SACS Kenilworth Meeting
30th June – 1st July 2024
This was our first meeting held in the new venue of the Holiday Inn, Kenilworth.
Sunday morning began with a display from out-going Chairman Tony Howgrave-Graham who is now our new President. Tony has a fondness for South African Maritime Mail and seized the opportunity to start proceedings with a short interesting introductory display on RMS Kenilworth Castle, the Union-Castle line mailship which took its name from the castle whose ruins lay in parkland a brisk 20 minutes walk away.
The RMS Armadale and Kenilworth Castle were sister ships, the first mail steamers ordered by the newly merged Union-Castle Line. The Armadale Castle was requisitioned as an armed merchant cruiser in WW1 while the Kenilworth Castle served as a troop transport. Just after midnight on 4th June 1918 she collided with the stern of a destroyer, HMS Rival, off the Eddystone Lighthouse. The collision dislodged some of the destroyer’s depth charges which exploded beneath the Kenilworth Castle. Thinking they had been torpedoed some seamen and passengers took to the lifeboats in rough seas. Tony’s display included a remarkable letter from Nurse Bracken, a South African, who described her ordeal in the water clinging to an overturned lifeboat. See Tony’s Union-Castle RMS (Royal Mail Steamer) Kenilworth Castle display with letter (Scroll down to read the letter).
The bulk of Tony’s display was The Early Airmails of South Africa including SWA. As always, he produced wonderful examples of the scarcer items among the first airmail sets of South African stamps issued in 1925, 1929 and 1936 – 37. This also included the First South African Aerial Post of ’29 12 1911′ from Kenilworth to Muizenberg and the ‘Make Your Sixpence Fly’ postcard. South African airmail stamps could only be used on airmail letters. Asked to choose his favourite item from his collection, Tony chose one of two sheets each containing two rare interpanneau blocks of 8 pairs with Numeral Controls of each of the four values of the Union’s 1925 25 February First Airmail Issue printed by the Cape Times Ltd.
Tony also described the early routes flown as the airmail services expanded across southern and south-west Africa. He made the point that much early SWA airmail postal history material is philatelic in nature i.e. it is not everyday commercial or personal correspondence but rather mail sent for the purpose of providing a collector, often the addressee, with covers containing relevant stamps cancelled with interesting postmarks. Ideally, the trick is to find early SWA airmail material that is not philatelic in nature. While such material exists, it is scarce and more difficult to find. Anyone attempting an airmail collection would have to include some philatelic material in it. As always when Tony presents a display, he did so with great knowledge peppered with lively anecdotes that made for a warm and witty half hour.
Next up was Roy Ross, an ex-editor of The Springbok and a passionate RSA stamp collector. Roy had chosen what someone called “the daunting task” of displaying Republic of South Africa commemorative issues from 1961 to 1971 i.e. the first 10 Years of the Republic. This included postal history in the form of unofficial and official FDCs (First Day Covers). Combined with blocks of stamps, these made up a very attractive display.
Unofficial First Day Covers have been around for as long as stamps have been applied to covers and cancelled on their day of issue. In the past this was done privately or by philatelic dealers. Roy advised us that there were no Official FDCs in South Africa before May 1965. Thus it was only relatively recently that SAPO, the South African Post Office, began marketing FDCs to collectors. Over time, SAPO reduced the size of its FDCs to provide a better fit on album pages. Adding to a FDC’s interest was their postmark cancellation, usually applied with a specially designed promotional datestamp.
The first commemorative RSA stamp was issued on 1st December 1961 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first South African airmail flight from Kenilworth to Muizenberg. The first Official South African FDC was the Centenary of the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) issued on the 15th November 1965. This had two printings, the First with a print run of 5,000 and the Second with 4,000 respectively. This FDC and the next, the Tercentenary of the Dutch Reformed Church issued 21st October 1965, were not printed with a number on the front of the cover. Nevertheless the ITU FDC is listed as FDC No. 1 (3 Diamonds) and FDC No. 2 (2 Diamonds) by Reisener. ‘Diamonds’ refer to the number of diamonds or stars at the bottom of the information card inserted into the FDC.
FDCs with numbers on the cover first appeared with the third issue, the Fifth Anniversary of the Republic issued on 31st May 1966. Unaddressed FDCs have a higher catalogue value than ones that have been postally used. Some of these early RSA FDCs have relatively high catalogue values, possibly due to their limited print-run compared to later issues. For example, the second Official FDC, the Tercentenary of Dutch Reformed Church, had a print-run of 50,000, thereby reducing the scarcity of this FDC compared to the first. These FDCs are full of varities and represent an affordable way to quickly build up an interesting collection. Among Roy’s RSA treasures is the item shown in the photo, a spectacular paper join in the 2½c value of the Tercentenary of the Dutch Reformed Church. This looks like it has been sellotaped together. Paper joins are collectible. See Roy’s RSA display.
