This is now becoming a regular all-day meeting at Banstead where we get together for an informal meeting showing recent acquisitions or queries or indeed other items from our collections. We had a slightly lower turnout this time with 11 members and two guests; we had five apologies.
Our President, Geoff Hanney, was first to display with items from US and Polish Forces in Iran during WW2 and just after and a few pictures from The Illustrated London News. These were items “as written up” from a collection he had purchased and they were incorrectly headed “PAIFORCE” which was, of course, a British command and did not include US Forces.
Frank Schofield was next to show and his display was a collection of coloured picture postcards with FPO FD1 and a couple of FPO L14 postmarks, all with Censor 410 (FPHS Type CM8). After the end of WW1 the question of the status of Fiume became a major international problem, Italy occupied the state as it had a largely Italian population. This caused some dispute and Britain sent in an infantry battalion (8th Battalion, York & Lancaster Regiment) to keep order; they were in Fiume from 23 November 1918 until September 1919. FPO L14 was sent to Fiume and was used there from June to September 1919.
Guest visitor Roger Harrison (Chair of The King George VI Collectors’ Society) showed four pages of recent stamp acquisitions (he is a stamp collector!) of George VII issues of Gibraltar 1903-1933, including the 1918 overprint WAR TAX stamp.
On a second round of displays Robert Prentice was first and showed some very recent acquisitions - so recent he had not yet mounted them up! They related to WW1 ephemera, comic postcards and covers; also British propaganda stamps and a reproduction copy of the Daily Mirror newspaper for 28 May 1941 on the sinking of the Bismark.
He was followed by Simon McArthur who showed pre-WW2 German forces field service postcards from the 1937 autumn manoeuvres, items from March 1938 annexation of Austria and the occupation of the Sudetenland, mainly postcards.
Michael Dobbs was next with a selection of 2002 Christmas cards from the various contingents of KFOR (Kosovo Force). He showed recent acquisitions of German illustrated postcards from SFOR II (NATO-Led Stabilisation Force II) and EUFOR (European Union Force) in Bosnia & Herzegovina, KFOR in Kosovo and ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) in Afghanistan. He also showed some more British Forces registered mail with the various rubber numerical cachets applied to the registration labels.
See images from Mike Dobbs display below next paragraph
Last to show was Richard Berry with British naval mail from WW2 - a selection of covers with mainly naval tombstone censor marks and various Maritime Mail cancellations (machine, metal and rubber handstamps). There was also a cover with an MM registration label. He also gave a pre-view of a future display of colour illustrated envelope seals with security related messages from the Rhodesian war.
Michael Dobbs - selection of 2002 Christmas cards..
