Volume 41 No.3

Thank you to all those members who were able to attend the 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM), either in person or via Zoom, making it one of the best attended AGMs the Society has had for a while. I am pleased to announce that David Laurillard was elected as our new President, and I would personally like to thank Gerald Marriner for the five years he had spent as our previous President. The remaining committee members have been re-elected to serve a further twelve months.

I am also pleased to announce that we can confirm our two speakers for the September Member’s meeting, full details available on our website, www.ciss.uk by opening the ‘Programme’ page. For those members attending via the Zoom link, the login details will be available early September. The programme for 2023 has been agreed by the Executive Committee and will be available to view on the website, with some dates given below.

Forthcoming meetings for 2022

Forthcoming meetings  for 2023

Currently, all meetings are held at the Royal Philatelic Society London, 15, Abchurch Lane, London, EC4N 7BW commencing at 11.00am. Tea and coffee is available from 10.30 in the Member’s Lounge.

Further information can be viewed on our website: www.ciss.uk

Twenty-six members and guests attended the Member’s Weekend Meeting held at the Three Swans Hotel. Gerald Marriner and Roger Harris provided the standing displays.  The ‘Three Sheets to Tell a Story’ competition was won by Alan Moorcroft, with his ‘The Transportation of Mary Le Nobel from Jersey’.

Saturday morning was taken up with the 700+ lot room/postal auction. David Winnie commenced the afternoon displays with an excellent 90 plus sheet display titled ‘ALDERNEY’, starting with the first postmark issued to the Island in 1848. He then showed the rare undated double arc and a range of postmarks used through the 1800s, including dated double arc handstamps. Rare examples of Parcel Post labels were followed by a registered envelope used in Alderney and the only known example of a ‘skeleton’ cancellation.

Gerald Marriner followed with his 80 sheet display on ‘Disruption to the Mail Service 1940 – 1945′, including twenty sheets on mail that was affected by there being no direct mail service between the Channel Islands and England and vice versa. The next section was a display of GB 2d stamps bisected and used for the 1d rate, concluding with 22 sheets of mail sent via indirect postal routes between the Channel Islands and British Dominions and/or Occupied/Neutral Countries.

The afternoon was concluded with Bryan Elliston and his display titled ‘A Call to Arms – Life and Times of the Guernsey Arms Stamp’ beginning with the design and issuing of the 1d ‘Arms’ stamp. Also included were imprint blocks and complete sheets of ‘Arms’ stamps with examples of the stamps imperforate. Bryan concluded by showing scarce registered cover uses at the time of the Liberation and post-Occupation periods.

Sunday morning displays commenced with Gavin Wood and his  seven-frame display titled ‘SARK during the German Occupation’ and this was followed by Ron Osborne and his 33-sheet display including a wrapper dated 23^rd November 1840 from Jersey to York bearing a QV 1d black, an early use of a 1d black on Channel Islands mail. Julian Bagwell, provided some excellent items in his display titled ‘Early Guernsey Philately’.

Four members provided shorter displays of 2-3 frames each. Alan Moorcroft   entertained us with his display of early Channel Islands mail sent under the franking privilege. David Laurillard gave a grand tour of the Jersey Martello towers using picture postcards as illustrations. Brian Sole displayed ‘Royalty Issues by Jersey’. Finally, Richard Flemming showed his 16-sheet display of mail sent to France from the Channel Islands between 1760 and 1843.