During the lunch break members put up their ‘Abell Trophy One Frame Competition’ entries. The quality was of a very high standard and covered a range of philatelic subjects, one being an unusual ‘Penguins on South African Stamps, Covers, Cachets, Postcards & Postmarks’. The unsurprising winner of the Abell Trophy was Tony Howgrave-Graham for his display on the R1 Strelitzia stamp from the first RSA definitive issue. The inclusion of some excellent varieties and blocks made him an obvious and worthy winner.
The first part of the afternoon was taken up with a most unusual display, a ‘New Website Presentation’, by Steve Hannath, Webmaster, and his wife Andrea, the website developer. They projected a computer screen image onto a wall and showed the assembled members a test version of the website. They described its features and planned functionality and asked for comments and advice. Later that same day at the AGM they were duly given approval to proceed with its development. If you are reading this, here it is!
Next up was our new Chairman, Rob Lester, with a display entitled ‘The First Three Years’. This obscure title refers to Rob and Lyn Lester’s three year long provision of quarterly articles to The Springbok on the subject of South African labels, aka ‘Cinderellas’. Their display comprised Rob and Lyn’s entire ‘Last Three Year’s’ worth of articles. The title of their display suggests that they have more material in the pipeline. This in itself is a good reason to join SACS.
In November 2023 Rob won ‘The Glass Slipper Award’ from the Cinderella Stamp Club at the Royal Philatelic Society for his display of South African World War 1 labels featuring the War Markets. SACS members have been fortunate to have Rob and Lyn’s constant input of this unusual and often uncommon material. A non-philatelic attendee at Kenilworth found their display with its mix of social and postal history very interesting. Perhaps this is a clue to where our society’s collecting future lies?
The Lesters’ Kenilworth display included diverse labels for South African Industries and its products; the Olympic Games Appeal of 1928; the Centennial of Alice in the Eastern Cape, as well as promotional labels for Queenstown and Robertson; the little understood Pretoria En Fete; the Metropolitan Cathedral Appeal, Cape Town; the centenary of Dick King’s ride in 1842 (issued in 1930!); Mead’s Castle Beer brewed in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, showing Rochester Castle, Kent; WW2 pro-Nazi Ossewa Brandwag and Pro-Allied government propaganda labels; and several for motor vehicle products, one showing Prime Minister, Field Marshal Jan Smut’s Chevrolet car. All in all, a wonderful slice of past South African life! See Rob and Lyn’s Cinderella display.
A brief auction was followed by the AGM (Annual General Meting). Among various matters discussed and concluded, several new appointments were made:
Tony Howgrave-Graham to President.
Rob Lester to Chairman. (Tony Howgrave-Graham outgoing.)
Robert Hill to General Secretary. (Chris Oliver outgoing.)
Simon Peetoom to Mermbership Secretary. (Nick Arrow outgoing.)
Steve Hannath to Webmaster. (New position.)
Chris Oliver and Nick Arrow to remain Committee members.
The day concluded with a convivial and enjoyable evening meal in the nearby Almanack Restaurant. Tony Johnson, Editor of The Springbok, was awarded the Wicks Medal for his article “Printings and flaws of the WW2 Bantam issue”, (The Springbok, October 2023) by our new President Tony Howgrave-Graham. In turn, Tony ‘HG’ received the ‘Abell Trophy One Frame Competition’ award from Chris Oliver. …. And so to bed!
Monday morning began with a ‘silent display’ from Steve Hannath. Essentially this is just a matter of putting a display up and letting the members take a look at it after breakfast and before the start of the day’s proceedings at 10 am.
Steve’s display comprised 120 sheets on the ‘Invasion of German South West Africa in 1914 – 1915’ by the Union Defence Force led by Prime Minister General Louis Botha and his loyal 2IC, General Jan Smuts. It was the first successful Allied campaign of WW1, the only one not commanded by British staff officers. The display began with the creation of the Union, the start of WW1, the initial Invasion in 1914, the Republican Rebellion, the campaign of 1915, the imprisonment of GSWA troops, rule by SA military magistrates, deportation and post-war pass controls on the SWA people. A good range of uncommon rectangular FPO (Field Post Office) postmarks was seen. It was generally well-received and, according to several, should heve been the subject of a proper presentation.
