Terry Harrison presented his collection of stamps and covers from the island of St. Vincent, part of the Windward Isles in the West Indies. This was a very well researched presentation with some scarce material. We started with some pre-stamp covers from the early 19th century, sent as ship mail and packet letters and illustrating the early postmarks and rates. The rest of the first half was taken up with the Queen Victoria issue. This was based on an engraving from a portrait by E H Corbould, commissioned by Perkins Bacon in 1860. Terry showed proofs as well as the stamps. As with many colonies at the time, there were stamp shortages and St. Vincent deal with these in an unusual way – they took a 6d stamp, perforated it vertically and overprinted the two half width stamps with 1d. The second half ran through from the 1899 De La Rue key plate issues for Victoria and then Edward VII right up to the last set issued before independence: the overprinted fish and marine mammals for 1979. In amongst this was a collection of WWII civil censorship labels and a collection of postmarks made in the 1950’s by a collector who wrote to the vicarage in each town asking them to post back a letter with the postmark from the local office. We also heard about the 1948 Royal Silver Wedding £1 where the original black printing disappeared en route to St. Vincent. The only black copies are in the Royal Collection; the issue was reprinted in blue.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday November 15th at 7:30pm at Hanwell Fields Community Centre. Members of Stratford Philatelic Society will be visiting. The Banbury Stamp Society is on-line at ‘www.banburystampsociety.co.uk’, or contact John Davies on 01295 255831.