Stroud and District Philatelic Society: John Davies entertains with his collection of Egyptian Maritime Mail

GUEST speaker John Davies, who specialises in Egyptian philately, entertained the first March meeting with items from his collection of Egyptian Maritime Mail.

He explaining that Port Said and Alexandria were important cities for the handling of mail between Europe and India and destinations in the far east.

It cut the journey time by routing the mail overland to Red Sea ports for onward transmission.

This was quicker than going all the way by ship around Cape of Good Hope.

The pioneer of the overland route in the 1820s was one Thomas Waghorn.

John showed mail with his cachet that travelled by this route.

Also of interest were letters from Italy to Egypt which had been disinfected at Malta when a cholera outbreak affected mainland Italy.

The members evening on the 16th was concerned with philatelic items with connections to the letters T.U or V.

John Loraine was first to display showing ship letter markings from three Devon ports Torquay, Totness and Tynemouth.

He was followed by Trevor Radway with his usual eclectic mix with telegraph forms, stamps and postcards connected with railways, a selection of South American stamps and Victorian Valentine cards.

Volcanic eruption commemorative stamps from Tristan da Cunha were Austin Mears contribution, followed by a very interesting display of stamps referencing the US civil war and the Anglo American war of 1815 from John Worrallo.

Mike Parkers main contribution were stamps from the island of Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean (formally Ellis Island) with values from the first definitive stamps issued after gaining independence in 1976.

Tim Kestin, whose special interest is the stamps of Malaya, showed stamps from the state of Trengganu, followed by stamps of Uganda and Tanganyika.

Peter Adam wound up a most enjoyable evening with stamps and coverer carried on French shipping lines T.U and V.

Next meeting April 6 when visiting speaker, David Williams, will display items of Hungarian Philately.

For details of the society please contact John Armitage on 01453 835198.