 (USSR), with stamps from Hungary, Togo, Oman and Poland (amongst others) through to the Challenger (stamps from Mauritania, Mali, Chile and Hungary), Columbia (Grenada, Maldives, Gambia and Palau) and finally to the Concorde disaster of 2001 from Mauritania and Guinea.

Ian Burns the rounded the evening off with his display based on the history of Carron Iron Company of Falkirk. Ian's earliest material dated from 1809 (50 years after the company's inception), along with covers to, and from, the manager's residence. Company (CCC) "perfin" stamps also featured with a series of stamps through the years which showed the increasing wear of the "perfin" machine. Various advertising meter marks and advertising cards/covers featured along with material relating to the Carron Shipping Line. A photograph of a Carron company Post Box, (situated at the Didcot Heritage Railway Centre) provided a fitting conclusion to his display. 

Sheila Sinclair, commenting on the diversity of the displays, gave a warm, and witty, Vote of Thanks.