Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

"Society Visit"

"Stirling & District Philatelic Society"

We were delighted to welcome 4 members from Stirling & District Philatelic Society to our most recent meeting. John Connell, President; John Callum, Bill Troup & Rev. Bill Izatt (a former member &, indeed, President, of Lanarkshire Philatelic Society) gave us 4 wonderfully interesting & diverse displays.

John Connell led the way with a display of Jersey stamps. No, he didn't display any of the World War II occupation stamps; instead he commenced with stamps on, and from, Postal Independence (from GB). He showed us a variety of issues through the years which centred principally on local themes; Flowers, Jersey Royal Potatoes, Farming (in general) &, of course, "The Battle of the Flowers" .....an event that takes place every August & literally fills the island with tourists. There was the occasional "incursion" of stamps on no local themes but which were relative to the island just one of which was celebrating an RAF Anniversary.

John Callum followed on with an excellent display of "before & after"........sets of stamps from territories which were once British Colonies & but had since gained their Independence. He, almost, literally went through the alphabet from "A to Z"....from Aden (& all its states) to Zanzibar. We had many colonial Omnibus Issue stamps (dating from pre-independence) to stamps bearing the names of the newly independent state; Zanzibar became part of Tanzania (with the former Tanganyika) & Nyasaland which became Malawi. Independence, as well as decimal currency, overprints  featured amongst the many stamps on display.

Bill Troup gave us a wonderful study of the King George V low value definitives which showed us various printing & a plethora of errors which included inverted & reversed & inverted watermarks, printing flaws including folds in the paper, worn plates & offsets. He also had coil strips which included the "leaders" (these are unprinted "stamps" at the beginning of the coil to aid the feeding of the coil into the stamp vending machine). He concluded with some covers & postcards depicting those stamps in postal use.

Rev. Bill Izatt gave us a display entitled " "The Life of St Paul". Bill took us on a short trip through Paul's life; from his education in Arabia, his return to Damascus & his journey to Rome.....where he ended up a prisoner. Whilst being held he "educated" his fellow inmates & when they were released they went out & spread his gospel. Bill's, very enlightening, display included stamps & covers from (what we now call) the "Middle East", Cyprus & the UK. Amongst those covers was one from No 10 Downing Street.....signed by 3 former Prime Ministers; Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair & John Major.

A thoroughly entertaining, and informative evening was accorded an eloquent vote of thanks by Graham U'ren.

Our next meeting in the Caledonian Bowling Club, Motherwell Road, Hamilton, is on Friday, 21st October, 2021, at 10:30am when our members will display topics which are, loosely, related to "Autumn".

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