On Saturday, 24th July 2021, after a gap of seventeen months, fifteen members and two guests attended the first Member’s meeting following easing of Covid restrictions at the Royal Philatelic Society London.
The formal meeting started with our usual room auction, which consisted of 68 lots. In all, two-thirds of the lots were sold with the best item, a 1941 letter from Von Schmettow, Commander of the German forces in the Channel Islands, selling for £110 from a starting price of £30. The auction was then followed by members’ displays, with the theme being “The Smaller Channel Islands” or “Any recent acquisitions”. Ten members provided displays. Due to limited space only brief details of each display will be given. David Laurillard provided three frames titled “Views of the Channel Islands” including Herm, Jethou and Brechou. Mark Bailey showed further examples from his George Campbell collection, including a neat item from Newfoundland to Jersey. Steve Wells provided eight sheets of new acquisitions, including an item from Herm to Austria bearing Herm ‘stamps’ and a 5d Guernsey ‘regional’. Nick Stuart provided three sheets of Alderney, including a 3-barred 965 ‘numeral’ handstamp alongside an ALDERNEY/A/OC 1/90 double-circle datestamp. Gerald Marriner also provided us with recent acquisitions, which included a scarce civilian feldpost 1942 cover from Jersey addressed to Clermont Ferrand in Vichy France with INADMIS cachet and a handwritten pink label stating ‘Zone not occupied’ with boxed ‘RETOUR / A L’ENVOYEUR’ handstamp beside, returned to Jersey. Richard Flemming then showed items of mail to and from the occupation forces based on Alderney 1940 – 1945, including a registered letter from the 4th Battery mixed-flak unit bearing Feldpost No. 46048. Alan Whittaker followed with some interesting ‘recent acquisitions’ including an early Red Cross Message Form to Sark signed by Bradshaw and an envelope bearing a previously unseen, BRITISH RED CROSS SOCIETY LISBON handstamp. David Gurney provided four sheets including an attractive hand painted 1933 illustrated envelope to Texas enclosing a 1931 card of Sark Tourist details signed by the Dame of Sark, both shown on these pages. A similar scarce hand painted Sark cover is in the next CISS postal auction shortly.
Following lunch David Winnie provided a comprehensive 88-sheet display of Alderney from 1847 – 2006 including the rare ALDERNEY undated double arc and, maybe the even rarer, ALDERNEY ‘skeleton’ datestamp on postcard also shown in slightly reduced format on this page.
Finally, Jon Aitchison provided a ten frame colourful display of Herm material including artwork, proofs, rejected designs and postally used examples of the Herm 1954 Flora and Fauna triangular stamps, but how many collectors actually have the Perkins Bacon Co. envelopes they came in?
What with all the trials and tribulations of the Covid-19 pandemic and all the restrictions imposed on societies, it was so good to see so many members at our first face-to-face meeting at the Royal Philatelic Society London on Saturday, 24th July. Please see the photo on the “News” page of the society’s website (www.ciss.uk). Thank you to all those members who brought material for us to view. A write-up of the day is printed in this edition. The next event will be the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in September (see below) and I look forward to meeting you there. Further details about the AGM will be posted on the society website early in September (see website details above) and the Minutes of the 2020 AGM can be found in the March 2021 edition of Les Iles Normandes. Looking further afield, the 2022 Member’s Weekend will go ahead from Friday, 22nd April to Sunday, 24th April at the Three Swans Hotel, Market Harborough. Further information will be available with the December edition of Les Iles Normandes.
Can you help our Society as we are looking for a Competition Secretary to manage our Annual Competitions Day? If you are interested, then please contact me at secrerary@ciss.uk and I will forward the job specification.
Forthcoming meetings for 2021
25th September 2021 AGM and room auction/displays
4th December 2021 Members Meeting. Theme: Letters Q, R and /or S
Forthcoming meetings for early 2022
5th February 2022 Annual Competitions and room auction/displays
22nd April – 24th April 2022 Members Weekend Meeting at the Three Swans, Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
Unless stated otherwise, all Members’ Meetings are held at the Royal Philatelic Society London, 15 Abchurch Lane, London, EC4N 7BW and start at 10.30am with tea and coffee, with the formal Member’s Meeting programme commencing at 11.00am, commencing with a room auction.
