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ASPS NEWS
SPRING 2012
ISSN 0951 9769
The Association of Sussex Philatelic Societies
Jim Etherington, Grace Davies and Angela Reilly beingpresented with the Healey and Wise Salver. (Friends ofThematica) by ASPS President Mike Slamo for winning theInter-Federation Thematic competition in July
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EDITORIAL
ASPS News is back again if a little slimmer, after missing the Autumn 2011edition.
The content is much more geared to Association and Society matters , althoughnews from Societies is still difficult to obtain. Only seven out of twenty sevenSocieties have sent anything for inclusion. Please try harder in the future toremedy this.
Derrick Pillage has written an interesting article on a piece of unusual air mailhistory.
The Future of Philately and the Financing of Philately in Sussex are two featuresfor your consideration and comment in a future ASPS News.
Material for inclusion in the Autumn ASPS News should be sent to reach me by12 August 2012. Articles can be accepted by Email [email protected].
OFFICERS OF ASPS 2012—2013
President Michael Slamo 01273 732956
Vice President Jim Etherington 01273 471897
Secretary John Wright 01323 438964
Treasurer Michael Slamo 01273 732956
Auctioneer Vacant
Competitions Officer Grace Davies 01273 471372
Junior Competitions Officer Brian Rogers 01903 784609
Editor ASPS News John Hammonds 01403 265072
Publicity Officer Colin Lewis 01273 734294
Advertising Officer John Wright 01323 438964
Delegate to ABPS Lionel Jones
Opinions expressed in articles in ASPS News are the sole responsibility of theauthor(s) and are not necessarily endorsed by the Editor or the Association
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President’s Report
It gives me great pleasure in being able to introduce the ASPS News after a breakof some 12 months since the last issue.
A lot has happened since the last Council meeting, starting with the AnnualConvention at Ardingly. Although the attendance was very slightly down over theprevious year, it was, nonetheless, very successful and thanks are due to all whohelped to make it a success, especially Colin Lewis, who succeeded in keepingall the dealers happy, Kevin Dilistone for his amazing work on the tombola (notmany got past Kevin), and Chris Dadswell for his running of the Bid Board. Therewas a surplus of £437 from the Convention for which we are very grateful.
Hot on the heels of the Convention, there was the Auction, for which we are verygrateful to John Hammonds who arranged and ran this for 2011. This produced asurplus of £423, so well done John! We still need someone to come forward(does not have to be just one person) to continue this very important function ofASPS life, and, without an auction, we would suffer, financially, even more thanwe are at the moment.
We have also now set up a website, Thanks are due to Barrie Wright for settingthis up. Jim Etherington will keep it up to date. Thank you Barrie and Jim.
The “per capita” fees are slowly coming in (more slowly than last year), but,hopefully, all will have been received by the time this edition of ASPS News isissued. Thanks should also go to John Hammonds for his work on the productionof this issue.
On these positive notes, it just remains for me to wish you all a happy new year
and a successful 2012 for all your clubs and societies.
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ASPS Competitions Workshop
Saturday 2 June at Heathfield Community Centre10.00 for 10.30 am, finishing at 4.00 pm.
Following the success of our first Competitions Workshop last year we arepleased to announce the holding of a second workshop this year.
Taking as its theme the presentation of a successful competition entry, theworkshop will focus on the importance of a title page, the plan page (arequirement for thematic entries), the content to be displayed and ways to presentyour material to catch the judges’ eye. The workshop will be relevant to allcompetition classes.
Although intended for members who may wish to enter competition at club orcounty level, it is envisaged that much of the content of this workshop will beuseful for anyone wishing to enhance the presentation of their collection, possiblywith the view to giving club displays.
As in the previous workshop attendees will be encouraged to participate fully inthe day’s activities and are invited to bring along for display a maximum of eightsheets that may have been a competition entry, part of an entry, or have comefrom their collection.
A fee of £10.00, to include tea/coffee, is payable to cover costs. Attendees toprovide their own lunch, but a local hostelry provides excellent sandwiches or lightmeals. A map and full programme will be sent to all attendees prior to theworkshop.
Applications forms will be sent to ASPS affiliated societies during February and
will also be available for downloading from the new ASPS website,
www.sussexphilately.org.uk .
If you require further information please contact Jim Etherington, tel: 01273
471897 or email: [email protected] or Grace Davies, tel: 01273 471372 or
email: [email protected]
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AUCTION 2012
After a successful auction in 2011 it is hoped to run another in 2012 if somebodywill come forward to run it.
