THE LIGHTHOUSE

The Newsletter of the Eastbourne & South Downs Philatelic Society

Editor: John Wright, 12 Milchester House, Staveley Road, Meads, Eastbourne, BN20 7JX.

No. 12 May 2007

Views expressed in this Newsletter are not necessarily those of the Officers or Committee

FROM THE PRESIDENT

How much do you think it costs each year to run the E&SDPS, and provide the facilities we enjoy to a greater or lesser extent?

There is the Circulating Packet which is, admittedly, self-financing - but there are costs involved. The Auctions - much the same as the Packet. The Library contains one of the County's best ranges of philatelic literature. The Weekly Meetings - we are about the last Club to hold a Meeting each week, and involves hiring the room and defraying the costs of Speakers. The quarterly Newsletter, The Lighthouse - quite costly to produce but does keep those members now unable to attend in touch with the happenings of the Club - YOUR CLUB!

So where is all this leading? To provide all these benefits costs a great deal of money. Where does it come from? There are three main sources: profits from the Packet; profits from the Auctions; and the Annual Subscription. The first two are variable and unpredictable: the last has remained static for over ten years. What else has not increased in price in the last ten years? Nothing that I can think of. The Committee, faced with ever-increasing costs, has two options: to reduce what is offered, or to increase the subscription. The latter course has been chosen, and will be on the Agenda at the A.G.M. If you do not agree with this course of action, come along to the A.G.M. and have your say. Actually, if you do agree with this course of action, come along anyway - it is your chance to influence the way your Club is run.

Whilst on the subject of the A.G.M., please come along prepared to get involved in the running of the Society. A recent Competitions evening was a shambles because we had no Competitions Officer - we now have someone prepared to do this, but Competitions were very nearly cut from the programme which would have been a great pity as they have started to become more popular.

There are more younger people in the Club now, i.e. under seventy, although age does not preclude anyone from joining the Committee or "doing their bit" in whatever way they are able. Don't simply be a "taker" by just taking the Packet or coming to Auctions. Give something back to the club that gives you enjoyment If it doesn't, why are you a member?

Graham Little (President, E&SDPS)

(Editor's Note: Graham does not mention the underused Accessory Service offered by the Society, which offers benefits to users as well as a potential small profit to the Society.)


A favourite item from my collection: A note from Sir Ernest Shackleton by Margery Wharton

In 1907-9 Ernest Shackleton led the British Antarctic Expedition. Leaving England in August 1907 and New Zealand on board the Nimrod on 1 January 1908, the expedition spent the next 15 months at Cape Royds on the coast of the Ross Sea. During this time, six members of the expedition climbed 14,000-foot volcanic Mount Erebus, four members reached the South Magnetic Pole for the first time, and Shackleton with three others tried to reach the South Pole. However bad weather forced them to abandon their attempt 87 miles short and they returned safely to base. They all returned to New Zealand on 25 March 1909. Shackleton was knighted because of his endeavours.

This expedition was noteworthy philatelically because it was the first time that special stamps had been produced for use on an Antarctic Expedition. The New Zealand red 'One Penny' Universal stamp was overprinted sideways 'King Edward VII Land' in green and Shackleton was appointed as the Postmaster for the Expedition. Indeed Shackleton buried a sheet of these stamps in the snow at his furthest point south during his attempt on the Pole.

On their return to England, the expedition was deeply in debt. The sheets of overprinted stamps were neatly cancelled by favour in blocks of four with the special expedition handstamp and sold as souvenirs. In order to raise more money Shackleton embarked on a gruelling lecture tour which included visiting the United States in the summer of 1910.

The sheet of paper shown is headed 'On board RMS Olympic', sister ship to the Titanic. It has a pair of the 'per favour' cancelled expedition stamps affixed and there is a hand-written message from Shackleton which states:

These stamps were issued by the New Zealand Government for the Expedition. E H Shackleton Postmaster. What I especially like is that we can almost see the ink flowing down the nib as the great explorer wrote the message.


A FAVOURITE ITEM - 4
A REGISTERED COVER. GWADUR TO BIRKENHEAD. 1870 ALAN PARSONS. FRPSL

The cover illustrated would certainly not win a prize in the beauty stakes. I saw it on a dealer's stand at Stampex prior to London 2000 - a heart-stopping moment would not put too fine a point on it,

The first mention of its possible existence was in the 1920s by Rensup, the first to look into Indian Post Offices overseas. Using the Bombay Gazette of the 1870s, and the known numbers allocated, he surmised Gwadur should have had a number allocated since a Postal Agency was chronicled as opening in 1868 in the Bombay Circle on an experimental basis. Our own late member Eldon Ellison suggested the number 359, but nothing concrete.

The small "Major Tomkins" handbook of 1950 has no reference to a cancellation prior to "24" in the Scinde Circle - not until 2000 did this cover explain the mystery,

1868 was the year when the Persian Gulf Post Offices (when Gwadur was opened) were transferred from the Bombay Circle to Scinde, but presumably because of this event it was decided not to allocate a number, but only a circular date stamp in the format of the new fancy-lettered circle.

It would seem the P.O. Clerks were not too sure of themselves since they didn't cancel the stamps, relying on the manuscript notation of the sender, even though two years had elapsed since Gwadur opened. The earliest date of a cancellation in the Scinde format, from anywhere in the Gulf, is December 1870.

This cover has given me the most satisfaction and now is there anything left to find?

P.S. Gwadur's importance was on account of the Indo-European telegraph station en route to Karachi. It is situated on the Mekran coast of Pakistan, who acquired it in 1983 for £3,000,000 from the Sultan of Muscat.

