For those CISS members intending to travel to London on Saturday, 20th April 2024 for the Member’s Meeting at the RPSL please note that the meeting will be starting at 10.30am instead of the usual 11.00am start time. Tea and coffee will be available from 10.00am. As there are 700+ lots in the room/postal auction this will give members attending in person the opportunity to view the items before the auction commences at 11.00am sharp. It is anticipated that the auction will be completed by 1.00pm. If any member wants to bring a display along for the afternoon session the theme is “Transport”. Small, 16 or 32 sheet displays preferable.

If there is any rail strike action on the day I will try and let you know as soon as possible.

Four of the C.I.S.S. members, who entered the 2024 Annual Competition Day, were present to receive their certificates from C.I.S.S. President, David Laurillard at the Royal Philatelic Society London on Saturday 10th February.

In all, there were eight entries for the 2024 Competition Day and these can be seen by clicking on “Competitions” and opening the “Annual Competition 2024” section. To view each individual display please click on the sheet shown for each of the eight entries.

Photos taken by Richard Flemming or Mark Bailey

ALSO CELEBRATING LONG-TERM MEMBERSHIP OF THE C.I.S.S.

Congratulations also go to the following members who have achieved significant milestones in their membership of the Channel Islands Specialists’ Society:

Bryan Elliston and Thomas Cowley on achieving 30 years continuous membership.

Paul Balshaw, Peter Cornish, Rodney Beale-Broughton and Steve Wells on achieving 50 years C.I.S.S. membership.

Thank you all for your loyal support and friendship.

Dear C.I.S.S. Member,

It was with great disappointment to be recently advised by the Milford Hall Hotel that our 2024 Member’s Weekend Meeting at Salisbury had to be cancelled at short notice due to substantial over – running of building work. I do hope you will appreciate that these circumstances were beyond our control.

The Executive Committee fully understands the disappointment that some members will feel by this cancellation and considerable efforts have been made to find another suitable location that could accommodate the needs of our society for a three-day Member’s Weekend Meeting. Sadly, I regret to say that in the short time available to us, this has not been possible, mainly due to substantially higher accommodation costs being quoted which we felt would not be acceptable to our members.

However, it has been agreed by the Executive Committee to hold a Member’s Meeting at the Royal Philatelic Society London (the Royal) on Saturday, 20th April 2024, at which Nick Stuart, C.I.S.S. Auctioneer, has kindly agreed to run the next general auction, which would have been held at Salisbury if that meeting had gone ahead, as a postal and room auction at which there will be at least 600 lots, so I encourage you to attend in person. Of course, for those of you who cannot make it to the Royal, you will still be able to submit your bids by post. Full details on the auction will be sent out by the Auctioneer in due course. I can confirm that I have already booked a room at the Royal to accommodate us and I hope to see as many of you there as possible.

I hope to provide you with a full programme for the day, including start and finish times closer to the date of the meeting via the C.I.S.S. website at www.ciss.uk or via a Mailchimp message so please keep a close look out for further updates.

Regards,

Richard Flemming

Secretary

Channel Islands Specialist’s Society

Dear Member, if you received an electronic copy of the December Les Iles Normandes and you wish to attend the 2024 Member’s Weekend meeting (Friday, 19th April – Sunday, 21st April) at the Milford Hall Hotel, Salisbury, you will need to download the attached booking form and follow the necessary instructions on the form.

Please find the link to the ABPS News – Winter 2023 issue below.

ABPS Winter News (354 downloads )

Fourteen members attended in person at the Royal, with a further four members joining the afternoon Zoom session.

The room auction in the morning comprised some 64 mixed lots which were well bid by a number of attendees in competition, with some 43 lots selling well, either at reserve, or in some cases, well above reserve, with a final sum of £470 being realised.

Three further members provided displays before the lunch break. Simon Burke provided some very interesting items relating to Herm, including seven scarce Tuck picture postcards, and four postally-used postcards, all cancelled either with a rare Herm double-ring datestamp. This scarce datestamp was used from 1925 – 1938.. Simon also showed three items addressed to A. Toplis on Sark, and a Sark registered first flight cover carried by Imperial Airway on its inaugural flight across the north Atlantic. Examples of the 1¼d postal stationery cards were also shown, along with a copy of a King George III Act of Parliament titled “Duties on Coal, Culm and Cinders and the Exportation of Salt, Pepper and Wine to Guernsey, Jersey and Sark.”

Nick Martin showed six items of mail sent from Guernsey to France via St Malo, and Nick Stuart showed two postcards sent from Jersey bearing hotel cachets either for the Hotel de L’Europe or Grand Hotel du Palais de Cristal. These two hotels formed part of the private postal service of French hotels in Jersey (for further information about this service see Roger Harris’ book Delivered by the Hotel’s Care).

The first display of the afternoon broadcast on zoom was presented by Bryan Elliston, on early Guernsey postal history which revealed a 1796 entire letter from Guernsey to Inverness in Scotland endorsed care of Mr Hugh Fraser/ merchant Inverness N.B. (North Britain) in the address. This most interesting display of early postal history was then followed by our Secretary, Richard Flemming, displaying Gerald Marriner’s destination mails with some quite fascinating and interesting letters and postcards to and from all corners of the globe. Further details will be available in the December Les Iles Normandes.

Despite the national rail strike, 11 members and one guest were able to attend the inaugural south coast regional meeting held at Chandlers Ford, Hampshire. The meeting commenced with a 50+ lot room auction, followed by displays provided by seven members; Brian Austin, Mark Bailey, David Laurillard, Peter Mollett, Alan Whittaker and David Winnie. At the end of the day, all members thought that the day had been well worthwhile and would like to see it become an annual event.

NB: 2024 Chandlers Ford meeting arranged for 18th May Secretary