GBPS Programme 2019-2020

Tony says "It was the British Navy’s use of aircraft early in the war which precipitated the formation of squadrons of land based armoured cars, the forerunners of the tank. This will be explained. The focus of the display will be the campaign of a division of three such squadrons under the command of Locker Lampson, who fought on the southern boundary of Russia in a show of solidarity with our allies.

In his foreword in a book chronicling this campaign, the Duke of Edinburgh wrote : '..The idea that a party of sailors should take a number of armoured cars to Russia is fairly remarkable in the first place, but for them then to become involved in the drama and confusion of the Bolshevik revolution turns the story from bizarre adventure to a grim struggle for survival'.

This extraordinary campaign is described with postal history items as the thread and brings the military, economic and political aspects of these times into sharp focus, supplemented with additional descriptive material."

Max says: "The RNAS & RFC combined to form the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918. As the war ended, troop numbers in Eastern France and the army of occupation on the Rhine caused a large increase in mail. To cope with this, the Army Postal Service and RAF joined forces to solve the problem. Bombers, no longer necessary for that purpose, were adapted to carry mail with suitably large baskets being provided by the Postal Stores department to form APO S40 Cologne.

With Demobilisation, ex RAF pilots became involved with civilian companies forming such as AT&T and Handley Page. The government developed an airmail despatch service with various landing grounds or if necessary air drops."

Max says: "When the individual rail companies took back control after WW1 there was unrest with post war conditions of employment and soon it became evident that a strike would be called. The government was well prepared; the despatch service and civilian companies operated an ‘Emergency Air Mail Service’ involving London, Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle & Glasgow. Flights took place over six days until the strike was settled.

Fewer than 100 covers are known to have survived and the display is an attempt to record all routes and as many flights as possible."

Maurice says, "Postcards as a distinct class of mail were first used in Great Britain in 1870, and quickly became extremely popular with the public. 2020 therefore represents the 150th anniversary of the postcard - a good time for a display of them! This is yet another of my collections that started out as a small side line and turned out to be a huge subject - it aims to cover the many aspects of the story of postcards, and so takes in postal history (rates, rules, cancellations and uses), postal stationery (from proofs to production, and plenty of private stamped to order material), some examples of things called 'stamps' issued specifically for postcards, and lots and lots of 'social philately' showing the many ways that people have found to use and abuse the humble postcard over the years. Hopefully there should be a little something here for everyone."

Tony says, "The 'British Levant' display features the stamps and postal stationery used by the British Post Offices which opened along the Ottoman Seaboard during the second half of the 19th Century to provide a reliable mail service for British administrators and merchants.

The Constantinople Post Office was originally established in June 1854 for the British Army in the Crimea. It was closed in 1856 after the troops were evacuated but was re-opened for civilian use in July 1857. Subsequently offices were opened in Smyrna (1872), Beyrout (1873), Stamboul (1884) and Salonica (1900). Initially unoverprinted GB stamps were used until August 1885 when inflation of the Turkish Piastre caused the most frequently used values to be surcharged. From 1905 GB stamps were also overprinted 'LEVANT' for use on postcards and parcels. With the outbreak of WWI the British and other foreign offices were closed in September 1914 and only the Smyrna and Constantinople Offices re-opened for a brief period after the war.

This display features mail going in and out of these offices throughout this period, particularly illustrating the various usages of the surcharged and overprinted stamps and postal stationery provided for the British Levant and includes a brief overview of the postal history of the British Salonica Force during the Great War and the Black Sea Force based in Constantinople after the Armistice."

Ian says, "The display and presentation are formed around the comprehensive web site on these issues put together by Dr. Paul Ramsay and myself which can be found at: www.gbtelegraphs.com. It will follow the order outlined there, namely the First Issue, Second Issue and Later Issues as this is a far more appropriate and chronological approach than covering their issue by face value alone.

The analogous nature of these De La Rue stamps with those of the contemporary surface printed postage stamps means there is a much wider sphere of interest within the GB collecting field than that of just a rare bunch of telegraph collectors (or the telegraph mafia as we have been referred to by a certain GB dealer!)

As a consequence of this, part of the presentation will specifically focus on aspects of research of the telegraph issues that have direct implications to general GB philately of this era. In particular the imprimaturs and certain specimens will be dealt with in some detail presenting new information and some intrigue relating to historic vandalism occurring around some high valued items! If time permits the preparation of probably the most expensive Victorian stamp produced will be covered, and no it is not the £5 orange!

The display itself will cover essays, proofs, colour trials, standards and of course the issued stamps both mint and used. It has been put together with completeness in mind and as such includes material from what are probably the two largest current private collections of these issues, namely Steve Lawrie's and my own. Several uncatalogued and formally unknown stamps will be shown (with explanations!) and usage will be covered in some detail, particularly in the latter half of the display."