Our Members’ Meeting was held at the royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) on Saturday, 19 September 2026. The theme of the meeting was “Cross Channel Mail between the Channel Islands and France.” Eight members attended the morning session commencing with the usual 50-lot room auction. This was followed by two members’ displays; Nick Stuart showed an impressive display of French-based Forwarding Agent mail, with Steve Wells showing a range of postcards related to Anglo-French postage rates.
One member joined the afternoon Zoom session in person, with a further seven joining to view the two online presentations via Zoom, including member linking from the United States of America and Guernsey. The theme of the first 22-sheet display shown by Richard Flemming was ‘Handstamps applied to Channel Islands Mail between the Channel Islands and France 1776 – 1840’, including some rare examples where there are only two or three examples currently known. Following on from Richard’s display was David Winnie, who was showing a 28 sheet display titled ‘Mails between the Channel Islands and France 1850 – 1939’. David display included some unique and rare items not shown to members before.
Above is a rare item of mail sent 6 January 1853 from Alderney to Isigney charged at the 7 decime rate. Bear a double ring ILES-C CHERBOURG/6/JANY/53 datestamp. David Winnie
Rare item of which only three examples are known to exist on Channel Island mail. This entire is dated 25 August 1828 and has been charged as a ‘English’ letter and charged the 6 decimes sea postage. Richard Flemming
