Editor

We have reached the end of a year of very enjoyable events, including our display at the Royal Philatelic Society London, our few days in Guernsey and participation in the UK international stamp show in Birmingham. 

We now return to a year of “normal” activities, but bolstered by a record number of new members having joined us in 2025. We hope that all our members have had an enjoyable collecting year, and that we will continue to meet more of you at our activities in 2026.

Enclosed with this journal you will find information and an application form for our conference at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, from 24 – 26 April 2026.  This is a new venue for us, but we have been assured by a number of societies who have used this hotel during 2025 that it is a good venue.

I would again like to thank those of you who have given your time to provide articles for our journals, and urge you all to try to let me have some contributions, small or longer. One small contribution from every member would do much to fill our four journals next year!  You do not need to be an expert! A simple question may lead to another welcome contribution. It is obviously a truism to say that “No articles equal no journal” and this is the perennial plea of every editor. Please help – my cupboard of articles is nearly empty for 2026.

Your committee wish you all a successful winter of collecting and studying, and we hope to see many of you in Kenilworth in the Spring.

Best wishes,

Nick

We are three-quarters of the way through our Anniversary Year, with just a few meetings and our Autumn auction to go.

Europhilex was generally felt to have been a success. The CISS held a friendly meeting at the exhibition, and we were delighted to meet three new members and a member, Tim O’Shea from the United States.

The Autumn Season starts for us with our meeting at the RPSL on Saturday 13 September. Our meetings are always friendly, and there is the opportunity to buy some lots from our small auction, as well as meeting other members and perhaps chatting over a beer at lunchtime. If you are within travelling distance of the city, please come along to the comfortable surroundings of the RPSL. The September meeting will be followed by our “Country” meeting at Market Harborough, which will hopefully be a convenient venue for members in the Midlands and further north to join us.

I hope that you have all had a good summer, mostly average weather notwithstanding, and have not deserted your collections altogether.

Best wishes,
Nick

Firstly, my apologies for the delay in getting this issue to you.
My excuses include attending at the Europhilex International at
the NEC Birmingham for a week, personal medical issues, and
a long-awaited trip to Europe. So, notwithstanding the lateness
of this issue, we can safely now say that we have been busy with
our most enjoyable meeting in Guernsey and the successful
Society meeting at Europhilex.
As a “newie” to Guernsey, I particularly enjoyed the trip, as it
provided not just philatelic activities, but many social, cultural
and culinary activities. I am now looking forward to our
planned 2027 Conference on Jersey.
I originally approached this issue with some concerns, as we
had little material to hand. I don’t like to be accused of not
“writing”, so I have added a brief enquiry about a cover to St
Malo in 1835, as well as an item on the French Channel Islands
of Chausey. I crave your indulgence. Thanks you to all those
who have sent in copy or “helped out”. The message from me
is clear ‘though – whilst we have a trusty number of regular
contributors, we always need more material for the future, so I
invite you all to let us have a query, comment or any
contribution to keep our content varied. The September file is
empty!
Best wishes,
Nick

We are now well into our Anniversary Year following our successful exhibition of 54 frames of Channel Islands stamps and postal history at the Royal Philatelic Society London in January. It was good to see so many CISS members there.

Next on the agenda is our weekend meeting in Guernsey from 11-13 April. It is not far away, so please book now if you would like to attend and if you haven’t already done so. Please see the leaflet on the News page of our website (30 January item).

This journal will be sent out along with two of our anniversary publications; the 48-page handout for our meeting at the RPSL and a “Profiles” booklet containing background information to our 75 longest serving members (see page 11). We hope that these will prove to be enjoyable souvenirs of our Anniversary.

Following two bumper 44-page issues this year, we find ourselves returning to a slightly slimmer journal to end my first year as Editor. I am hugely grateful to all of the members who have sent me copy and would like to thank them for seeing me though my first year.

An ephemeral problem for journal editors is the reliance on a small group of members who regularly send in contributions and frequently jump to help out with “emergency” requests. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t want to ask the regulars for fewer contributions, but it would be nice to hear from more of you about an interesting piece in your collection or a recent purchase. It can be a cover, stamp or piece of ephemera.  I have received very little on stamps which is after all where we probably all started our philatelic careers. And surely, we all have that odd item which we like but which doesn’t fit logically under any section of our collections and cannot easily fit into a display?

