This was followed by a visit from the Thornbury club, when the two visitors displayed Zanzibar, Kenya and GB.
NEWPORT & GWENT PHILATELY
May 2011 - Number 45
News of Members
Both Gwen Hussey and Bernie Riff have been in the Royal Gwent Hospital. We wish both a speedy recovery. We welcome Peter Long as a new member, whose main interest is in GB.
Recent meetings
Since the previous newsletter the season has been very busy. There was much activity at the Bring and Buy evening at the end of October. We welcomed our first visiting speaker in November. Eric Keefe, who is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society, entertained members to an evening of Finland material.
This
was followed by a visit from the Thornbury club, when the two
visitors displayed Zanzibar, Kenya and GB.
We
had visits from Bridgend (Chris Griffiths showing unusual GB material
and Maureen Phillips showing Canada)and Cardiff (Shirley Baker with
Chinde and Nyasaland and Graham Bean with German propaganda cards).
We visited Barry in November, Cardiff in February and Thornbury in
March.
Unfortunately the bad weather at the end of 2010 meant that we had to cancel the ladies evening planned for 8 December.
The first meeting of 2011 was the letter Z, which brought out some interesting topics: Zambia, Zoology, Zen, Zodiac, Zimbabwe, Z Perfins, Zone stamps from Germany, Zeppelins, Z from USA and New Zealand stamps from the Z section of the Campbell Patterson catalogue. Our chairman, Alistair Mackinnon, then entertained us at the next meeting with the stamps of Tristan Da Cunha.
The annual competition had only six senior entries, with Neil Jones winning the general class with his New Zealand Penny Universals, John Perry getting the postal history trophy for his entry on the 1935 Winter Cruise of the Gripsholm and Graham Bean winning the thematic trophy with his Czeslaw Slania. Bev Davies also presented three junior entries, with Rebecca Henshaw's Feathered Friends being judged the best.
On 11 May 2011, John Baron, chairman of the ABPS, entertained members with a talk about &ldquoBanking & Lotteries&rdquo. This was a most enjoyable evening for the members and guests, especially for Margaret Harding (pictured with John Baron), who managed to hold some of the rarest perfin material.
John
Perry arranged a meeting of the Scandinavia Philatelic Society in
Undy in February, to which Newport club members were also invited.
South Wales Federation News
The annual federation convention took place on 21 May in Port Talbot. Newport had three senior and two junior entries: Neil Jones winning the general philatelic trophy and a silver medal for his New Zealand and Graham Bean winning the thematic class with his Slania. John Perry gained a silver for his Gripsholm entry being beaten by the overall best entry in the competition from Neil Prior, who gained the only gold medal of the day. There was success for the junior entries with Emily Davies winning the primary schools class and a bronze medal with her &ldquoMarine Life&rdquo and Rebecca Henshaw also picking up a bronze medal in the same class for here &ldquoFeathered Friends&rdquo.
Welsh Philatelic Society (WPS)
Sixteen WPS members and two guests thoroughly enjoyed the meeting on 2 April 2011 at Llangynidr organised by Michael Scott Archer. The morning session provided an overview of Monmouthshire postal history with material starting with letters in the period of Charles II and ending with the recent Henry V stamp, he being Monmouth's most famous son. In a break from the usual format the session comprised four linked displays. John Perry started with a review of the postal markings up to 1840, followed by Martyn Britton with material from 1840 to the 1930's, including some now rare parcel receipts. After a short break the other two members from the Newport and Gwent Philatelic Society team showed material for specific parts of the county. Peter Coldrey showed material from around Abergavenny, including some of his famous &ldquopenny pinks” and Stuart Geddes finished with material from around Monmouth and Raglan, with the star item being an 1840 2d blue on cover. Neil Prior then provided a mini-display relating to Monmouth, filling up the final frame.
Stamp
News
Newport Scouts & Guides produced an attractive set of local stamps for the 2010 Christmas post. These show ten different views of Newport and Magor. The stamp for the Golden Lion (Magor) is shown below tied to a cover with the Caldicot Delivery Office postmark of 7 December 2010.
A
chance find
recently on Delcampe's auction web site was a postcard of prisoners
of war at Beachley Camp, Chepstow, and sent to Germany.
Dates for Your Diary
17 September 2011 &ndash Federation Autumn day, Taibach Community Centre, Port Talbot
19 May 2012 & 18 May 2013 &ndash Federation Annual Convention, Princess Royal Theatre, Port Talbot