Chris Board RDPSA provided the morning’s first short display by members. Chris is a recognised authority in many fields of obscure postal history research. His advice to us was “it pays to look inside envelopes. There might be something inside,” he said.
Aged 94, he travelled alone to Kenilworth by train from Croydon.
Chris’ advice was based on a letter written by General Jan Smuts in 1908 which he had found inside a cover addressed to a Mr Potts in Lourenco Marques. Importantly, Smuts’ letter was written on the Official stationery of the Prime Minister of the Transvaal Colony. At this time General Louis Botha was the Prime Minister. He had left Smuts in charge while he was in London, presumably negotiating Union. Together Botha and Smuts formed a formidable pro-Union, pro-Empire team (as was seen in WW1). Other research by Chris had led him to a rich source of material produced by the East London Daily Dispatch between 1900 and 1910. This included photographs of King Edward VII, ZAR President Paul Kruger and British Governors of South Africa, including Milner and Methuen.
Simon provides SACS meetings with a wide variety of material at good prices.
Simon showed a collection of covers bearing the Animal Defintive stamps of 1954. As a professional stamp dealer for many years he has seen 1000s of South African items pass through the stock boxes of his Africa Stamps. During this time he noted that the higher value Animal Definitives were seldom seen on cover. When a high postage rate was required to be paid, it was usually made up with a mix of lower value Animal Definitive stamps and other stamps. While the 2/6 and 5/- stamps can be found on cover, it is many times more difficult to find one with a 10/- stamp affixed, Simon said.
Besides Cinderellas, Rob Lester has an excellent collection of South African Exhibition material. One of the earlist ZAR (Transvaal) exhibitions was the proposed ‘International Industrial Exhibition’ of 1896 that was to be held in Johannesburg. We have written a short article on the mystery of why it never took place. Some speculated that it was cancelled because of the Jameson Raid of 1895 -1896. Rob has now discoverd another more compelling reason! Read the article: A Mystery Solved? – The Cancellation of Johannesburg’s 1896 International Industrial Exhibition.
Chris Oliver followed with a comprehensive display of RSA Air Letter sheets showing South African flowering plants April 1987 – July 1990. There were many printing flaws on these Air Letters which Chris had identified. The inland rate, on a green background started with a 16c value having the senders’ name position horizontal. In June 1988 the senders’ name position was vertical and a simulated perforation line was included around the imprinted stamp. Values increase to 18c in April 1989 and to 21c in August 1990.
These show South African flowering plants April 1987 – July 1990.
International air letter sheets were similar but grey in colour, starting at 25c in 1987. The change to simulated perforations occurred to that value in July 1987 and remained at the increase to 30c. In May 1988 the sender lines were vertical and this continued when the rate changed to 35c in September 1988 and 40c in July 1990. Phosphor bands are located to the left margin of the stamp and vary in size and disposition. All-in-all, a specialist subject well-presented and succinctly described without fussing over detail.
Robert Hill, the new Secretary, gave us an entertaining and amusing conclusion to the morning’s displays. Bob is well-known for his popular display of Kit Kat wrappers which he uses to describe past South African racial attitudes. He is also known to discipline any interjector who corrects his pronunciation of Afrikaans names by throwing Kit Kat bars at them. One favourite word that the members like to hear him trip over is ‘Bophuthatswana’. While we try to assist his pronunciation,the Kit Kats are guaranteed to keep coming
As a young policeman with a family Bob began collecting Cape of Good Hope stamps because there were only 75 of them. Today he has added impressive Apartheid material to his now vast Cape of Good Hope postal history and postmarks. His display, he said, verged on ‘Social Philately’ and was drawn from different collecting areas. He showed a diverse miscellany of interesting items including a postcard from Red House, the oldest rowing club in South Africa; Diplomatic mail; correspondence from Dinizulu while under arrest in 1908; a Pass to visit South Africa from Bophuthatswana (that word!) to seek employment; Mandela correspondence; and Non-White charity labels. A regular postcard contributor to The Springbok, Bob displayed views of East London in 1900; the Dynamite Factory (Somerset West) in February 1900; Knysna in 1923 and Kalabaskraal 1869 -1882. Several Kit Kats were ‘shared’ with the audience. It was lively display. No-one nodded off!
The meeting concluded at lunch time, giving members ample time to drive home. Before driving home I asked Chris Oliver if Kenilworth Castle was worth a vist. ‘Oh yes. Very much!’ he said. So that is what we did, walk to the ruined Castle, a magnificent pile set in wonderful parkland. It was a fitting end to glorious spot of summer philately.
