The Eastbourne & South Downs PS Newsletter

THE LIGHTHOUSE

The Eastbourne & South Downs PS Newsletter

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

No. 37 August 2013

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

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WILLIAM CUTHBERT (BILL) HOBBS, MBE 21•9•18- 19•04•13

Born in North Kensington, Bill was school head prefect, football captain and a member of the cricket team. After a number of jobs while at school, he left in Autumn 1932, starting work at Clement Talbot, hard work for a youngster, bending, cutting, wheelwork, etc., all with no protection. His father bought, in 1934 for £525 on mortgage, a new house in North Greenford and Bill was taken on by Cook & Palmer as a workshop boy, assisting with car repairs and learning to drive a number of old vehicles such as Singer, Bean, Chrysler, Morgan, Aston, etc. This firm was taken over by Car Mart, Bill being put i/c the Lubricating Bay; then transferred as semi-skilled mechanic, later taking over the Cost Office, billing customers for repairs.

"Call Up" papers received in March '39, when undergoing cartilege operation following football injury. On outbreak of war, joined Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry at Bodmin. After Dunkirk did a spell at Bodmin Moor on Anti-Parachute Patrols. Became Driving Instructor and one-stripe Lance Corporal. Put in charge of garage for repairing cars, then went to Aldershot School of Mechanics, then transferred to Royal Army Ordnance Corps for training as Armament Artificer. Returned to Cornwall to find he had been promoted to full Corporal and later moved to Chilwell Depot, Nottingham, where after six months passed out and was promoted to Staff Sergeant. Posted to 4th Div Workshop, Lymington, Hants, taking over Recovery Section and Bren Gun Carrier repair workshop. Back to Nottingham, promoted to Warrant Officer 1st Class, i/c Light Air detachment. Then to Salisbury for Signals Southern Command, followed by boat from Liverpool via Cape Town to Suez, El Alamein, Egypt, Libya to Tunisia and Alexandria. Then prepared new vehicles for Sicily and Cassino. Demobbed January 1946. Met Pat. Dagenham Motors (Alperton) Service Manager, later General Manager. When Kennings closed their London operation he was made redundant in 1982 after 48 (!) years with neither handshake nor car. Ended work with a couple of years part time for a solicitor at Edgware before moving to Eastbourne.

Bill had many hobbies and activities, which included football; school Chairman; Mason; 5 years training of National Servicemen (2 weeks a year); Queen's Coronation Medal; Treasurer REME Assn; Secretary Southern Div. British Leyland Commercial Vehicle Distribution Assn; many positions in Mencap; Chairman Willesden Tropical Fish Socy; member of Eastbourne & District PS, being President 1997/8 and 1998/9, having joined on 10th August 1986 (when he gave his interests as GB, CI, IOM); and also a member of the Germany & Colonies PS.

(The above is a shortened version of an address given at Bill's funeral and based on material written by him).

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SUSSEX WINS DAWES CUP

"The Dawes" is held annually between the 5 Counties of Essex, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. Teams are of 5,16 sheets each. I was fortunate to be in the Sussex team which won with 375 points ahead of Kent's 367.

PONT

Probably everybody has read a copy of Punch, or at least seen one, or at the very least have been aware of its existence. Founded in 1841, it eventually died in the 1990s having been ailing for a number of years. At its best, it was a fine magazine containing a number of articles, poetry, theatre, book and film reviews, and (for what it is best remembered) illustrated jokes or cartoons. The name of Graham Laidler will not immediately be recognisable as one of, if not the best of, those from the 1930s, but the name Pont with which he signed his drawings may ring some bells. The two shown here are reproduced from The Best of PUNCH Cartoons, published 2008 by Prion books (2,000 drawings on 608 large pages) and are printed here, not because they have any philatelic interest, but simply because they appeal to me.

Born in 1908, and never enjoying good health, Pont died in 1940 at the tragically early age of 32.

jmw

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Richard Tarrant confirmed as President, 13•06•13

Richard expressed his delight at being made President of this Society at the recent A.G.M, Born and brought up in London, he spent a few unfulfilling years working in insurance before moving to Middlesbrough to study sociology. He then trained as a careers adviser and worked in careers for 33 years, in Staffordshire, Wolverhampton and, for 26 of those years, in Grimsby.

Eventually taking voluntary redundancy, Richard became a freelance writer about careers issues, moving to Eastbourne five years ago and retiring from careers writing last year.

