On Tuesday February 7th, the Society held its annual competition for the Robson cup, a trophy donated by Liz Robson in memory of her late husband David Robson, a long standing member of the society.
Six members entered with a wide range of subjects:
Roger Castle started the evening with a display of Soviet Space programme stamps and covers, explaining that the Russian started developing rockets in the 1930’s. The material shown covered the early satellite launches, from Sputnik 3 in 1958 to Vostok 1 which carried Gagarin into space.
John Davies reminded us of various ways stamp collecting has been promoted through a National Stamp day, including Germany in the 1940’s and the UK through the Stamp Bug Club from the mid 1970’s.
Michael Fernbank displayed his new collecting area of Malta. In 1858 prepaid postage became compulsory and so the GB line engraved issues can be found with an A25 postmark. The display also included George V as well as Forces mail from a member of the Cadbury family on active service in Malta.
David Hood’s topic was East India Company mail and had entires and letters from between 1823 and 1847 all written from Ireland to the company headquarters in London; the covers carried a wide array of postmarks as well as rare transit and instructional marks. The letters themselves also offered a fascinating insight into the period.
Gareth Williams showed transatlantic air mail material from Newfoundland covering the period from pioneering aviation in the early 1930’s to the routine flying boat service in 1939 and then the introduction of the post-war commercial flights.
Peter Fernbank concluded the evening with air mail flights into Bermuda.
The judging was done by the members voting and the worthy winner was David Hood.