It is quite a bit of work but very rewarding The Association has been asking forsometime for somebody to take on this task. It need not be one person for variousparts of the auction can be split e.g one person prepares the Catalogue, anotherreceives the bids and help can be found to distribute the lots to the buyers.
Do give it some thought and please somebody (ies) come forward to help run thisvery valuable contribution to the Association’s finances.
The ASPS Website
A little while ago a plea was made through these pages for a volunteer to bringASPS into the 21st century by creating an ASPS website. Many other countyassociations have recognised the benefits of being on the web and have takenthe plunge, but ASPS was lagging behind. It was felt certain that somewhereamong the members of our affiliated societies there would be someone who wasboth capable and willing to fulfil this task and he has been found. Barrie Wrightfrom Bexhill has come forward and with the assistance of Grace Davies and JimEtherington is in the process of creating the ASPS website. It is hoped that it willbe ready for previewing at the next ASPS Council meeting and will go live on theweb sometime quite soon after that.
Financing Philately in Sussex
It is no secret that ASPS finances are far from secure. While a small surplus ismade on the Ardingly Convention we are reliant on the income from the annualauction to keep us afloat. Obviously at the moment there is desperate plea beingmade for a volunteer to step forward to run future auctions.
I would like to suggest another, perhaps slightly more contentious, partial solutionfor ensuring the financial wellbeing of ASPS. In proffering this I am assuming,hopefully correctly, that our affiliated societies see the value of having a countyassociation and therefore desire the continued existence of ASPS.
At the present time Societies contribute 50p per member affiliation fee to ASPS.Why not £1.00? I immediately hear the predictable response: ‘How can this bedone without increasing our Society membership subscriptions, the consequenceof which might be a loss of members?’
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But would this be the result? Before the merger with Haywards Heath the BurgessHill Society’s committee, concerned about its declining financial resources,proposed at the Society’s AGM a raising of the annual subscription from £6.00 to£8.00. To their surprise, members supported a greater increase resulting in asubscription rate of £10.00 being agreed. The members argued that even at £10they received great value for money. Subsequently, from a membership of nearly70, there were only three non-renewals, none of whom attended meetings orreceived the packet.
This experience does beg the question: ‘Why is it always assumed that the raising
of subscriptions will necessarily result in a decline in membership?’ Members
want to see their Society’s continued success and hopefully that of ASPS. I would
suggest the vast majority would be prepared to pay that little bit extra to ensure
this happens.
NEW BOOK
Barry Floyd has written another book “Charles Darwin, His Life Through
Commemorative Stamps”. The book is in the same style as the author’s
Captain James Cook the Explorer with the biography of the subject first and the
stamps to commemorate him and an explanation of their details following in the
second part.
Copies can be obtained from :
Travellers’s Tree Thematic Services, 30 Watch Bell Street, Rye, East Sussex
TN31 7HB. Cost £15 plus postage and packing. All cheques should be made
payable to B.N Floyd
ABPS AWARDS OF MERIT
These consist of a framed certificate, are given for outstanding voluntary service
to British philately at regional, specialist and local society level. A nominee must
be a member of a society affiliated to the ABPS.
Outstanding voluntary service includes work to advance philately e.g work at
Conventions or work carried out on a voluntary basis over a period time for a
Society.
There are few nominations from Sussex so please remedy this and get
nominating.
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THE STORY OF THE FIRST GERMAN AIRMAILSTHE GRAND DUCHESS ELEANORE'S CHARITY FLIGHTS
THE RHEIN/MAIN AIRMAILS10-23 JUNE 1912
This article demonstrates how the inception of Germanairmail was aided by the charitable works of the GrandDuchess of Hessen who, with her committee, raised fundsto improve the lives of the families in deep poverty in theDarmstadt area.
The history of the family is full of disasters, first theDuke's young sister who married the Tsar of Russia andwas shot by the Russian soldiers in the Revolution. TheDuke died when his Empire was taken away, the GrandDuchess with her son, wife and children were killed in aplane crash in 1937. The other son married the King ofItaly's daughter, they worked for Hitler who had them putin prison (when he had finished with them) where hiswife died.
The Grand Duchess was helped in 1912 by August Euler,the famous aircraft builder, who lent his plane "Gelber
Hund" for five mail carrying flights piloted by Lt von Hiddessen, renowned for being thefirst German pilot to drop bombs on Paris. He was later shot down and spent the rest ofthe war as a prisoner.
