Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

"Society Visit"

Kirkintilloch Philatelic Society

Last Friday, 5^th October, the members of the Lanarkshire Philatelic Society were treated to a most enjoyable evening by the 4 guests from Kirkintilloch Philatelic Society.

There was laughter and puzzlement as all attempted to ‘"Place that Bridge" - Scottish bridges depicted on postcards – (with answers given on back of the sheets!). Bill Russell then showed a series of postcards showing the murals on the walls of the Milngavie Underpass which leads to the start of the "West Highland Way". These were accompanied by postmarks from all the post offices along the route of the Way. He finished with a display of stamps issued by Malta during the days when it was still a Crown Colony.

All became rather more serious when viewing the most interesting philatelic display from Bill Colley. In April 1919 there was a General Strike in Egypt – protesting against British rule there. This caused chaos in the postal service and the RAF, who were stationed in Egypt, set up an Emergency Airmail Service to ensure that mail could get through.

On display were many covers – many of them scarce, sent during these difficult years, and bearing the relevant postmark to enable them to be carried by the RAF.

After tea, members were taken to New Zealand by Bob Barclay who displayed postcards of many Post Offices in New Zealand. Each postcard was accompanied by a cover bearing the postmark of the Post Office illustrated. There were many most impressive buildings – and 2 postcards showed Hamilton Post Office – in North Island, New Zealand!

Bill McKinlay, the President of the Society, through stamps and covers, told the exciting story of the events leading up to and in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The stamps issued by Britain in 2005 to mark the Bi-centenary were well used in telling the story! This was followed by "Napoleon’s Last Victory" – the Battle of Ligny in 1815. Again many stamps and covers told the story of this Battle and also the Battle of Waterloo when the Allied Armies under the command of the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon’s Army.

Mr. Ken Norris led members in giving warm thanks to 4 visitors for presenting such an interesting and varied display.

Our next meeting, in the Caledonian Bowling Club, Motherwell Road, Hamilton, is on Friday, 12^th October , 2012 at 7:30pm when we look forward to welcoming Mrs. Elizabeth Nairn with her display of "Where, the Land Finishing, the Sea Begins".

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