Tony Burbidge gave us part 2 of the island of St Vincent showing us more interesting variations with the early stamps. He informed us that there are 25 Post Offices in St Vincent and he displayed some of these postmarks, along with some Postal Stationery, introduced in 1882.
Derek Weston showed us imperfect stamps of George VI outlining all the various production problems they had from stains, doctor blade flaws, perforations, double thickness of paper, to official repairs which are very rare.
Ken Willmott, our newly elected Chairman displayed one frame of Orchids. A passion he picked up from a dear friend and mentor of his. We learned that British orchids grew from the ground up and tropical orchids hang down from trees. The rarest of British orchids is the Ghost orchid which is pollinated by moths at night and was thought to be extinct but was found recently in Wales.
David Carr showed us stamps from the former countries of South Africa before it became the Republic of South Africa.
Phil Kenton displayed incoming GB Express mail, which was first introduced in 1891. He stated that it was first introduced at a cost of 3d and steadily increased over the years to 1 shilling. At the end of 1980 when Express Mail was renamed Swift Air it shot up to £1. We saw various express covers from 1898 to 1980.
Graham Mytton displayed his father’s collection of birds from Australia and New Zealand. His father was a great stamp collector and worked in the Post Office. His father’s wish was that it should be sold for charity, so Graham was showing it for the last time before fulfilling his father’s wish.
Roy Gilbert was next up with a miscellany of GB Postage Dues on various covers and postcards, showing us why they received a postage due.
Tony Merson gave us French Army Post, all about the Battle of Waterloo. He displayed various documents, postcards, correspondence, passes, coins and pictures, giving us a flavour of the battle of Waterloo.