Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

Mr. Graham U'ren

"Flightless Birds.....Jings nae Wings"

On Friday evening – 17^th November - Graham gave the society a fascinating display of part of his collection of "Flightless Birds"...a display he later mentioned covered only around one third of his collected material.

He gave us, initially, a briefing on the types of birds & the reasons why they're flightless & then proceeded to show us many examples of stamps from Ethiopia, Australia & New Zealand (amongst many others) which featured the Ostrich, Emu & Kiwi (particularly).

He explained their habitats, predators....even their farming methods & included a "freeform" stamp from Namibia as well as Flightless Birds depicted in cartoons, in toys & in myths.....and related the story of "The Hopetoun Emu" owned & brought back to the UK by The Duke of Hopetoun, the first Australian Governor General. Another use of the Ostrich was as the town emblem of Strausberg, Germany as it sits beside a lake whose shape resembles an ostrich.!

Vice President, Mrs Maureen Mathieson, gave warm thanks to Graham for presenting such a memorable and interesting display.

Our next meeting in the Caledonian Bowling Club, Motherwell Road, Hamilton, is on Friday, 17^th December, 2021, at 7:30pm when our members will display topics which are, loosely, related to Christmas.

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

More details of the Society’s programme - and much more information – can be obtained from our web site – www.lanarkshireps.co.uk