Next year will include several important philatelic events for the CISS, notably our anniversary display at the Royal Philatelic Society London, our weekend meeting at the Peninsula Hotel, Guernsey, and Europhilex international exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. We have arranged a society meeting at Europhilex, and we hope to see many of you there. But for those who are unable to attend these three important events, please do not forget that your main contact point with the society is the website and the journal. To your quills or mice, please!

Best wishes,

Nick

As I have been rather wordy in the last two issues, I will keep this short. 

It is time for you all to think about attending our 2025 weekend in Guernsey. An application form is included with this journal. We hope that you will support the organisers and join us for a friendly, entertaining, and educational weekend.

Our exhibits for our display to the RPSL in January 2025 are now fully planned, and it promises to be a good display. Please put the date in your diaries and join us if you can.

Finally, another badgering plea – please let me have some copy for future journals. We are reliant on very few contributors, and they will soon tire of me pressing them for articles.

As this edition follows our annual General meeting, we have included only the President’s and Chairman’s reports. Other Officers’ reports are viewable on our website.

Unbelievably, when you receive this Journal, Christmas will soon be upon us. Please scan our advertisers lists and drop a note to Father Christmas to fill your stockings with philatelic goodies.

Best wishes,

Nick

The huge project of digitizing our Journal going back to the first issue in December 1975 was completed last year. This should be a valuable resource for all our members and all the individual journals can be downloaded through the Our Journal menu on our website. Individual references or a word search can be conducted through the Search button on the top right of every page.

Well! How time flies. Here we are already on my second issue; many thanks to those of you who helped me get the previous issue off the rails.

I don’t intend to take up so much of your space this time, but I inevitably need to cover the perennial editorial demand for more copy. The Channel Islands offer a wide range of topics to collect and learn about, and I would like to make sure that we cover as wide a range as possible in every issue and are not reliant on calling on regular contributors at the Ninth Hour. So please put pen to paper. We need both long and short items, maybe a question or comment or a new discovery or purchase, please.

Plans for our 75^th Anniversary next year are well in hand, starting off with our society display at the Royal. We will be showing a very varied 54 frames of material. Much work is being done behind the scenes by our Officers to plan this meeting, and as well as our Society Weekend in April 2025. Several new celebratory publications are also in hand. So, there is much to look forward to in Channel Islands philately in 2025.

Summer is traditionally regarded by some collectors as a short sabbatical from philately. Not in this place! Whatever your chosen activity over the next few months, I wish you happy reading and an enjoyable summer.

Having considered the effectiveness of the ‘Discussion’ section of the website, the Committee agreed to create a new page headed ‘Members Forum’. This will hopefully give this function more visibility and provide a more effective platform for communicating and requesting information about our collecting needs.

To take over from an Editor of 25 years standing is quite an act to follow, and you will all want me to thank David for his many hours of dedicated and astute work not just in his capacity as Editor of this journal but also his contribution in many of the executive roles of this society. We should also mention that David has served our tremendous hobby elsewhere as a volunteer, notably as Honorary Secretary of the Royal Philatelic Society London from February 1999 to September 2002.

So, what do I hope to bring to this position? First, continuity. This Journal has long been a valuable support to members and collectors worldwide in informing and furthering our collecting interests. I will always attempt, contributions permitting, to produce a balance of topics as published articles. As we know the Channel Islands are a rich source of varied subjects from pre-stamp, air and maritime mail, the Occupation, the philately of the independent authorities, and everything in between. I will aim to publish articles covering a balance of subjects in every issue.

Secondly, format. This Journal has been published in this now traditional A5 format since December 1975. I well know that members have expressed a preference for this format in the past, and I have no intention of changing to another.

Thirdly, technical capacity. David has always adopted the technology available to him faultlessly, and this has worked well for him as Editor, our supportive printers, and our members. Any changes in the future will be minor as needs arise and will hopefully be noticeable only to those with publishing knowledge. I bring to this post experience of having edited a specialist journal in the past, as well as many articles and philatelic books elsewhere, both as a philatelist and as a translator, but as Editor I am just a “go-between”.

Finally, although I have only limited experience from the past in collecting Channel Islands material, I have many years’ experience as a fellow philatelist in other areas and will always be consultative and defer to expert opinion from amongst our members.

Thank you for entrusting this important job to me. I will do my best to carry on the same tradition as your exalted recent and past editors.

Best wishes and happy reading,

Nick Martin FRPSL

Editor