Also Count von Zeppelin donated his new Zeppelin LZ10 "Schwaben" piloted by themost famous airship pilot Dr Hugo Eckener, who flew the mail every day other than onthe 21 June 1912. These two pilots carried the first official airmails in Germany. The
The Grand Duchess’s Family
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Grand Duchess Charity stamps were sold in Post Offices and local shops, the moneyraised went to the Grand Duchess's funds. The rates of the official German stamps were5pf for internal and 10pf for international flights, which had to be on every card flown.These were the first airmail flights with the full co-operation of the Reichpost (GermanPost Office) and the airship and aircraft had to carry the Reichpost flag during this period.
The first picture shows the map of the area where the airmails flew. I am showing twoimportant items from my collection, first is the 23 June 1912 showing three green 30pfcharity stamps. Plus it is one of the few showing a number 833 which took a long time tofind. The second shows on the 20pf Charity stamp overprinted EELP which was used toget the public to buy more stamps, and work out what these words meant. The answerwon a flight on the Zeppelin. A lady stated Ex-Est Luft Post meaning last flight of stamps.These stamps on a postcard are very rare.
Fig 1 Fig 2
Zeppelin LZ10 “SchwabenGelber Hund
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The Future of Philately
Email received from Dr David Watson
The loss of members through illness and, sadly, death is clearly a major factor inthe decline of philatelic societies' membership numbers, with less widespreadinterest in philately amongst those now approaching retirement. There have beenmany thriving stamp clubs at schools in the 1940s and 1950s and plenty ofchance to buy stamps from shops such as Woolworths, but this was certainly notthe case for nascent collectors in the 1960s.In the latter decade children had thenew distraction of evening TV in most homes, as well as the perpetual piles ofhomework! Most stamp dealers were not interested in us kids' pocket money inthe 60s. Modern day dealers are hopefully more enlightened. Stamp Active iscertainly working hard too. But is this too late to slow the decline in philatelicsocieties?
It is rare that stamp clubs get new members under 65, never mind collectorsunder 21. One only needs to sit in on stamp auctions outside London to realisehow difficult this is likely to be. The audiences are generally of my parents’generation and some of them tend to assume the lead at local societies. Thisassumed lead can keep younger members in their place, usually in the audience.No wonder e-bay is more interesting for some! Is there a parting of the waysbetween online collecting/research and an older, perhaps less IT literategeneration that likes to be entertained once or twice a month?
Of course societies would be wise to merge as memberships decline, if only tosave on increasing charges for room hire. Merger can be achieved, even wherethere is resistance from members on the packet list who would lose out from oneless packet to peruse. One must wish those societies going for it all success - e.gHaywards Heath PS and their colleagues in Burgess Hill. But merger is a rareevent - members are generally against this, or even attending another societynearby to see if the grass is green! This sense of loyalty to one club, whilst nobleand understandable in an aging population that doesn't like change, may well leadto more clubs going under. Thankfully the future for specialist, national andinternational societies seems to be much better. From personal experience,BWISC and the Revenue Society are two glowing examples of how to keepmembership stable as the grim reaper takes his inevitable toll! Perhaps theanswer for us 'youngsters' (under 65) is to specialise?
ASPS AUTUMN CONVENTION
ARDINGLY SHOWGROUND ON SATURDAY13 OCTOBER 2012
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THE 93RD PHILATELIC CONGRESS OF GREAT BRITAIN
Congress was held at the Queen's Hotel, Southsea between 16 - 19 June 2011and was attended by around 140 delegates from all parts of the country.
A varied programme of lectures and displays was arranged on the theme ofMaritime and Communications which included Portsmouth Postal history (M.JHill); Antarctic (G Booth); Australia & New Zealand Mails (C Tabeart); Mails UnderLondon (K Stanway); Edinburgh Mail by Rail (S Parkin); Antique WritingInstruments (G Marriner) and Les Ballons Montés (A Lawrence) which won theStanley Gibbons Cup for the best display of the Congress.
The Kay Goodman Memorial Lecture was given by Susan Oliver on the subject"Philatelic Federations - Have they passed their sell by date?" This evoked alively discussion from which the main points were:
1. Federations exist to provide a forum for local societies to meet together,encourage and help the hobby.2. To co-ordinate competition rules within their area to graduate to Nationalcompetition level.3. Stamp Days are usually arranged by Federations once or twice a year andare ideal but despite the work involved do give a chance for the FederationOfficers to meet club members.4. Federations should re-examine their reason for existence and act on thesefindings.
