Jane Cameron - A Tribute

For many of us lucky enough to have visited the Falkland Islands Government Archives, Jane and Tansy at the archives have provided caring support to Study Group members looking at extending our knowledge of the postal history of the Falkland Islands. Jane died on Boxing Day, following injuries in a car crash and her memorial service was held in Stanley on 12th January. Courtesy of the Merco Press, the South Atlantic News Agency, an article on the service is reproduced below:

Islands pay tribute to “fierce champion of Falklands’ tradition”

The Study Group northern area meeting took place this year at St Peters Church Hall Gildersome on Saturday afternoon 26^th September. Mike Roberts who organises the event started proceedings rolling at around 2 O’clock, reminding us that he had brought the October auction lots and they were available for viewing and  giving apologies from three of the regulars. With only ten members we were in fact a bit thin on the ground this year. There is generally  a “topic” for displays, chosen at the previous year’s meeting and this year it was the 4d stamp, although as always members are free to show what they like.

First up was Nigel Kaye who introduced his display with the words of Bob Barnes that the postal historian concentrates on the correct rate and saying that that is what he has done. He started with the 1937 Coronation issue on cover, the three stamps together make up the fourpenny registration rate and covers showing the 4d Foreign rate, there were 1d postal stationary envelopes upgraded for registration to 4d including an interesting KGV envelope upgraded with KGVl stamps. We were shown a Dependencies cover with four pence worth of stamps but only those making up the postal rate being cancelled in accordance with official instruction current at the time not to cancel over franked envelopes above the postage rate. I then showed a few sheets indentifying stamp different printings and John Shaw took the floor with just four covers showing fourpenny stamps, John did however promise that he would be back with other items later on.

Kim Stuckey then took the floor showing a sheet of the 1895 4d stamp and with his usual sense of humour defiantly told us that this would be the largest concentration of 4d stamps shown this afternoon.He then showed covers franked at four pence from the post offices at Fox Bay, South Shetlands and South Georgia and Coronation and Victory stamps used to pay the four pence rate. There was a Stewart Douglas cover with postmark variation of 33 inverted and the SG4 cancellation timed at 8.45pm, the Deception Island cancellation on the first day of use and a cover to Les Hardy accompanied by a photograph of Les Hardy a Scout Troop Leader. There was also cover from Stanley to New Island franked by the 1937Coronation set and two covers showing the 1953 Coronation set in blocks of four paying the registration rate, one from the radio operator at Signy Island. We then had a viewing break.

Mike Roberts then showed the earliest example of the fourpenny rate to Montevideo in the form of a Black Frank cover and a very nice inward cover franked at 4d from London to Stanley. We saw two examples of Queen Victoria 4d stamps on cover and a block of four KGV 1d stamps on a registered Afterglow cover, the Centenary and Silver Jubilee 4d stamps on registered commercial covers and a cover showing the reuse of the Victorian parcel cancellation. Next up was  Hugh Osborne who showed different printings of the first KGVl 4d value in blocks of four and a Whale and Penguin block possibly from the third printing, 1970 SS Great Britain 4d with an inverted watermark and various covers showing the 4d registration rate . We then had a viewing break followed by our usual very nice afternoon tea prepared by Mrs Alison Roberts.

Next up after tea was David Mountfort , who was this afternoon enjoying celebrity status on account of his many accidental aliases in the September Upland Goose. David showed items relating to cruise ships and guard ships and HMS Endurance in particular and also items relating to Brabant Island and the establishment of the post office there. Trevor Shaw then showed postcards making a request for information about them.

After this John Shaw, true to his word that he would return was before us again with a fantastic display of postcards principally used in the Edwardian including one particularly interesting internal under franked card, I thought this was altogether a most impressive display. Not to be outdone however Nigel Kaye came back. For quite a number of years I have been enthralled by Nigel’s displays but the several items he put up this second time were really very impressive indeed being items of correspondence from someone working in South Georgia in the 1950s which his wife was about to shred when it was suggested they may be of value. There was an air letter from South Georgia to South Uist in the Western Isles and an item relating to the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit and a particularly interesting postcard franked by a Falklands 1952 1d KGVl stamp from South Georgia. All very,very interesting. Kim Stuckey then showed a 1956 Trans Antarctic cover posted by the pilot of the first South Georgia helicopter flight and Mike Roberts showed an HMCS Afterglow cover supported by photographs and a Tabarin period cover endorsed “Most Secret”, a cover from  the return voyage of SS Great Britain and wreck cover.

