The Newsletter of the Eastbourne & South Downs Philatelic Society

THE LIGHTHOUSE

The Newsletter of the Eastbourne & South Downs Philatelic Society

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

No.3 February 2005

On November 25th, the Society said farewell to Jean Parkins, departing for pastures new (well, for Rotherhithe). One always has to say the leaver will be missed, but it really is true in the case of Jean who had recently added the duties of Vice President and Librarian to her work behind the teas bar. A bouquet was presented to Jean, who replied suitably. The Committee has appointed Evelyn Hutchins as temporary Librarian, and thanks are offered to Evelyn for undertaking this job at short notice.

My thanks to "Eric" for the cutting about Joe Patient from the Sunday Express of October 17th. More information of this kind would be welcomed.

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

OBITUARY - BRIAN BUDD (25.5.1929-20.10.2004)
Brian Budd, the President of Peacehaven, Saltdean & District Stamp Club, and a member of E&SDPS, died in Eastbourne Hospital on October 20th after a short illness.
Charles Cox was a friend of Brian's for over 50 years: both worked for builders' merchants, Brian for James Chandlers (Seaford) Ltd. In 1961 Brian was a founder member of Peacehaven PS, when it used to meet at the British Legion Hall, in Dorothy Avenue, Peacehaven. Later the Club, as it changed its name to include Saltdean & District, moved to Telscombe where Brian took on a leading role in its day-to-day activities. He will always be remembered for his anecdotes and quips at the Club Meetings, especially at the Club Auctions over which he presided.
Charles remembers a special occasion when they were holding a business meeting in the Old Ship Hotel, Brighton. Brian came in and announced that his wife Marion had given birth to their daughter Linda: a good excuse to retire to the bar and drink the health of all concerned. Brian was involved in stamp dealing during the 1970s and actively pursued his other interests of Horticulture and the Seaford Literary Club. His stamp collecting involved Post Cards, Postal History with many presentations relating to Greetings Telegrams, the ship Lusitania, the stamps of Iceland and the Vatican, and his very special display A Year and a Day, in which he proudly showed stamps covers and memorabilia relating to his birthday.
All the members of Peacehaven, Seaford, Eastbourne, the Postal History Society and all those at ASPS will treasure memories of a real character and will miss his company greatly. We all extend our sincere condolences to his wife, daughter and family.
RJF

MEET THE OFFICERS (3)

SECRETARY - Jeff Jewson-Fleming spent his first twenty-odd years in some of those grim northern industrial towns that sociologists write about. One day he came to Eastbourne to discover that Southerners aren't the snooty stand-offish breed he'd been told about and soon discovered the gentle people, gentle weather and gentle rolling hills of the South Downs were much more to his liking. So he came, he stayed, and he ain't ever going back. Hobbies are fast cars, motorbikes, rock music, and stamp collecting. That might sound odd but, he says, "I still get a buzz at club auctions waiting for 'my lot' to appear and hoping no-one saw in that little box what I saw".

Philately, to Jeff, is a serious business and he puts some effort into making the club run smoothly, but he feels hobbies should provide fun and enjoyment too or they are not worth pursuing. He has a 'love/hate' relationship with Great Britain: 'love' because the subject is so well researched one can go quite deeply into it and 'hate' because some stamp designs and issuing policy are ridiculous. In his second full year as Club Secretary he is still feeling his way and making (he thinks) some mistakes, usually covered up by the good team on the Committee!

VICE PRESIDENT and LIBRARIAN - Jean Parkins ventured into the Winter Gardens one weekend (was it in 1997?) on what was then an annual 'open weekend' (an excellent way for newcomers to get to know the town and its life): local Societies and Clubs had set out their stalls to show what they had to offer. Persuaded by Bill Harrison to join E&SDPS, she considers (as someone who had never collected stamps) she could not have joined a better Society as the help and encouragement she received were wonderful. Jean realises that E&SDPS is one of the few Societies with such a thriving membership and believes this is largely due to the welcome and kindness shown to new members and to the interesting and immensely varied topics we enjoy at our meetings.

