Past Events 2006

January 2006

Our annual Social was well attended and an evening of Quizzes competitions and our quirky "pass the parcel" was rewarded with everyone going home with a prize and a smile. As usual we were joined by our friends from the Milton Keynes Society. 

February 2nd 2006

A well attended meeting with 15 entries in the main competition and 7 entries in the "six best sheets" section. winners were as follows.

General Philately:      John Spencer:

Falkland Island Dependencies first definitive issue Best in Show.

Postal History:       Geoffrey Williams

Belgian Railway parcel post cancellations

Thematic:           June Williams:

Name that Rose

My Six Best Sheets:    James Norris

Victorian Perfins 

Our Judge as usual was Alan Griffiths, who last year was awarded the ABPS congress medal for services to Philately, a well deserved honor. Again he found a great improvement on past years with all entries scoring highly.

March 2nd 2006

Around 200 lots went under the hammer with many lots being sold at well over reserve, We were pleased to welcome guests from other societies who came along to share the bargains. 

March 29th 2006

Three members from our Society traveled to Milton Keynes with displays from their collections which included, Geoffrey Williams- Burma, Alan Crozier- Germany, and a display of Falkland Islands courtesy of John Spencer.

April 6th 2006

A visit and display from the members of the Milton Keynes Philatelic Society included Sid Geary with part of his collection of Switzerland, Jim Scannel with a History of foreign Post Offices in Levant, Gwynne Hughes collection on the theme of Agriculture, and lastly Brian Allcock with Civilian Censors of Aden.

May 11th 2006

Leighton Buzzard were the hosts for this years Inter-club quiz, The visiting teams came from Milton Keynes, Bedford and Luton. After four rounds Bedford seemed to be heading for a clear victory but the picture quiz  saw Leighton Buzzard just one point away from a win, In the end Bedford were the winners by just one point from Leighton Buzzard with Luton third and Milton Keynes fourth, thanks were extended to Alan Crozier for setting  the Questions, and to the ladies who arranged the superb Buffet.  

June 1st 2006

The AGM saw all officers re-instated, There was much discussion over the refurbishment of the Church hall and the effects it might have over future bookings, but it was eventually agreed to stay at the hall and see what happens,

After the break 11 members showed items from their collections which resulted in a late finish for our last meeting of the season. the next meeting will be on September 7th 2006. 

September 7th 2006

The first meeting of the new season and members brought along items to sell,  exchange and enter into the mini auction which saw some brisk biding from enthusiastic members not wishing to miss out on a bargain.

October 5th 2006

Members of the Cambridge society visited with a variety of displays to interest the members.

November 2nd 2006

Three members from the Amersham Philatelic Society brought along items from their collections to entertain us and the first to show was Maurice Taylor with a display of Madeira. to introduce us to the subject Maurice gave us a brief history of the Island from 1419 when it was discovered to the introduction of postage stamps which were Portuguese overprints and unusually not allowed for postage in Portugal Other items on display were Bi-sects, Postal stationery Various early mail which included a wide variety of post between the Island and Britain connected to the wine trade with letter cards from 1875. 

After the break Tony Bridger gave a display of T.B. No, not Tony Bridger but Tuberculosis. Tony's display gave rise to a good deal of audience debate  bought about by the recent increase in victims of this dreadful disease, 

In 1902 the first convention took place in Berlin to try and combat the disease and it was decided to use the Cross of Lorain as the charities symbol which was to appear on many issues of stamps from around the world. The first of which were the New Zealand health stamps of 1926 which displayed the Cross and were issued solely for raising funds for TB and were the beginning of a series of Health stamps from this country. Another country to support the cause was Belgium. In bringing the problem to the attention of the people it did much to halt the spread of the disease.

The third speaker was Alan Williams. Alan gave us a brief history of the Island from its discovery to the wiping out of it's natural inhabitants by slavery and newly introduced infections, to the present day, through early straight line hand stamps and a cover from 1764 showing a rare type 3 hand stamp. It took the letter 61 days to reach London from Jamaica. Some rare Albino hand stamps and stamps with the 1860 Pineapple watermark other changes to include 1883 crown watermark and the 1889 key plate issues.

The Chairman thanked all speakers for a superb evening of displays and all present applauded their efforts.