South African Collectors’ Society

SACS Letchworth Meeting

12th April 2025

This was another ‘highly successful’ Letchworth meeting! With just 16 SACS members attending, those who could not make it missed a very special occassion. This was a rewarding and enjoyable meeting organised by the affable Bob Hill with catering by Rob and Lyn Lester. All SA collectors are welcome to attend, not just Society members.

First up was new SACS member Nick Harris who is and has been a stalwart of the ABWPS (Anglo-Boer War Philatelic Society) for many years. Read a report on the last ABWPS meeting at the Union Jack Club, London. Nick’s long association with the ABWPS was seen in the depth and quality of his material, some of which is unique to him.

Nick offered two 60+ sheet displays, one in the morning, the second in the afternoon. The first dealt with the Sieges of Mafeking and Ladysmith, the second with British overseas camps for Boer POWs (Prisoners of War). With the ABW (South African War 1899 – 1902) so central to 20th c White South African politics it is appropriate that SACS and the ABWPS should be closely aligned. We are, as Bob Dylan sang about Johanna and her lover, “so entwined”.

In discussing the Sieges of the ABW / SAW, Nick said that what distinguishes the Siege of Kimberley is its absence of mail. With regards to Mafeking and Ladysmith Siege Mail, Mafeking’s is the more collectable “because interest in it is driven by the Boy Scout movement”.

Until Kimberley was relieved on 15th February 1900 by General French, there was no Southern Route for Siege mail exiting Mafeking. Prior to the Relief of Kimberley all Mafeking mail travelled up the Northern Route that led via Crocodile Pools to Bulawayo in Rhodesia. Mail from the Northern route is far more plentiful than mail being smuggled out of Mafeking via the Southern route via Barkly West and Kimberley which although only charged 6d per item was by far the more dangerous route. For this reason Nick has “only has 2 covers sent via the Southern route” in his collection. “Without a doubt, they are certainly far scarcer than covers sent via the Northern route” said Nick.

Mail was carried by well-paid ‘native’ runners who usually had it sown into their clothes. If captured they were often shot as ‘combatants’. Private mail from the Siege of Mafeking is only known going out, not in. The rate for the longer Northern Route was 1/- per half ounce or part thereof while the shorter but more dangerous Southern Route was cheaper at half the price. Nick showed one of his two covers from the Southern Route. This can be seen below bearing 2 x 3d Cape MAFEKING BESIEGED stamps on the front making up the 6d Southern route rate.

When the siege began Mafeking post office’s stock of Cape, British Bechuanaland and GB stamps overprinted BRITISH BECHUANALAND and or PROTECTORATE were overprinted ‘MAFEKING BESIEGED’. When these ran out there was a need to print the Baden Powell 3d and Goodyear 1d stamps. Nick emphasised this was not driven by philatelists but by the fact that all the stamps that had been over printed “Mafeking Besieged ” had been used up and there was still a need and wish for people to communicate with each other within Mafeking. This resulted in the printing of the two stamps which over the time have become known as “The Mafeking Blues “. These two stamps were produced for internal use only within besieged Mafeking and not for any outside communication / mails. The rate for internal mails within the town itself was 1d while and 3d was the rate to outlying forts and the defences surrounding Mafeking.

The famous ‘Mafeking Blues’ comprise three stamps that show Cadet Sergeant-Major Goodyear on 1d Local Post and Colonel Robert Baden-Powell on a 3d in narrow and wide format. Queen Victoria, apparently, was not amused by Baden-Powell’s face appearing on the stamps rather than hers. These stamps are very scarce on cover with only three known showing a combination of Cadet Sergeant-Major Goodyear and Baden-Powell stamps, one of which Nick showed, along with a unique document regarding Lady Curzon’s Siege of Mafeking Relief Fund signed by both Baden-Powell and his heroic 2IC Major Alick Godley.

Further to Andre du Plessis starting SAPIG, (South Africa Postcard Interest Group) we had only a few weeks earlier held a Zoom meeting on the subject of Siege of Ladysmith postcards presented by John Handman in South Africa. John described the various postcards, mostly in red, one in black. He commented that a blue one was known but he had not seen it. This resulted in Nick coming forward to share his only known copy of the blue example. This was possibly a proof due to a shortage of ink. He also shared a postcard advertising Siege of Ladysmith postcards for sale at 6d each, again the only known example. Nick brought these and other scare items to display in Letchworth.

By the end of the Siege food for men and fodder for their horses was running low. In such siege situations the solution has always been to eat the horses. Nick displayed a postcard privately illustrated by the sender which showed a skinny pony being turned in ‘Chevril’, horse soup, the staple fare of the Ladysmith garrison in the last weeks of the siege. (‘Chevril’ from the French ‘cheval’, a male horse, is a play on ‘Bovril’, a popular British brand of beef (‘bovine’) extract.) One of Nick’s letters suggested Chevril was surprisingly palatable and nutritious. This wonderful display was meat and drink to the assembled.