****:*

Contributions are sought for future articles in this series. They must be accompanied by a clear photocopy, together with text (typed or clearly handwritten) to explain why it is a favourite item.


MEET THE OFFICERS - 10

Librarian Clifford Battams was bom at Heath and Reach, a village in Bedfordshire, in June 1938, the son of a Water Pumping Station Engineer. He went to the village school until 1949 and then to secondary school at Leighton Buzzard until 1951 when he moved on to Luton Technical College for 2½ years. On leaving school he worked at a local sand quarry, operating machinery.

Called up into the Army in 1957, Cliff joined the Royal Engineers in Malvern for basic training. Then to the Engineering Training Centre at Ripon, becoming (after training) a crane and excavator instructor. He went with the Royal Engineers to Christmas Island and, on returning to GB, to Otterburn in Northumberland, In 1961 he moved to Brighton, working for Harrington Coachworks until they closed, then joining Brighton Borough Council where he stayed until retirement.

Cliff joined Brighton & Hove Philatelic Society in 1974 spending several years on their committee, and joined Eastbourne in 2006 after moving to Hailsham. He is also an enthusiastic member of The British Aerophilatelic Federation, and The Forces Postal History Society.

A 1st CLASS BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to Angela Reilly, who celebrated (in some style) her 80th birthday on Tuesday 27th March, To mark the occasion, her daughter-in-law arranged for the production of this rather splendid cake, Perhaps interesting to note that 80d (in the old money current when Angela was born) would convert to 33p, which is halfway between the cost of a 1st class stamp on 27th March and its present cost,

Angela has provided The Lighthouse with some biographical notes, beginning with her premature birth in Manchester, Her father moved the family and his caravan business to St. Albans when she was 4 where they stayed until the War Department requisitioned the property. This resulted in several moves, eventually to a farm on the banks of the Daucleddau river for the rest of the war. Caring for the farm animals (as well as her pony) and various farm tasks gave Angela great pleasure, as did the breeding of thoroughbred horses (especially when they won races!). December 1945 saw a move to Hastings, A proposed family move to New Zealand came to nothing: she bought her house in Harley Shute Road in the early 1960s, married, and still lives there with her son and his family. For over 40 years she worked in administration for the N.H,S. and now, in her own words, "plays around with little bits of paper!

INVESTORS STICK THEIR MONEY ON STAMPS From The Daily Telegraph, 10th March 2006

Stamps are joining wine and art as popular investments among the well-heeled. While schoolboy albums may largely be a thing of the past these days, booming sales of rare stamps have helped Stanley Gibbons see profits leap by a third to £3•75 million. Sales for Stanley Gibbons rose by nearly a quarter last year, and the firm (founded by a Plymouth chemist's 16-year-old son) has grown to become one of the world's largest stamp cataloguing companies.

Today's market is prospering despite being rocked by a scandal last year when two allegedly fraudulent stamp investment


schemes in Spain saw 350,000 people lose money. Forum Filatelico and Afinsa have both since been declared bankrupt.

However, the pastime has not always proved universally popular. George Orwell once described stamp collectors as "a strange, silent, fish-like breed, of all ages, but only of the male sex; women, apparently, fail to see the peculiar charm of gumming bits of coloured paper into albums".

REVIEW

January 18th An EGG CUP display of German East Africa was the fare for this evening, presented by Michael Farrant, FRPSL, and Mike started with a section of pre-WWl from 1890 - 1914 during which time GEA consisted of little more than a couple of coastal towns with Postal Agencies (Dar Es Salaam) and a few scattered colonists in odd inland villages. With no stamps of its own, internal mail is almost unheard of and consequently the material was mainly "overseas", bearing German stamps. All the material shown was at least scarce, but we were treated to covers to Germany, registered covers, double weight letters and even a triple weight registered. After some years, the Postal Agencies became proper Post Offices with, of course, a change in postmarks. Some internal mail was now to be found bearing 2 mark stamps (the rate for a parcel to Germany): other items we saw were a high-rate cover to the Foreign Office in Berlin; a pc with 10pf gutter pair (very rare used); a money order letter; Post Office internal mail (free); and examples of mail from very small coastal villages. These were followed by sets of mint stamps, some in blocks - German stamps optd in pais for GEA use. Mike included proofs of these, never issued and only coming to light when the DDR archives were opened up in 1990! Then more overseas mail, including a cover taken on foot from Urundi to Dar Es Salaam (2½ months) before being put on a ship.

The next stamps appeared in 1896, diagonal opts in pais: a proof set, lots of lovely blocks, and gutter pairs, the covers including a few used (in Arabic) by natives, a cover from GEA to Sumatra (8 pmks) and heavy and heavily franked material. The Yacht stamps were shown, including blocks, proofs and specimens, the values now being in pfennig and mark (these later optd in pais) - a cover shown had 30, no, not a misprint, 30 of the 3 pais stamp. Then the high values, including a pane of 20 mainly for use on parcel cards, followed by a currency change (100 heller to 1 rupee), and we saw mint and used on covers. Next, wmkd paper (including examples of the 1919 2 rupee, never used as the colony no longer existed). Some beautiful rarities included exploded booklets; a cover with a temporary pmk (regular being repaired); covers during the native uprising (2 months to get through); PD items; and items carried without extra charge by the British mail train (Mike had photos of the train). Finally, some oddities: a semaphore-gramme; hand-optd revenues; and a bill of lading which is possibly the only complete document from GEA with revenues. A superb evening by England's leading GEA specialist.