With a wide range of philatelic interests, he has had collections of many countries without ever having specialised in one, and his focus has always been on stamps rather than on covers or postal history. His main, and long-standing, interest, though, is in British perfins and commercial overprints. He enjoys writing about articles about stamps, and has had a number of these published over the years.

Richard met his wife Kath while in Middlesbrough and they have just celebrated their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. They have one son, Nick, a hospital doctor, of whom they are inordinately proud. Richard's interests, other than stamps, include football, regular gym visits, and Bob Dylan!

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WELL ADAPTED FOR THE PURPOSE . . . . .

(A shortened version of an article by Julian Stray which appeared in the Winter 2013 edition of the British Postal

Museum & Archive Newsletter)

In 1840, Rowland Hill proposed an experiment to erect letter boxes throughout London and other towns which, he felt, would "add greatly to the public convenience". Little came of this. Following postal reform, both the volume of letters and the complaints by a populace starved of an efficient system of collecting letters now prepaid by sender both rose, and Anthony Trollope (a particularly resourceful and efficient Surveyor's Chief Clerk) was given the job of speeding things up in several English and Welsh Counties and the Channel Islands. In 1851 he was sent to the Channel Islands, his reports then being assessed by George Creswell, his superior.

The five Letter Carriers each received 8/- per week for a walk averaging 30 - 40 miles: if the amount of mail to be delivered was particularly large following the arrival of a packet boat, they could not complete their delivery on the same day and a reply via the same packet was impossible. Trollope's original proposals were for the same number of delivery staff but pre-sorting at the head office with despatch to rural offices, horses were provided to the Letter Carriers, the workforce increased to eight and the walks sub-divided. This meant a reduction in pay to 7/- per week. Another of Trollope's proposals is of particular interest to those with an interest in street furniture:

There is at present no receiving office in St. Hellers (sic) and persons living in the more distant parts of the town have to send nearly a mile to the principal office. I believe that in France letter boxes are fixed at the road side and it may be advisable to try this in St. Heliers - postage stamps are sold in every street so all that is wanted is a safe receptacle for letters, which are to cleared an the morning of the despach of the London Mails and at such times as are requisite. Iron posts may be erected at the corners of streets, or iron letter boxes about 5 feet from the ground may be fixed to suitable walls and I think the public may safely be invited to use such boxes for depositing their letters.

Pillar boxes had been in use on the continent for a few years and their use had been under consideration by the British Post Office but little had come of this. Trollope recommended the experimental use at four sites in St. Helier, which was agreed, and Trollope then requested the trial be extended to St. Peter Port on Guernsey and a further three were approved.

The hexagonal, cast iron, about 4 feet high, pillar boxes for both Jersey and Guernsey were constructed by a local firm and came into use on 23rd November 1852. They were referred to as "assistant post offices" by the Jersey Times. Each box was mounted on a granite block, but one was found to be too small for the amount of material posted and resited: a replacement larger box would have caused too much of an obstruction and the Post Office arranged for a

wall to be knocked down and rebuilt. In 1853 Creswell was already proposing a further 8 boxes for rural sites in Jersey. Sadly, none of the 1852 Jersey boxes survives, but one in Guernsey, first erected in 1853, is still receiving mail today, and one of the 1853 Guernsey boxes is in the BPMA collection together with one of the mainland boxes erected in the same year. The first box on the mainland, manufactured by Abbott & Co., appeared in Carlisle around September 1853 but does not survive. Soon after, approval was given for boxes in Gloucester and it seems that each District Surveyor sourced the manufacturer and often the design too. A National Standard design was approved in 1859, but development continues to the present day.

(A well illustrated "Shire" book, Old Letter Boxes, by Martin Robinson, is worth investigation.)

jmw

Happy 50th Birthday, Bexhill - 18•10•1963 - 18•10•2013

On the exact 50th Anniversary of its founding, our near-neighbours Bexhill P. S. are holding a "Gala Dinner". In addition, a limited edition cover, with special postmark, is being produced and also a very limited edition, signed by The Earl, Lord De La Warr. If interested, please contact Murray Figgins (01323 430114). We send our congratulations and very best wishes.

