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

From left to right: Richard Flemming, Gerald Marriner, David Winnie and Nick Martin, attended MIDPEX 2023, that was held at the Warwickshire Events Centre, near Leamington Spa on Saturday, 1st July. A good day was had by one and all.

Dear Member,

The book shown here consists of 100 pages and is available to purchase at £3.00 each plus postage and package. These are ex-Priaulx Library, Guernsey books surplus to requirements. I currently have 10 copies for sale. Original purchase price was £6.95. If you would like to purchase a copy please contact Richard Flemming, CISS Secretary, at secretary@ciss.uk. Payment via Bank Transfer, PayPal or cheque. Payment details will be sent with order.

Forty-two members and guests attended the Members’ Weekend meeting. On arrival, members enjoyed tea, coffee and biscuits and were able to view the fine 80-sheet standing display of postcards showing Guernsey churches and hotels, including items of the late Victorian period, kindly provided by Jill Flemming.

Following the evening dinner, the traditional “Three sheets to tell a story” competition was held, which saw seven members entering displays. With Richard and Jill Flemming scrutinising the score sheets, they were pleased to announce that the winner was Roger Harris with his display titled “A photograph sent from England to Jersey in December 1940, when the only permitted means was by the 25-word Red Cross Message”, with Gerald Marriner as runner-up.

Saturday morning was taken up with the bourse, which saw some energetic dealing taking place with the dealers from the Channel Islands, and the viewing of the 700+ auction lots. Following coffee, it was down to the business of the room/postal auction which saw the lots cleared in just over two hours. Our grateful thanks to Nick Stuart, our auctioneer, Bryan Elliston, who kept the sales logged, and Richard Flemming and Mark Bailey, who acted as the runners, and to all those members who bid for the lots. Without your bidding there would be no auction.

Saturday afternoon saw two excellent invited displays, with Chairman, David Winnie, showing “Guernsey sub-Post Offices”, and Jon Aitchison showing “The Long Lost Bill Newport and Anders Backman Herm Collection”.

The evening commenced with a drinks reception followed by the “banquet” attended by members, guests and two special guests from the Guernsey Philatelic Bureau, Bridget Yabsley (Head of Philatelic – Guernsey Post Ltd.) and Dawn Gallienne (Head of Corporate Engagement – Guernsey Post Ltd.), both very kindly bringing gifts from the Bureau.

Displays on the Sunday morning session were provided by the following members: Mike Moody, Ron Brown, Trevor de Feu, Julian Bagwell, Nick Stuart, Richard Flemming, John Triggs, Gerald Marriner, Brian Sole, Roger Harris, David Laurillard and Bob Macdonald.

More details on the displays shown at the meeting will appear in the September issue of Les Iles Normandes, but some images of members presenting a display are shown below.

John Triggs has informed me that the Joint CISS/RPSL bi-monthly meetings have now reverted back to the Peninsula Hotel.

Remaining meeting dates for 2023 are as follows: Friday, 21st July; Friday, 22nd September and Friday, 17th November.

All meetings are held in the St. Sampson suite and start at 7.00pm unit 9.00pm. All members welcome.

Following an article that appeared in the Guernsey Press dated 30th January 2023 titled “Bailiwick ‘special’ stamps are exempt from barcode”, Bridget Yabsley, Head of the Philatelic Department, Guernsey Post, has confirmed with the Channel Islands Specialists’ Society, that Guernsey Post will not be using barcodes on its commemorative or definitive stamps at this present time. Bridget states that “Royal Mail refer to all our [Guernsey] stamps as ‘special’ and therefore they do not require a barcode.” We are indebted to Bridget for this information.

Richard Flemming, Secretary

From information received, there seem to be issues with members receiving packets once they have been forwarded on to the next recipient. A recent packet to enter circulation took 45 days to arrive at its destination from Guernsey. I am sure that this is due to the backlog of letters/parcels in the system due to the recent postal workers’ strike action and, hopefully, will resolve itself in due course. As per policy, please ensure that the sender of the packet notifies the next recipient that they are forwarding the packet, but also notify them of the date that it was sent. Can the recipient of the packet then notify the sender that they have received the packet. This way we can see if the delays in receiving packets continue. Once you are aware that the packet has been forwarded to you, be aware that it may take a few days for you to receive it, so please be patient. If there are any issues, then please contact the Packet Secretary at packets@ciss.uk.