Our first meeting of 2024 - we were due to have a display on “Aspects of the Anglo-Boer War” by Nick Harris, but unfortunately Nick had to cancel due to family issues - we hope to re-schedule his display in the future. We were grateful to both David Milsted and Tony Stanford for stepping forward with alternative Boer War material and to other members who brought along something to show as well. We had 15 members present - two up on our November meeting. We hope this level of attendance will continue.
David Milsted displayed items, mainly ephemera, related to the Siege of Mafeking which lasted 217 days from 13 October 1899 to 17 May 1900. He had an introductory sheet which told the story of the Siege with reference to significant persons, the defences, special Siege stamps, VCs awarded and the Siege ending; he then went on to show several illustrations from magazines as well as newspaper and magazine cuttings. All this related to the story of the Siege, whilst the second part was “Mafeking Mail” and were page extracts from this daily newspaper which ran from 1 November 1899 to 21 May 1900 and which also included “Mafeking Mail” special siege slips.
Tony Stanford showed a few aspects of the Boer War on covers, cancels on stamps and on piece. The display included a selection of covers and on piece from the Natal Field Force using cork-based cancellers and octagonal cancels; stamps overprinted Army Official on cover and a selection of Ladysmith siege covers. He also showed British Bechuanaland postal stationery, photos of Kruger’s funeral and photos of senior British officers involved in the campaign.
Robin Davis showed four pages of “One Man’s War” which consisted of three items (a green envelope and two telegrams) sent by Victor Broomhead whilst he was serving in Cyprus during WW2. His story and these items are shown in an article written by John Wilson in Journal No 328 (Summer 2021).
Peter O’Keeffe put up a miscellaneous selection of naval mail from WW1 and the inter-war period through to WW2. The mail was cancelled with various HM Ships postmarks and included air mail letters from both naval establishments and vessels.
Lorraine Maguire provided a fascinating display of WW1 silk embroidered postcards. These added to the display by Chris Grimshaw at our Christmas 2022 meeting and included cards related to anniversaries such as birthdays, Easter, Christmas, etc. Also there were a number of designs which had slots along the embroidered line for the insertion of a separate smaller card. She explained and that the story of such cards is covered in “An Illustrated History of the Embroidered Silk Postcard” by Dr Ian Collins (publisher: Gabrian Antiques, 2001) - which includes more than 270 illustrations and lists over 2,600 such cards. She displayed a copy of this publication for members to view.