Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

"President's Night"

Mr. Raymond Baldock

A wonderful display was presented at the opening meeting of the new session of Lanarkshire Philatelic Society meetings on Friday evening. 

Our new President, Raymond Baldock, displayed "Lithuania" – he gave a great display of stamps, covers & postmarks relating to the turbulent history of the country.

Raymond began with the statement that in 1332 the Kingdom of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. By 1795 it had, by war, become part of the Russian Empire. Postmarks of 1885 – issued by Russia were shown. During World War 1 the country came under German Occupation and stamps issued accordingly. On 16^th February, 1918, Lithuania announced its Independence and, for the first time, issued its own stamps – the Vilnius issue of 2 stamps - these remained postally used until 1931.

Through the following years – to 1939, there were special issues – viz:- Lithuanian ‘Child’ – Charity stamps, issued to aid orphans and underprivileged children; the President Smetana Issue; the 20^th Anniversary of Independence and also stamps issued for the Recovery of Vilnius which had been seized by Poland in 1920.

In 1921 the first Airmail stamps were issued.

Further change came in 1940 during World War 2 with the Soviet Occupation. Russian stamps were overprinted and were used until the defeat by the German Army. During their occupation German stamps were then used.

In 1944 Russia occupied Lithuania for the second time and stamps were issued in the name of "Lithuania Tarybu Socialistine Republika" (Lithuania Soviet Federal Socialist Republic).

In 1990 came the Restoration of Independence – this led to the country having freedom to issue stamps on many different subjects through the following years – these included – the 650^th Anniversary of Grand Duke Gediminus who ruled the country from 1316 until 1361; Birds; Churches; the Olympics; Paintings; the Lithuanian Philatelic Society and the Anniversary of Independence. These stamps and various covers and postmarks were displayed.

Also shown were stamps issued for Memel during, first, the German Occupation 1918-1920. Then, after the Treaty of Versailles, Memel came under French administration and their stamps were overprinted with "Memel".  In 1923 it came under Lithuania.

Members were in full agreement when the immediate past President, Dr Ken Liddell in his Vote of Thanks, remarked that this had been a magnificent display – from which members learnt so much about this lesser known country.

Our next meeting in the Caledonian Bowling Club, Motherwell Road, Hamilton, is on Friday, 16^th September, 2016, at 7:30pm when our guest, Ian Anderson, will display "Gold Coast". 

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