The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists was signed by Gavin Fryer (Great Britain),Koichi Sato (Japan) and Raymond Todd (Australia) at the Portsmouth Guildhall.
The Congress Medal was awarded to John Davies for his work with YouthPhilately.
The Congress Banquet was held on Saturday in the presence of the Mayor ofPortsmouth.
Congress closed on the Sunday with the AGM of the ABPS
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ASPS COMPETITIONS 13 OCTOBER 2012
The next ASPS convention will be on 13 October 2012 and it is hoped that therewill be a bumper number of entries.
Deadline for receipt of entries to be judged and entry forms for all classes is 30September 2012.
Entry Forms and guidance notes will be sent to all club secretaries in February/March or can be requested direct by email.
There is no entry fee.
The classes this year will be as follows:
Pre-judged
Inter Society - (2x8 pages) Postal History
Individual - (16 Pages) AerophilatelyThematicTraditional
Viewers’ Vote
Open - (16 Pages)Postcard - (8 pages with a minimum of 12 postcards)
Grace Davies, Competitions Officer1A Wallands Crescent, Lewes BN7 2QTTel: 01273 471372. Email: [email protected]
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SOCIETY NEWS
East Grinstead Stamp & Postcard ClubThe Club reconvened on 6 September after the summer break, for the visit ofGerald Cogger who presented Channel Islands 1798-1945, with the second partbeing given over to the war time issues. The next visitor was Derek Mauri whoshowed "One hundred years of USA Stamps 1851-1951" and the final visit of theyear was a reciprocal visit from the Horsham Society, with New Zealand beingshown in the first half and stamps designed by Jennifer Tombs making up thesecond display. Around these visits the Club had its usual mix of activities:auction and non-thematic competition and a postcard evening.
Although the Club has dropped to 23 members, and some careful planning offinances has been needed to ensure reserves are not drained too quickly, overallthe Club can boast a healthy membership: some 15-17 members attend meetingsand all of the remainder are active in various ways.
Eastbourne & South Downs Philatelic Society6 October 2011 found 39 members and their partners joined by Alan Moorcroftpast president of the Royal, and his wife Linda, for an excellent meal to celebrateour 75th Anniversary.
The following month we held a Stamp Fair, opened by the local MP, not only tocelebrate our past but to publicise our meetings and look forward to achieving theCentury.
Speakers in the last three months of 2011 displayed their collections from aroundthe world, Railways of Canada, Israel, Netherlands, Iceland, trains to Wales,Abraham Lincoln and modern GB. GB produce many stamps, some of which arevey interesting but you never see them at the Post Office or on the mail, which isa shame. Members will play a large part in the presentations in early 2012, andthose evenings, not devoted to auctions or specific subjects, never cease to befull of diversity and ingenuity.
We have four editions of our Newsletter "The Lighthouse" a year. Each is packedwith reports, some with photos of our meetings, along with articles and othersnippets of news. this ensures that absent members are kept well informed of ouractivities.
Mid Sussex Philatelic SocietyThere was a little trepidation at the start of the 2011-12 season among themembers of our newly formed Society. Would the merger of the Burgess Hill andHaywards Heath Societies prove to be a success? Once we had reached the
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Christmas break we all felt confident that the right decision had been made. Thiswas confirmed when on one occasion when being visited by our esteemedguests, present and past ASPS officers, no less than 28 members were present.The new society can thus boast well attended meetings, a good packet circulationand secure finances.
To get ourselves off to a good start we have been entertained by three notablespeakers. Christine Earle, Secretary of the Royal Philatelic Society, was our firstspeaker showing her gold medal exhibit, ‘The Post Office Went to War’. Christinewas followed by John Hayward, the President of the British Thematic Association,with his international exhibit, ‘The Iron Stead’ which traces the development of themotor bike. Our final visitor before Christmas, the ever popular Ian Nutley,displayed the ‘Road to Auschwitz’.
In the months immediately following Christmas stalwarts of the ‘old’ societies,Brian Austin, Peter Cockburn, Fred Hoadley and our President, John Bushell willbe taking to the floor, exhibiting aspects of Ceylon, Malaya, Switzerland and Chilerespectively. Our two visiting speakers will be Don Terry showing the PostalHistory of Madrid and Peter High, President of the Forces Postal History Society,with his comprehensive display of Hospital Ship Mail.
Sussex Postal History SocietyThe Society, created for the enjoyment and study of Sussex Postal History, wasinaugurated by a small number of postal historians in 1991. At our recent AnnualGeneral Meeting, which was preceded by lunch at a local hostelry, Graham Boothwas elected Chairman. After the business part of the meeting seven of ourfounder members entertained with small displays from their individual collections.