By the time these words appear, Jean will have left Eastbourne for Rotherhithe: she says she will miss her Thursday evenings at the Society and the friendly company of its members. She sends best wishes to everyone for successful stamp hunting.

______

A Good Day At Basildon2004 Jim Etherington

(Sussex entered a 3-man team in the ABPS Inter-Federation Competition at Basildon 2004 on 20th/21st November. Sussex was placed =6th (of 13) the team of Ron Peters (Hastings, Traditional, 88), Bernard Gillman-Davis (Hastings, Postal History, 81) and Jim Etherington (Burgess Hill, Thematic, 78) scoring a total of 247. Surrey's 272 won them the title with Hampshire 2nd on 266. Jim agreed to provide me with this article for the Newsletter.)

This was my first visit to an ABPS National Philatelic Exhibition so I did not know what to expect. A thematic exhibit as part of ASPS's entry in the Inter-Federation Competition and the presence of a good number of dealers persuaded me it might be worth the journey.

Accompanied by my non-philatelist wife, Sue, bribed with the offer of a journey from Lewes via the scenic route, a good lunch she didn't have to cook, and a not too lengthy wait while I visited the dealers, we arrived at the Towngate Theatre, Basildon, with varying levels of anticipation.

Having perused the informative Exhibition Catalogue over a cup of coffee we set off for the Interfed Competition displays in the adjacent Basildon Centre. The standard of entries was exceptionally high and the various classes (traditional, thematic, postal history and postal stationery) had been intermingled to make an interesting presentation. Fortunately I arrived while Francis Kiddle, one of the judges, was providing feedback. His remarks on the ASPS entries (Ron Peters - "1889 Issue of Gibraltar used in Morocco, 10c";Bernard Gillman-Davis -"The Pre-adhesive Postal History of the Low Countries 1527-1785"; and my own "1940 - A Desperate Year") were informative and instructive. We had done well, but how do you compete with the Surrey Federation whose three entries all gained Gold medals?

As a relatively novice exhibitor and eager to learn from others, I sought out the high scoring thematic entries. What is it that catches the judge's eye? Meanwhile Sue had gone looking for anything that caught her eye and it was not long before she was dragging me towards something that she thought might interest me. Sure enough, her eagle eye had spotted a cover postmarked 1940. From this I learnt that during the Australian advance into Libya, Italian stamps had been captured and later used from Jerusalem on Australia-bound mail. Perhaps a little 'philatelic' for the purists, but an interesting item that told a story.

After a good lunch we returned to the Towngate Theatre. I headed for the dealers' stands in the auditorium while Sue went to read the newspaper. Having found a few interesting Gibraltar covers from a collection on Bill Pipe's (Magpie) stand, guilt got the better of me and I went in search of Sue. Much to my surprise she was eager to tell me about an engrossing exhibit in the Social Philately Class about the last Antarctic expedition of Captain Scott and an interesting display about cats in the National Youth Class.

We came away from Basildon 2004 having both had a thoroughly enjoyable day. Am I going to Torquay 2006? Maybe, but if I do hopefully I will not need to resort to bribery. Or will I?

Towards Indian Postal Agencies and the Persian Gulf Alan Parsons. F.R.P.S.L.

I started collecting whilst at school, but this came to a halt in May 1940 when the school closed and was evacuated to Radlett (Hertfordshire). My collection was a typical schoolboy one: sheets of highly coloured stamps. At Radlett I was put in touch with "China Clarke", one of the "great" collectors of the time, my first sight of a truly specialised collection making an impression.

My father was a member of the old Eastbourne Society with a very useful G. B. collection and I started going to meetings with him. I had no specific collection at this time, and a major topic of conversation was the merits of mint, fine used, and used stamps. In 1949 a series of articles started to appear in the Stamp Magazine (of happy memory) on the postmarks of the India Post Office in certain places of the Persian Gulf: these were reissued in booklet form in 1950 by the author, a Major Tompkins. I felt this was an area in which I could get interested: a clear legible postmark would be necessary and mint stamps would not come into the collection. I started looking for material, the first source being N. J. Mills in Meads.

