Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

"President's Night"

Mr Bill Wilkie

“The Ancient World” – was the title of Display given by the new President, Mr Bill Wilkie, at the opening meeting of the Lanarkshire Philatelic Society on Friday, 4th September, 2009.

With the aid of stamps, postcards, covers, postmarks members learnt that Greece, Rome and Judea formed the basis of Western Civilisation.

Bill then displayed, first, different aspects of ancient Greece – Olympian gods; Religion and Mythology; Famous Greeks (including Homer and Aristotle); Architecture (the wonderful buildings of Greece, including the Acropolis, the Theatre of Syracuse); The Arts; Greek Ships; and Greek coins.

This was followed by a consideration of Rome. Famous Romans (including Julius Caesar, and Augustus, the first Emperor); Writers (including Horace and Virgil); Architecture – especially the Coliseum; Mosaics;  cities of the Roman Empire – especially Pompeii. A look at Roman Britain – mosaics; coins; baths; Hadrian’s Wall, Lincoln, St Albans and the Antonine Wall. 

“The Heritage” - It was interesting to discover that the name ‘Europe’ comes from the name of the daughter of the King of Tyre – “Europa”. Many modern sports are derived from the sports of the ancient world.

‘The Language’ – much of our own language is derived from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire – and today flowers, animals and birds still retain their Latin names.

A wonderfully diverse display of ‘The Ancient World’.

For the second half of the evening, Bill displayed a great variety of Christmas Seals from the USA and Canada. In 1907, Emily Bissell, an American Social worker, followed the idea of a Danish Postmaster, Einar Holbǿll, of issuing Christmas seals in aid of the eradication of TB. After a slow start, the idea gained pace and Christmas seals have been sold in their thousands every year since. 

There were many colourful Christmas designs on display and in 1943, Canada took up the idea. They used the same designs but with different colours. With these much money was - and continues to be – raised for charity.

Margaret Lyth, the immediate past President, remarked that it had been a thoroughly fascinating and interesting display of material on the two subjects and led members in giving Bill a warm vote of thanks.

Our next meeting in St Andrews Parish Church Hall is on Friday, 18th September, 2009 at 7:30pm when Dr D. Kindley will display ‘Afghanistan’.  

Anyone with an interest in stamps, postal history, postcards etc is very welcome to attend.