Led by Derek Walker who showed Worthing Sub-Post Offices, Chris Dudeneyshowed his study of the Type 34 Datestamp of Chichester, Fred Robinsoncontinued with "Why Postal History" which included many and varied items ofinterest from the Sussex area, Phil Kaye showed "An Old Wealden Village" whichproved to be Mayfield. After a short break for viewing and tea, Colin Smart tookus on a philatelic journey "Around West Sussex", Les Coombs showed "TheGrowth of the Brighton Postal Service from the early 1800s and finally DavidPadgham reminded us of the birth of the Society and ended by showing aselection of Hastings material.
Meetings are held six times annually at East Worthing and details of membershipmay be obtained from the Hon Secretary. tel: 01903 241503.
Southdowns Postcard ClubNow we are two, how time flies. This year we are looking forward to a visit from
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East Grinstead Stamp & Postcard Club and we are going to Mid Sussex PhilatelicSociety in April. Several anniversaries are being depicted, Scott of the Antarctic,the Titanic and QEII's Diamond Jubilee as well as subjects nearer to home.
The Postcard Fair we held last year was a success and therefore we havebooked the 9th May for this evening event. Come and join us on this or anyevening.
For further details call Jennie Little on 01323 449723
Wealden Postcard ClubThe monthly newsletter continues to be published giving details of the displaysarranged. Over the past months these have included The History of Policing inSussex, Shops and Shopping, Hove's Roll of Honour in the Great War, LewesBonfire Night and History of the British Seaside. An outing was arranged toWesterham.Details of membership can be obtained from Alan Barwick tel 01273 493155.
Worthing Philatelic SocietyOver 28 people attended the Christmas party at the Durrington New Centre onMonday 12 December. The display was given by Bryan Hawkins whosewonderful display of cartoons and stories filled the room with laughter. Ben Boltand wife did a great quiz. By now the party was in full swing, food and drinks aplenty. We were honoured by having a young reporter from the local paper whocame to see how stamp clubs were run. I am sure he enjoyed himself.
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LIST OF SOCIETY SECRETARIES
ASPS John Wright 01323 438964BATTLE Angela Reilly 01424 423202BEXHILL Ray Burnett 01424 214234BOGNOR REGIS Chris Dawe 01243 826196BRIGHTON Philip Realff 01273 559482CHICHESTER Michael J Berry 01243 530208CRAWLEY Mrs Barbara Tye 07847 368001EASTBOURNE Jennie Little 01323 449723EAST GRINSTEAD Malcolm Green 01342 327554EAST WORTHING Alf Taylor 01403 753346GORING Dillon Larg 01903 530246HASTINGS & E SUSSEX Tony Calton 01424 434496HEATHFIELD Bob Ely 01892 852659HORSHAM Maurice Allen 01403 261489LEWES Ian Cameron 01273 473485LITTLEHAMPTON Brian Rogers 01903 784609MID SUSSEX Jim Etherington 01273 471897PEACEHAVEN Phil Welch 01273 583490SEAFORD Maurice Shorten 01273 516897SHOREHAM Mike Grigson 01273 483666S DOWNS POSTCARD Jennie Little 01323 449723SOUTHWICK Bob Knight 01273 592518STORRINGTON Alf Taylor 01903 753346SUSSEX PH SOCIETY Roger Davies 01903 241503TUNBRIDGE WELLS Mrs E (Liz) Clare 01892 527587WEALDEN POSTCARD Alan Barwick 01273 493155WORTHING Brian Baldock 01903 263539WORTHING SPH Roger Davies 01903 241503
The addresses of most Secretaries are listed in the ABPSHandbook which is available from your Society Secretary
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Royal Tunbridge Wells Philatelic Society
Sponsors of the
Crowborough Stamp & Postcard Fair
Bank Holiday Monday 7th May 2012 All Saints Church Hall,Chapel Green Crowborough TN6 3AP
Open 10am to 4pm
FREE ADMISSION AMPLE FREE PARKING
Stamps, Postal History, Postcards
TOMBOLA REFRESHMENTS
Dealers in Attendance
Peter Lindfield T & T Auctions
The Stamp Shop (T Wells) Bob Lee
David Ager Rosemary Sheperd
Dave Church Lorne Webb
Tony Davis Jim Patterson
Arnold Berman Ray McQuade
Mark Grant Ray Birch
John Perriman
For further information, 'phone Lis Clare 01892 527587
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