Next up was Danna Strydom, also a relatively new SACS member but one with a long association with the Transvaal Study Circle. Danna is now no stranger to SACS meetings having shown stamps of the ZAR (South African Republic aka Transvaal) First Republic previously. His presence suggests something special is to come. We were not to be disappointed, nor was he intimidated by the high standard that Nick had set. Danna’s subject was the Second Republic Provisional Surcharges on Enschede printings made in Haarlem, Holland. This is commonly called the ‘Vurtheim issue’ of 1885 – 1893. His display covered all three versions of the perforation and included other material besides.

Danna began by putting his display in context. He started “Moving back about 15 years from Nick’s display”, then described how after having won its ‘freedom’ from Britain in the First War of Independence in 1881, stamps of the First British Occupation remained valid for postage in the Second Republic. However, by 1884 stocks of these were running low. On 13th May 1885, the ZAR introduced the Vurtheim designed, Enschede printed definitives from ½d to 10/-. By September there was a need for more ½d stamps. This led to the first ‘HALVE PENNY’ surcharge on the 3d red on white. The 3d LH ( left-hand) pane was surcharged downward while the RH (right hand) pane was surcharged upwards.

The main reason for surcharges on ZAR stamps was the change in postal rates and shortages of some values, mostly for newspapers. In responding to this with surcharged stamps a wide number of varieties and errors occurred. Danna showed a comprehensive range of surcharged stamps showing spelling mistakes, unauthorised reprints, double overprints and one with a triple overprint of which only six are known. He included one of only three known examples of the 1894 trial printings showing the 1d followed by a blank space. He provided examples of the ‘shaft’ fault, the well-known ‘disselboom’ forgeries and a glorious registered cover to GB showing the largest known franking charge bearing 2½d on 1/- green.

Danna display also included the ZAR’s 1895 First Penny Post stamp, the only large pre-Union commemorative stamp issued by a Colony or State. Indeed, it was “one of the world’s first commemorative stamps”. Purportedly a celebration of the new Penny Post, it sent a strong political message that the ZAR’s new railway lessened its reliance on British goodwill. While some earlier unofficial use of the Penny Post stamp results in some uncertainty about its issue date, Danna said that it was issued on the the birthday of the ZAR Postmaster General Isaac van Alphen’s as a tribute to him. This was corroberated by a postcard he showed celebrating the issue on 6th September, (bottom below), the date given by both the SACC (SA Colour Catalogue) and Gibbons.

Another eye-catching piece was a proof pair of 1d Minerva Heads. These were part of an attempt by the British Colonial authorities to get the OFS and ZAR Republics to use the same stamps and colours as its Colonies. The suggestion was made before the UPU introduced uniform colours in 1898. The fiercely independent Republicans accepted Britain’s suggested colours coding of values but rejected ‘postal union’. Was this imperial setback another small grievance on the road to war?

This superb display concluded with examples of the ‘V.R.I.’ overprints of the Second British Occupation of the ZAR that began with the fall of Pretoria on 5th June 1900. This would intwine nicely with Nick’s second afternoon display on “Boer POW Camps Overseas’. As Bob Hill rightly noted for the Springbok journal, Danna’s was “an excellent display by someone who clearly knows his subject inside out”. As a postal historian, what I appreciated most about this enjoyable presentation, one that was very largely about stamps, was that Danna chose not to deliver a sermon on the minutiae of printing, paper, perforations, regulations and rates. He left that for the interested philatelist to read in his well described notes. Well done!

Before lunch we held the 1-2-3 competition. The 1-2-3 Cup is intended to encourage anyone but most particularly newcomers to participate by displaying something, anything, on one, two or three sheets and speaking for just one minute per sheet. A new innovation, the competition is held at the SACS Letchworth meeting and is presented and judged by the previous winner of the Cup, in this case Bob Hill. As there were no newcomers to encourage, its award on this occassion went to an excited Steve Hannath whose reaction suggested he thought he had scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final!

Emphasising the 1-2-3 Cup’s elastic competition requirements, Steve won it with three sheets comprising two watercolours, two postcards and a cover which detailed Boulders Beach, Simonstown, between 1910 – 1955 before its colonisation by the Cape (aka Jackass or African) penguin. The transition of breeding penguins from offshore islands to the African mainland was facilitated by the spread of suburbia and the destruction of predators. Today Boulders Beach is the centre of a multi-million rand Cape penguin tourist industry. Steve said that he had only taken the three winning sheets out of his ‘Simonstown’ display that morning after realising in his bath how relevant its penguin colony was to his wider Antarctic and Southern Oceans subject matter.