Please note that these dates may be subject to cancellation if the Covid-19 pandemic situation changes. Please view the www.ciss.uk site for updates.
Congratulations to Alan Moorcroft FRPSL and Gerald Marriner FRPSL on their elevation to Fellows of the Society of Postal Historians.
Midpex 2021 – held at the Warwick Events Centre, Leamington Spa.
This Society was represented at Midpex with a Stand manned by David Winnie, Gerald Marriner FRPSL and Richard Flemming held on Saturday, 3rd July. Not surprisingly, due to the Covid pandemic, attendance was down, but it was good to see several C.I.S.S. members there. A range of society books sold well making the attendance very worthwhile.
Twenty-nine members attended the first Member’s Meeting held via Zoom video conference on Saturday, 17th April, with four apologies received. The benefits of such a meeting became evident when members from New Zealand, the USA and Europe were able to attend without the expense of travelling to London, allowing distant members to become more engaged in the activities of the Society.
Thanks must go to Gerald Marriner and Nick Stuart for providing the two excellent, high quality displays which were much appreciated by the audience. Gerald’s display consisted of 44-slides titled “Jersey and Sark Destination Mail”, whilst Nick Stuart’s thirty-eight slide display featured some interesting errors, flaws and constant varieties of the first Guernsey pre-decimal and decimal definitives.
For the benefit of members who could not attend, or who wish to look at the displays again, the two presentations were recorded during the meeting via YouTube and are accessible for logged-in members to view on our “News” page of the Society’s website: www.ciss.uk.
Given the continuing Government Covid-19 restrictions and the uncertainty for these being lifted by the 21stJune 2021, our long weekend planned for July has regrettably been postponed. I know this is disappointing, but it is essential that the Executive Committee makes this decision now to advise you in good time.
However, I am pleased to inform the membership that we have re -booked the Three Swans Hotel, Market Harborough for the 22nd – 24th April 2022, this being our historical and traditional month for our CISS long weekends.
Please note these important dates.
As an alternative to the long weekend, we are sure you would wish to know that we are in discussion with the RPSL, London to establish whether it would be possible to hold a Member’s Day meeting on Saturday 24th July 2021. Naturally, this will be dependent on Covid-19 restrictions being lifted at that time. When and if arrangements are firmed up, we will let you know and provide details of the theme for the meeting.
Hopefully, by the time you receive this issue of Les Iles Normandes some of the Covid-19 restrictions will be lifted and we can start holding meetings at the Royal again. Please see details below. Despite the Covid restrictions, I am pleased to report that we were able to hold our Annual Competition Day. I wish to thank those who submitted entries to the Competitions Secretary for judging, and congratulations to the class winners – see page 34. On the 17th April we held our first Member’s Meeting via Zoom, which I have to say was a great success. Thank you to all of you who joined us, even if it was 1.00am local time for John Goose in New Zealand (2.00pm BST). Feedback has been positive and we may be adding an annual Zoom meeting as an addition to our usual meetings programme. A brief report on the Zoom meeting is to be found on the next page.
Hopefully, you have all received notification that the Member’s Weekend meeting at Market Harborough 23rd – 25th July 2021 is postponed until April 2022. Unfortunately, the hotel could not confirm that it could permit that weekend as it all depended on the Covid restrictions in place at the time. At least, by holding the Member’s Weekend Meeting during April next year means that we will be back on track for our usual Spring weekend meetings. As a replacement I have arranged for a Member’s Meeting at the Royal Philatelic Society London on the 24th July 2021, meeting at 10.30am (see below).
Take care, keep safe and hope to see you at the Royal in July.
Proposed forthcoming meetings:
24th July 2021 Member’s Meeting. Theme: Smaller Channel Islands.
25th September 2021 Annual General Meeting and room auction/displays.
4th December 2021 Member’s Meeting. Theme: Letters Q, R and/or S.
It is anticipated that this meeting will be held at the Royal Philatelic Society London, 15, Abchurch Lane, London, EC4N 7BW subject to Covid-19 restrictions in force at the time. For latest information about any of the above meetings please visit the Society’s website at www.ciss.uk, or for those members who cannot access the website, the Secretary may advise you by letter of any change before the next Journal, if timing requires or allows this. Please be aware that current Covid-19 restrictions at the Royal require members to wear a face mask indoors and to keep 2m apart.