AND REVIEW . . . . (Photographs by Martyn Fish)

18th April A very low attendance (17!) for Recent Acquisitions, a change from the original programme. Brian Dancer opened with various fdc with special h/stamps from Ascension, Canada, Malta, BIOT, Hong Kong, Gibraltar and Singapore and Sarah Griffin followed with Cinderellas, minerals, volcanos, Japanese Naval Control, New Guinea, Netherlands Antilles, and a mass of other material, very recently bought, some of which may re-appear in Club books or an auction. Jennie Little had an excellent showing of the 1935-47 New Zealand pictorials including souvenir stationery, fdc, local prints, and war-time issues, and also an item with propaganda for a South Island election supporting Prohibition. Ron Carter also had NZ, with a 3d from 1862, ½d and 1d Christchurch,1935 Airmails, 1934 Health, 1936 Chamber of Commerce, and 1977 Silver Jubilee. Robin Beadle's contribution was Guernsey (2011 European Forestry, Winter Wonderland, Transport, and Sea Sponges) and also Jersey (Birds, Shipwrecks, Buried Treasures, Scenery, Agriculture and National Trust), and he was followed by Michael Wyatt with a number of covers from the collection of the late Cliff Battams, all beautifully presented - 1st Airmail England-Africa (return leg twice delayed, arrived 2 days late), and the GWR, LMS, LNER, SR Railway Air Service of the British Isles of March 1934. Richard Tarrant had almost complete unmounted mint Austria, misdescribed in an auction as Australia (!), which showed Myths & Legends, Scenery, Stamp Days, Modern Art, Winter & Summer Olympics (Richard particularly likes the combination of sharp engraving and colour photogravure). Peter Burridge showed us the GB Paralympic booklets (there are 34 booklets of 2); the London Underground, where the designs were pleasing but too many, and the 11-different Dr Who set + m/s; and also the Jane Austen set. John Wright showed 2012 Canada, 9 booklets of 10, a souvenir sheet of 8, a souvenir sheet of 9, and 8 coil strips of 4 marking the 100th Grey Cup game; also 12 booklets of the "Signs of the Zodiac", (Aries, Taurus, ..., Pisces), gutter booklets, 3 sheetlets of 4, and a sheetlet of 12, the "Signs" being a 3-year series which ended this year. Bill France had 1968 Falklands flora, the basic issue, which then appeared optd with a change of currency (except the £1), and finally a new printing with the same designs; and also 1952 India Officials, 1952 Canada coils and later commems, and KGVI Tonga. Graham Little had some really fascinating material, censored by the Gestapo office in Austria - some of this was Slovakian and this was bought by him so recently that he has yet to research it (I have the feeling this could pay dividends), and Sarah Griffin returned with various Netherlands, Aruba, and Curacao.

jmw

25th Aprfl The meeting opened with the very sad news of the death of long-time member Bill

Hobbs, who passed away peacefully on 19th April. An obituary appears elsewhere in this issue.

The advertised business of the evening was a display of The Sudan by Dr. Brian Austen, who opened with two letters by General Charles Gordon. In the 1820s, Egypt began to expand towards Khartoum but was resisted by the Sudanese: a British trouble-shooting force was sent, but was besieged for ten months by forces of the Mahdi (a strict Islamic leader) but Gordon was killed two days before the arrival of a relief force in 1885. Stamps of Egypt, optd in Arabic and English, used from 1897, and then on 1st March 1898 came the first Sudan issue, the famous "Camel Postman". Surely everyone will have seen one of these, but one needs to see them (as we did) en masse to appreciate the colours - it is not necessary to have 5, 6,..., or more colours to produce a stunning effect. The first issue was on paper with "rosette" wmk, but this looks rather like a "cross" and was quickly changed to multiple "star & crescent" (1902-21) and then multiple "SG", 1927-41. A very great deal of postal stationery was shown - not everyone likes PS, but it has at least one advantage in that used PS will show a clear pmk The first air stamps came in 1931, opts on 5m, 10m, and 2p (as with all stamps with opt these are much forged), and a permanent air set came 1931-37 showing the statue in Khartoum of Gordon (this statue was later removed to the Gordon School in Surrey). A handsome set was released in 1935 to mark the 50th death anniv of Gordon. Due to shortage of stamps at the start of World War 2 (the De La Rue works were bombed), a 15-value set was produced in India, and a shortage of coinage led to stamps, optd "Not valid for postage", being issued (these should all have had the gum washed off, but Brian has one with gum!). 1950 saw a new air set, with aerogrammes for the first time. Sudan gained independence in 1954 (3 stamps with Camel Postman design) came - independence was originally scheduled for 1953 and stamps were printed with this year in the design and scrapped when the date was put back - some showing "1953" escaped and Brian has some.