Lanarkshire Philatelic Society
"World War 1" & "Netherlands & Colonies"
Professor Ray Welland
It
was a "Display of two halves" at the Lanarkshire Philatelic Society on
Friday evening (3rd February) given by Ray Welland of Dumbarton and
of the Caledonian Philatelic Society.
He began with a fantastic display of historic postcards showing "From Battlefield to Prison of War Camps" during World War 1. These showed German and French prisoners-of-war being taken to the camps - and also gave an impression of life in the camps - long queues for food; going to work repairing roads/ garden work. Also leisure and entertainment football; concerts & theatrical shows.
A
display of preprinted letters informing families of loved ones feared missing
possibly in POW camp.
Also a letter from King George V to a POW on his release from camp.
Other cards showed internment in Switzerland of wounded personnel who
were later sent to POW camp on their recovery.
An
interesting display of postal covers showed something of the extent of world
Censorship during the War these included letters sent from Bermuda to
Netherlands; Argentina to Switzerland; Malta to Britain; Switzerland to Ceylon
all of which were subject to Censorship.
Even Internal mail in Germany was not exempt!
Also some letters which were not accepted for postage at all because
of the contents or being sent to "neutral" countries.
The
second half was a display of "Netherlands and Colonies". This
began with a great display of postcards illustrating Rotterdam before and after
the War.
Nearly all buildings were destroyed and the decision was made not to
rebuild the original city but
to
let
a new one emerge from the destruction.
As
Rays father was in the Army, the family often travelled between Harwich and
the Netherlands by Troop ship so a display of postcards and cachets of
Troopships was viewed including SS Macklenburg;
SS Duke of York;
RMS Arnhem among many others.
The
Dutch West Indies Netherlands colony in the Caribbean.
A display of many covers showing the first airmail flight from Curacao to
various countries of the world similarly from Suriname.
During World War 2 the same Censorship problem was faced many
examples were shown -letters sent from Curacao and from Aruba displayed with the
Censor label attached.
Alan
Wishart led members in thanking Ray Welland for showing such a fascinating and
informative collection.
Our next meeting in the Caledonian Bowling Club, Motherwell Road, Hamilton, is on Friday, 10th February 2017, at 7:30pm when Dr David Cumming will present his displays "Iceland" & "French Antarctic".
Anyone
with an interest in stamps, postal history, postcards etc is very welcome to
attend.