After 5-30 Hugh Osborne, our Chairman, brought the meeting to a close with a vote of thanks for Mike and Alison. The Edgar Stern award was given to Nigel Kaye and it was decided that the topic for the next meeting would be open but other than that it would “same place same time”. The Northern Meeting is a really great event, always most enjoyable, the coming together of likeminded people in this way is absolutely what the Study Group is all about. I find it particularly interesting not just to see other peoples’ collections but also the collecting methods and themes that are pursued.

On a glorious Suffolk day, 8 members met at Sudbury for the Eastern meeting. Much interesting debate took place as everyone presented a display or items for discussion.

Malcolm Barton kicked off with a display he titled "Unusual". He first tried to persuade us that a Birds ½d sheet cancelled to order in 1968 was in fact 2/6d of a parcel rate! An interesting block of four of the Mailships 1st printing 1p with the hawseholes variety, complete with selvedge showed that this was not just used for booklets. Late 70s aerogrammes with Specimen overprints - was this a John Bull activity or official? A 1971 large cover with thirteen flower £1 values, including both 1st and 2nd printing to FIC in London. And finally a 1955 requisition for the South Georgia instructional marks, 2 of each type (can we distinguish between them?) including a cachet that no one had seen before "Décédé - Deceased" - not the cachet you would want to receive returned on a letter! Unusual indeed.

Alastair Kennedy showed covers from the 1982 War and a fascinating photo of the interior of the Forces Post Office. Terry Wiffen showed an excellent purchase from a remainders box - a cover from Marr to his fiance at the time of the Discovery Expedition. Host Clive Perkins took us slightly away from the Falklands to show a superb set of early PSNC covers in the 1870-1890 period - all of which bore the name of the carrying vessel. Many of these covers came from Brazil or Uruguay carried on the ships such as Iberia, Potosi I, Magellan I and II that would also carry mail shipped from the Falklands.

Kim Stuckey showed mail, photographs and letters from the Hunting Aerosurveys Expedition based on Deception Island from 1955-57, including the expedition labels and cachets. Mail from this expedition is scarce, as it was overshadowed, in a philatelic sense, by the Trans-Antarctic Expedition taking place in the same period. The Expedition was visited in January 1957 by the Duke of Edinburgh as part of his world cruise - Deception Island being probably one of the strangest anchorages for Britannia in her long and distinguished career!

Ray Rabbetts departed from his "Modern Man" tag to show items from the early commemoratives - starting with the Centenary issue of 1933, with an attempt to distinguish printings, covers to Argentina with postage due as the the postal authorities did not recognise the issue. He then took us onto the KGVI issues with the Victory 3d Plate 1 re-entry and flaws leading to Plate 2 production. Ray then brought us back into QEII with a display of the Passerines, showing the blocks that proved the stamps were printed in 4 panes of 25 and then guillotined to be issued in sheets of 50. He finished with the imperforate stamps of the issue, shown on both unwatermarked and CA watermarked paper, rescued, it is believed, from waste at the printers Cowells.

John Gray showed a variety of air letters from the 50s and 60s, including a fascinating January 1954 letter from the cook on John Biscoe - which itself could be the subject of an Upland Goose article. An interim QEII 6d with sheet number on an air letter was also much admired. Other letters had a wealth of interesting content - "the snobbish Colony Club" as an example!
Chairman Hugh Osborne brought the meeting to a close, taking the cue from the interim 6d airletter to show the QEII interim issue correct rates on cover. This included a recent acquisition of the 6d on an airmail envelope with the cachet "Insufficent Postage for Carriage by Air". Other covers included an air mail rate 1/- with sheet number, and various mixed frankings including the KGVI 1952 issue of 1/8½d six ounce registered rate.

At the meeting Clive Perkins announced this would be the last Sudbury meeting. We are hoping to make alternative arrangements to host the Eastern Meeting and would ask all members in the area to make every effort to support this new venture. I am sure that all attendees over the years would like to thank Clive for his excellent hosting at the Sudbury Institute and hope to see him at the new venue next year.