Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

Members Evening

"Displays by LPS members who live beyond Lanarkshire"

Organiser Raymond Baldock, and 9 other society members, gave us a superb evening's displays for this meeting.

Leading the way was Ian Gray with a display of Caledonian Railway postcards all with Lanarkshire cancellations. The "Caley" issued these cards (all pre-incorporation, 1923) in sets of 6, with some latter cards being individuals.

Duncan McIntyre followed with American "pre cancels", these being stamps, usually used by large corporations, which were cancelled prior to mailing so saving the postal service time! Duncan had examples of these from Boston; New York; Chicago; Baltimore and San Francisco (amongst others).

Next Bill Izatt showed us "Scots wha care!"..a display of material from Clackmannanshire Scouts who'd been in Tanzania doing voluntary work (rebuilding/upgrading a village school). Included, of course, was leisure time material..some of the volunteers went on safari, and some climbed Kilimanjaro.

Andy Robertson showed us a display of what he called "Convict Mail"; incoming mail to the UK which carried a request for "Postage Due" most of which dated from around 1920. These included mails from the "exiled" King Albert of Belgium during World War 1 along with items from such divers places as Iran; Iraq; India; South Africa; and Australia. He included a couple of modern items from USA; one of which carried over £12 to pay!

Completing round one was Elsie Miller showing "Churches with a difference". This display centred on churches in unusual places..on a boat; in a cave & by a rock. Other churches included the Old West Kirk, Greenock which was moved stone by stone so a shipyard could expand; the Italian Church, Orkney (built by Italian POWs) and the Chapel of Unity in the MOD Building, London. Final churches to feature were the Church of Scotland, Paris (where the athlete Eric Liddle worshipped during the 1924 Olympics instead of running in the 100 yards); Haworth Church, Yorkshire (the Bronte's) and Shrewsbury Cathedral (where the TV series "Cadfael" was filmed).

The second round started with displays from Ian & Emslie MacPherson; Emslie with a display entitled "The Life & Times of HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother" with material depicting her at various times through her life.

Ian followed with material from the Isle of Man; this time shipping; and the mail steamers in particular. Other shipping to feature included HMRY Britannia and a series of photographs showing Manx shipwrecks.

Phillip Morgan-Klein's display centred on the Austrian architect/designer Freidensreich Hundertwasser, who had a rather unique design style. On show were some of Hundertwasser's designs from Austria; Senegal; Luxemburg; and Lichtenstein, one of whose designs he completed the day he died (2000). Also shown were stamps and a cover issued, in his honour, by Cuba.

Albert Tong chose "Children's Stamps" as his topic; with Britain's first Christmas stamps (designed by children) 1966; to Children's themes including face painting; the Circus; Children's TV programmes and activities. Albert concluded by echoing a sentiment many of share which is Royal Mail do not do enough to encourage young collectors nowadays!

"Tail Gunner" for this round was Ray himself with more of his German pre-war propaganda stationery. First issued in 1933, his items included material for the Nuremburg Rallies of 1934 & 1937, for the Olympic site, Berlin (1936), the Condor Party (Spanish fighting force) return (1939); and the German Day of Art. Also on show were charity cards for "Winter Aid", which citizens were obligated to buy. He concluded with cards for the 10th Anniversary of the Goldsmiths Institution.

Gordon Shepherd, commented on the wide variety of material on show, accorded all those members participating a hearty vote of thanks.