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Alan Druce Displays English Pre-stamp Material followed by Penny Blacks, Two Penny Blues and Penny Reds

At the November 2016 meeting, we were delighted to welcome Alan Druce who is a member of the High Wycombe, Henley and Royal Philatelic Societies who gave a wonderful display of truly unique material.



The first half of the evening was devoted to GB postal history. The display started with a Corsini letter from the 1500’s and this was followed by letters from the 17th and 18th centuries. Alan covered a wide range of subjects which included a Docwra Penny Post stamp, examples of Bishop Marks and marks of the Uniform Penny Post followed by a series of letters sent from the UK to the USA during the 1840’s. There were letters written by Rowland Hill and many other people of significance and this section of the display concluded with a very colourful display of 19th century engravers work which included a number of unique items.



The second half of the evening included a wonderful collection of penny blacks, two penny blues and penny reds. Alan has made a careful study of Perkins Bacons archives which are held by the Royal and he was able to demonstrate which plates were printed by named printers. We saw examples of the Rainbow Trials and printings from the various plates of the Penny Black, the Two Penny Blue and the Penny Red. The finale was a collection of mint marginal penny red plates which had previously been owned by Her Majesty The Queen and Lord Crawford.

His final words were “If you want more information, you will have to buy my book which is being published by the Royal next year!”

12th October 2016

Two members from the Amersham philatelic society came with material from their collections, First to display was Chris Marsh with the postal history of Oman. Stamps of India were used from 1860 to 1940 and Stamps of Great Britain were used from 1944 to 1948. It shared the countries name with Muscat before becoming the sultanate of Oman in 1971’



David Lee brought along items from his collection of Ethiopia including Eritrea using stamps and covers displayed with a detailed history of its postal system with great changes taking place from 1974 when emperor Haile Selassie was deposed and Ethiopia became a republic.

July 13th.2016 - John Tingey.

Reginald Bray -The Englishman who posted himself.

John returned to continue his display on Mr Reginald Bray. Reginald was a suburban accountant who tested Royal Mail to its limits ,exasperated Adolph Hitler an became one of Britain’s greatest Pranksters.



John has in his collection what must be the largest number of Bray-mail in the world. One piece that amused the audience was a postcard simply addressed to A resident in Bournemouth. It did not take long for the Post office to realise that it came from the Notorious Mr Bray and it was returned with a cheeky rhyme from a witty postman. Pencilled in it read -

“Pursuing the game,
We hope there are not many,
However for your hobby,
You will have to pay a penny.”

May 11th Dane Garrod ; British Royalty and other stories

Dane started the evening with an insight into the early death of Amy robstart who married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, The story started in 1550 and it seemed that she had fallen from the stairs, Or did she?. the Earl was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth,







Dane followed with many letters postal items an stories associated with royalty including a signature of Queen Victoria.

April 13th 2016-Members evening letters O to S

Some photographs of some of the exhibitors from the evening


Richard Page,- G.B. Commemoratives beginning with P


Neville Lawson, Icelandic engraved stamps


Martin Roper. Selangor, Overprints.


Graham Aylet, Square issues of Slovenia, and Denmark.


Cyril Parsons Pre-Paid Postmarks.


Other exhibitors included, Michael Pit-payne. Pitcairn, Qatar, Rhodesia, and Singapore,

March 10th Rob May, History of the Cameroons & its postmarks.

Robs talk took us back to 1471 when the country was discovered by the Portuguese, An English mission was set up in 1845, In 1884 the German flag was raised and Cameroun was declared a German protectorate.
The first post office to open in the country was in the grounds of the Governor’s residence in 1887. From then on the country saw many changes and this was covered in great detail within robs display.



Like most good stories it has a happy ending as in 1995 Cameroun joined the Commonwealth.



Rob teases our Chairman Michael with a letter sent to Cameroun by Reginald Bray, known to philatelists as the man who experimented with the limits of the British postal system.

January 13th.

Giles du Boulay started the new year with a display entitled. “The Greatest Airmail Exhibition Ever” A bold title to reveal the greatest display of the greatest air mail exhibition ever.


Giles’s display centred around the major air sport Philatelic exhibition held in Danzig and ran from 23rd to the 31st July 1932.
The highlight of the show was a visit from the Graff Zeppelin airship.


Apart from the usual covers and postmarks Giles showed tickets to the airship enclosure, a car badge and programmes celebrating the event along with photographs and a highly detailed write up the whole weeks proceedings


A memorable first meeting of the new year.