On Tuesday 2nd February, Banbury Stamp Society members held their annual club competition for the Robson Cup, donated by Liz Robson in memory of one of our long standing members, David Robson. Five member s displayed material for the competition.
We started with a three page display on the 1935 Newfoundland Stamp Booklet, showing a complete booklet and then ways of displaying exploded booklets, i.e. booklets with the binding removed and individual stamp panes and advertising sheets separated out.
Next came a display of Austrian Uniform Penny Post Jubilee labels in a variety of colours and perforations.
Cancels of Christ Church, New Zealand over the period 1865-1909 showed how New Zealand developed its own style of town date stamps, using a straight line format rather than the circular text of Great Britain and many other countries.
The fourth display was of mail from the British Army in Egypt over the period 1932-1939. During this time, soldiers could purchase labels through the NAAFI and use them to obtain a preferential postage rate back to the UK. The mail went through the Egyptian Post Office, receiving a red Egyptian ‘Postage Paid’ strike. As well as having the label, mail also had to be posted at special post boxes, and one example showed mail that had gone into the regular Egyptian mail service and collected a postage due marking for collection on delivery.
The final presentation was on the US Foreign Air Mail route 7 ( FAM7) to Nassau in the Bahamas. This contract was awarded to PAN-AM in 1929 and the first flight carried a number of covers at the 7c rate which were given a first flight cachet. The outward flight from Miami was by Fokker F7 Trimotor as Nassau was unusual in having an airstrip. The return flight on the same day was by a Sikorsky S-38 sea plane.
All members attending voted on the displays and the well-deserved winner was Peter Fernbank for his display on the US Foreign Air Mail Route FAM7.
The Society will hold its Annual Dinner on March 1st, and the next club meeting will be on Tuesday March 15th at 7:30pm at Hanwell Fields Community Centre. The Society will be welcoming Anne Stammers who will be presenting on the subject of ‘Rocks to Riches’. The Banbury Stamp Society can now be found on-line at ‘www.banburystampsociety.co.uk’.