Stamps, I found early on, could not accommodate a complete cancellation and I quickly changed to collecting them on covers - postal history, a most satisfying way of collecting. Marriage meant that my by then useful collection was suspended, to be resumed some years later.

I entered my first National Exhibition in 1975, getting a bronze medal, and in 1979 obtained a silver, my entry to International Exhibitions. Much to my surprise, my first attempt at this level (Belgaica 1986) received a small gold, followed the next year with another at Stockholm. This was my pinnacle: despite improvements to the exhibit on several occasions a large gold eluded me. Amsterdam 1990 was my final attempt: my exhibit was selected in a 5% scrutiny by the jury, before which I had to appear. It seemed to me that the questions raised did not show the jurors knowledge of the subject in a very good light and for me this was enough and my displays are now limited to local societies.

I joined the Royal in 1987, giving a major display to them in 2000 of 450 sheets. In 2002 my book Indian Postal Agencies in the Persian Gulf Area was published: a copy is in our Society library for those interested in this field.

REVIEW. . . .

October 9th A comfortable room, with own bar and cloakrooms, at the Cumberland Hotel for the Annual Dinner. Pre-dinner drinks, and wine at each table (both provided by the Club) were much appreciated by the 29 members and 15 guests most of whom seemed to enjoy the meal - cold plates didn't help! The pianist for the latter part of the evening had an excellent repertoire with music to suit most tastes, and John & Sarah Griffin's raffle was drawn at the end of the evening. The evening was heavily subsidised by the Club in an effort to attract more members to this social event: we must see if, with less subsidy, members can be persuaded to join in another enjoyable event in a year's time.

October 21st Dee Pullan, FRPSL, (Crowborough) gave an unexpected twist to Australian Postal History from 1937, showing what goes wrong with mail delivery. The first way is at the Sorting Office with airmail sent surface because of an enclosure or underpaid. Or it could be wrongly (or insufficiently) addressed - perhaps with no address! Dee showed 7 letters undeliverable because of the war, and window envelopes could cause problems. Mail could be lost in transit (we saw 7 sheets of crash mail), or registered mail posted in an ordinary box. Large companies had "credit sheets" kept at their local Post Office on which short-paid mail was noted, the company being sent an invoice in due course. We were shown a postcard from Gateshead which arrived at Sydney (presumably hitching a lift in an unsealed envelope) and then went back to Gateshead, and an item which went from USA to Oxford via Sydney. Mail could also be Damaged in a cancelling machine. Finally, Problems of Postmen with "unclaimed letters" (various marks for these, all going to the Dead Letter Office). Some travelled thousands of miles to find the addressee. Australian Sorting Offices often "called" (and so marked) a letter to see if any postman knew the addressee, and in Western Australia all postmen have to sign to show they have looked at a letter which is causing problems. The Australian Post Office certainly tries hard.

The second half saw Mike Pullan with, first, French, and then Australian, railways. The French used their railway system (initially built by the British) more for collection/sorting/delivery of mail than G.B. We saw stamps with locomotives, some with the Train Grand Vitesse (which at 240 kmh make Paris-Marseille quicker than plane). Various postcards and cancels of railway stations were shown - the T.P.O. day cancel is circular, the night octagonal. The last items were conveyeur marks - not a TPO, a postman who collected mail as the train went down the line but did not sort it. Australia consisted of 5 totally independent colonies until 1901, each with its own railway gauge, which meant problems for inter-colony travel. Western Australia joined the Federation on condition the Kalgoorlie - Tarcoola railway was built. The train on this was known as "The Pay Train" as it carried supplies, pay, etc., for the hamlets along the route where lived the men who serviced the railway. There were many private lines used by the mining companies. All TPO's were based on state capitals with no cross links and mail could be posted on a TPO after regular mail had closed by payment of a small "late fee". We saw many stamps, parcel stamps from NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia together with a good selection of postcards.