Society Archive

In early December the society held an informal Christmas meeting. As well as a few members putting up topical sheets, there were plenty of nibbles and soft drinks available. The main area of the evening were a number of quizzes which in particular Rufus Barnes and Graham Wylde had obtained where many of the questions were related to philately.

The December zoom meeting had a few members and friends putting up and talking about acquisitions of material which had been made during 2025. Mike Kentzer displayed several items of “freepost” from members of Parliament. Tony Crowther showed different covers and parcel address and postal details for packages coming from Marseilles to the UK. Peter Morton updated those attending with details of the large format Machin style barcoded definitives especially the definitive panes from the different Prestige Booklets issued during 2025 for King Charles.

In early November we had another visit by Richard Moss. On this occasion he covered in great detail “Oxendales Mail Orders”, a company where he worked for many years. Of interest were the many posted envelopes to the company from several areas of continental Africa for items of clothing and footwear.

In late November we had a return Zoom display given by Andy Soutar which covered “Hungarian Inflation, Part 2”. This covered many stamp issues relevant to the display which was of great interest.

The Society Annual General Meeting was held in Cambridge on 4th June. Michael Brindle was confirmed as the President Elect, to take over the role of President from the June 2026 AGM. We were also pleased to see Jan Jirmasek elected as a new committee member.

For the June Zoom meeting display the society was pleased to welcome Andy Napier who gave a very comprehensive display of “The Fiji Definitive Overprints, a Temporary Solution that has Lasted 20 Years". We were shown many dozens of examples of the errors that had occurred, all fully detailed as to the nature of the error.

In early July we had a visit from Andy Soutar who gave a very detailed and informative display of Grenada; The Spice Island. The display covered both mint and used stamps from the very first issues, including the many revenue stamps, through to the death of King George VI. A few of the stamps included some of the difficult to find listed varieties.

The February Zoom meeting saw Richard Moss give a display on “Aspects of the New Hebrides”. This was a well researched and very interesting display.

In early February the society held the first of the two competition evenings. The Great Britain entry of “Registered Mail” from Mike Brindle achieved the highest mark in that section, and the Postal History entry of “Edinburgh Dotted Circles” from Tony Crowther achieved the highest mark for this latter section. Geoffrey Datson’s entry for “Gilbert & Sullivan” also achieved the highest mark for Open Class.

For the March Zoom meeting Paul Redhead gave us a fascinating and detailed study of Nigerian Forgeries, with many examples showing what was wrong or missing.

Despite the adverse weather and change of date, the Members evening covering letters G, H and I was well supported on 6th January 2025. Mike Brindle gave us a very informative display on the island of Heligoland and explained how it had changed from British to German hands in 1890 in exchange for Zanzibar. Tony Crowther showed us a selection of Victorian covers featuring either halfpenny cancellations or half penny stamps. This included a very unusual and perhaps unique late use of an additional halfpenny strike possibly because there was no halfpenny stamp available.

Stafford May gave us an informative talk about the introduction of the impressive Integrated Mail Processor from the Cambridge sorting office which has replaced a number of separate machines by combining a various sorting functions. John George showed us a selection of stamps, covers and correspondence from the Indian State of Cochin. As usual John's display contained material we are unlikely to see anywhere else.

Rufus Barnes, rounded off the evening showing us a selection of album pages from a Great Britain collection he was given covering the late Victorian and Edwardian periods.