Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

"Gentlemen's Evening, A to L"

It was the turn of the male members of the Lanarkshire Philatelic Society to present displays at this meeting. This was a "Gentlemen’s Evening A-L" and the displays were led off by the President, Ian Gray, who showed postcards and stamps relating to the NIMT – North Island Main Trunk Railway – New Zealand. Included was a cover of the disaster of 24^th December, 1953 when extreme flooding washed away the Tangiwai Bridge and 150 passengers and 1 crew member lost their lives.

Ed Archer raised spirits with a wonderful display relating to the Scottish International Aviation Meeting at Lanark in 1910. Recently the Centenary of this event was marked with a special Anniversary Cover.  Ed also showed some very interesting artefacts.

Alex Grimson moved on a few years and showed an interesting series of ‘slogan’ postmarks of 1917-1922. ‘Feed the guns with War Bonds’; ‘Buy National War Bonds’; ‘British Empire Exhibition’ were amongst the slogans displayed.

Jim Fulton had an excellent display of postcards and related stamps from Hungary for the years 1900-1956. These included ‘St Elizabeth visiting prisoners’; Hungarian Churches; Horthy Aviation Fund; Building of Chain Bridge; 1956  Hungarian Rising, along with other fascinating subjects.

Gary Cheyne was at the Berlin Summer Olympic Games of 1936 – Hitler’s Third Reich. Postcards, stamps, covers and postmarks were all displayed on this subject  and showed, amongst others, the arrival of the Olympic Flame, the stadium and running tracks, and Hitler himself.  

After tea, Brian Dow led the way with a most interesting display of postmarks of rural towns/villages in Norway. Each of these was accompanied by a map showing its position within the country.

Tom Bright was many miles further south – in Antarctica – and displayed a great series of stamps and covers from the British Antarctic Territory.

Bill Jardine moved a little further north – on the Falkland Islands – and gave a potted account of the chequered history of the islands before displaying sheets of the stamps that have been issued from 1891 to date. 

Bob Harvey had a fascinating display of beautifully bound Antiquarian books. He spoke of his own interest in book binding and illuminated script – and showed a truly beautiful book of Scottish History which he himself had illustrated with lovely drawings, had written in illuminated script of various styles and had also created the binding.

Frank Jardine had a great series of antique letters! These covered the years 1789-1839 and gave members a fascinating insight into the postal history of Castle Douglas and Galloway.

David Brown was in a poetic mood and displayed various postcards illustrating some of Burns’ poems. He also showed stamps and covers celebrating anniversaries of the Bard.

David Haig brought members back to the 20^th Century with his interesting display of all the stamp issues of Deutschland (Germany) 1997-1998. 

Philip Morgan-Klein led members in giving the Vote of Thanks for the wonderfully varied and interesting displays.

Thanks were expressed to Alan Wishart for organising the evening.