China (including Hong Kong & Macau) - Members’ displays
Due to family commitments I wasn’t able to attend this meeting but I did provide our President (Robin Davis) with items to display and I’m grateful to Robin for preparing a list of those who did display, albeit a very simplified listing! Once again we only had 11 members attending, an indication that covid is still having an effect on members reluctance to travel into London.
We had two sessions - the first started with material provided by Michael Dobbs - modern (i.e. post-WW2) Forces material which included FPOs used in Hong Kong including the Krag machine cancel FPO 5 and BRITISH FLEET MAIL 9 datestamps. Also shown where the various BRITISH FORCES POST OFFICE HONG KONG datestamps in use from 1979, both steel and rubber types.
Then it was the turn of Peter Burrows who also displayed modern Hong Kong forces mail.
He was followed by one of our relatively newer members Alex Graham who has started a collection of Napoleonic mail due to his son’s interest in a Napoleonic re-enactment group. This was his first physical meeting with us (he has previously joined us on Zoom) and asked if he could display some of his material and we considered it to be most reasonable - the reason being was that the 18th June was also Waterloo Day - a day dedicated to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Last to display in this first round was Geoff Hanney who showed material from the Japanese in China.
On to the second session and once again it was modern material from Michael Dobbs which started it off - quite simply Robin turned over some of his previous sheets to show the material on the back! Then it was the turn of Peter High with material from - wait for it - hospital ships! This reflected a host of subjects with a connection to the day’s theme including Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), French and German involvement in the Boxer Rebellion (1900) and USA in WW2.
The final item in his display was a menu from a fundraising lunch for the Maine hospital ship. Whilst the plan for the luncheon was to raise funds for the ship in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), by the time the actual lunch took place the Maine was on her way to China to support the troops fighting in the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901).
Lastly we had Nick Colley who displayed items from Hong Kong and China.