Lunch was an informal but lavish affair. Food and drinks were supplied by Lyn and Rob Lester and Bob Hill. Long before lunch was declared the gathered members had begun helping themselves. Steve Hannath supplied the biltong which he bought en route to the meeting from Chapman’s Butchery in Baldock. He has long claimed it to be ‘the best biltong in England‘. However, he understands that a member of the ABWPS claims that Somerset is home to England’s best biltong. Perhaps someone, ideally a visiting South African dignatory, can judge a biltong tasting competition at the SACS’ AGM in June?

The afternoon session began with a brief but interesting display from Ian Smart comparing the 2/6d stamps of the Union and SWA up to decimalisation. He also showed stamps with equivalent values when decimalisation was introduced in 1961. The sheet right shows a small selection on 2/6d stamps from South West Africa and the Union. They show the different ways the countries went after SWA ceased overprinting Union stamps. Ian noted that both countries “ended on the same note for the 2/6d stamps – all showing animals as opposed to showing scenes from the countryside or the Kings head”. 

Nick Lindstrom displayed six superbly well-presented A3 pages on the 1/- Wildebeest stamp. These included different number blocks, cylinder numbers and sheet numbers with varieties of perforations, missing holes and different positioning of the sheet numbers. His pristine material was an uncommon subject that had been painstakingly researched and written-up over a considerable time. This would score highly in a dedicated stamp competition.

SACS stalwart Chris Oliver accompanied as always by his wife Sue displayed three frames of mint 1974 RSA ‘Fish and Chips’, the Second Set of Definitive stamps that comprise flowers, fish and birds. Chris offered good advice to the cash-conscious newcomer, stating that these are much easier to collect than the first 1961 definitive issue. He could offer no explanation why the issue was called ‘Fish and Chips’. Steve Hannnath apologised for his first thematic display on ‘SANAE, (SA National Antarctic Expedition) and South Atlantic Islands including Penguins on SA Stamps, Covers, Postcards, Cachets and Postmarks’. He suggested, it lowered the tone of preceding top class philately and postal history. To his surprise his display was well-received.

New SACS member David Belton RPSL maintained the day’s emphasis on top quality by showing us a new book available from the Royal Philatelic Society London for £40. The ‘Cape of Good Hope – The Triangular Stamps’ shows the fabulous Joseph Hackmey collection of Cape Triangles which is worth many 1000s of pounds more than the book. David had made colour facsimiles of the various pages of multiple CoGH triangles on cover as his display. As he could only wish to own such a collection, David facetiously told us that his display was entitled ‘Hope’.

Our final display was from Nick Harris who returned to describe 60 pages covering British overseas POW camps for captured Boers. The first large group of Boer POWs were captured at Elandslaagte on 21 October 1899. Among these ‘Boers’ were men of the Hollander Corp under Captain Boudewijk de Witt Harmer. As no POW camps had been prepared in SA an arrangement was made with the Royal Navy to house some 200 prisoners on the naval guard ship, HMS Penelope, in Simon’s Bay. As the leader of the Hollanders de Witt Harmer has left us a long trail of postal history from Holland to HMS Penelope and on to St Helena and back.

The main ‘motivator’ for sending Boers overseas was General Cronje’s surrender at Paardeberg with some 4,000 men. As the British were unprepared to imprison so many in South Africa where there was the risk of them escaping and rejoining the fight, the decision was made to send them overseas. The first overseas camp was in St Helena. where the SS Milwaukee arrived on 11th April 1900 with 514 prisoners. The island’s first camp was Deadwood Camp. Friction between its OFS and ZAR Boers lead to the creation of Broad Bottom Camp. Some 5000 prisoners were housed in the two camps. As the war dragged on and more Boers surrendered more POW camps were needed.

Six loads of POWs were landed in the Bermudas starting 28th June 1901. Almost 5,000 men would occupy camps on six Bermuda islands. Prisoners began to arrive in Ceylon on 9th August 1900. Some 5 000 Boers would be imprisoned there. Diyatalawa was the main camp. Thirteen camps were erected in India. In total there were some 25 – 30,000 Boer POWs across all camps. This has resulted in large trove of ABW / SAW postal history of which Nick showed many fine, scarce and superior examples.

This bought to an end the day’s activities. With Nick and Nick sharing their remarkable material with us for the first time in Letchworth and Dana’s powerful ZAR contribution a well-balanced counterpoint to Nick’s awesome ABW material, the day was a huge success. As a SACS event, Letchworth is now something of a pocket battleship capable of punching above its weight. Anyone interested in SA philately and postal history is encouraged to attend and enjoy this wonderful venue that Bob Hill and Rob and Lyn Lester have given us. Letchworth is now a top venue for SA philately worldwide. Our thanks to all who exhibited. This success could not have been achieved without You!

Our next SACS Letchworth meeting will be on Saturday 30th August 2025 in the same venue. (Mrs Elizabeth Howard Memorial Hall, Norton Way S, Letchworth Garden City SG6 1NX.) Before then we have our AGM in Kenilworth where we expect more of the same over two days. See you all there!

Read about other past philatelic / postal history events