Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

"A Scottish Evening"

It was very colourful at the Lanarkshire Philatelic Society meeting on Friday, 25th January, when members appeared wearing, variously, tartan trews, scarves, plaids and waistcoats! This provided a wonderful introduction to the theme of "Scottish Night".　

There was a wonderful variety of displays illustrating the theme: - some were a mixture of ideas - Ellen Currie with "Scottish Landmarks" - including Hamilton Mausoleum, the Forth Bridges, the Mitchell Library; Gary Cheyne ranged from Burns, Livingstone, whisky and Beardmore’s Works; while Jessie Henderson illustrated Robert Burns' "Tam o’ Shanter" and "My Love is like a Red Red Rose" with interesting postcards.　

Scottish places were illustrated in different ways - Derek Wiltshire displayed bygone days of Wishaw with postcards, postmarks and a fascinating programme for the Cinema when Back Stalls cost 6d! whilst David Brown showed many facets of the island of Iona.

Margaret Lyth showed Arran on postcards with tartan backgrounds; Alan Rushworth travelled the Loch Eck Coaching Tour which started by ship from Dunoon (at 7:20am) then coach to Strachur with various stops and boat tours en route; he also, beginning with a postcard showing wellingtons, waded through the mud of the development of the new town of East Kilbride. Alex Magowan travelled the world in search of places called "Hamilton" and by means of postcards, found such in Canada, New Zealand, New York, Bermuda.　

Other themes were the 1938 Empire Exhibition - Covers, postmarks, postcards, cigarette cards were displayed by Bernard Berrie; David Haig showed how Post Office Aerogrammes 　beautifully illustrated many people, sports, places, nature etc of Scotland; Brian Dow amused all with his display of postcards of that pesky bird - the Famous Grouse!　Postmarks were the theme adopted by Ken Norris and Alan Wishart; Ken displaying any postmark which had a "thistle" illustrated within it; and Alan displaying early Scottish postmarks - i.e. from one of 1737 through to 1785 - from Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and others.　

One final display was on the table - a wonderful selection of memorabilia from the 1938 Empire Exhibition - displayed by Alex Magowan - Plates, Ashtrays, Perpetual Calendar, Napkin Rings, Wallet etc.

Duncan McIntyre gave thanks to all for giving such an entertaining variety of Scottish displays.　

Our next meeting in the Caledonian Bowling Club, Motherwell Road, Hamilton is on Friday, 8th February, 2013 at 7:30pm when all look forward to welcoming Dr Ian Evans with his display "Two Queens".

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