September was our third Member’s day this year.
Our Vice Chairman, Christine Earle kicked off proceedings with Australia’s first definitive issue of KGVI showing different printings and usages commonly known as the ‘Zoo’ series.
We were very happy to have a new member join us, James Podger, and was delighted that he was able to display. He showed us the ‘Massey Correspondence’ that is various postcards and letters from 1908 to 1913 from the Far East. James also showed us various stamps and covers from the Cayman Islands, which is his main collecting area. We were shown the first air mail cover from the islands to Jamaica, only five are known to exist and James has two of them! Cruise ships are often arriving in the Caymans but one in particular had not been recorded, the Arandora, a mystery that still exists today.
Next up was David Bravery who displayed ‘Propaganda postcards of Franz Joseph mainly from the French and Italians in WWI.
In the second half, Graham Mytton gave a nice tribute to one of our former member and ex-chairman, John Ager, who sadly died 2 years ago. Graham showed some of his collection, other than Switzerland, which was John's main interest. John also helped Graham raise money for Save the Children’s Fund, in all £27,000 has been raised so far. He then went on to show some butterflies as a complement to our Chairman of today, Ken Willmott. Ken has written a book on Surrey butterflies. Graham finished by showing various U.N Mail coming into the BBC over the many years where he worked from 1982-1998 running the department of the BBC World Service. Graham handled all the letters that arrived.
Dennis Littlewort displayed KGVI different printings, plate flaws and variations on the Nyasaland 5 shilling stamp.
John Dicker showed us KGVI stamps with different printing and dies, as well as some rarities that were never issued from the Malaya Strait Settlements and the British Military Administration (BMA).
Julian Walker displayed some covers with gold and silver coins of the marriage between HRH Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton.
Paul Taylor showed various monetary values of Austria during the period between 1918 and 1922.
Roy Gilbert came up with some very odd meter marks on covers. One being Kingston upon Jamas, which of course should have been Kingston upon Thames.