South African Collectors’ Society

In Memoriam: Paul van Zeyl RDPSA (1950 – 2024)

It is with great sadness that we announce the loss of Paul van Zeyl RDPSA, a cherished member of SACS (the South African Collectors’ Society).

Paul passed away peacefully in Pretoria during the night of Tuesday / Wednesday 7th August after a long period of illness. The South African Collectors’ Society extends its deepest sympathies and condolences to his wife, Kathy, his four children, grandchildren and friends during this difficult time.

Paul joined our Society as member No. 711 in 1979. During his 41-year membership of SACS he regularly attended SACS and Conference meetings. He is fondly remembered as an easy-going South African stamp dealer who arrived in the UK with suitcases stuffed with wonderful philatelic items which he sold at agreeable prices. Such was his remarkable and irrepressible enthusiasm for our philatelic community he continued to visit us with his suitcases after he lost a leg to diabetes. However, Covid, the loss of his other leg and a heart attack made it impossible for him to return to us after 2019. For the last five years we have sorely missed Paul’s camaraderie, his knowledge and personable charm, but most especially the joie de vivre he bought to every meeting.

Paul backed his vast knowledge of South African philately and history with insouciant wit and gentle wisdom. However, his frustrations with philatelic bodies that he perceived as doing nothing or too little at a time when the hobby was in decline was a concern that cost him the support of some in the upper ranks of organised philately. He eagerly desired change, innovation and forward momentum. He was among the first to promote and embrace the new category of Open Class displays, showing challenging subjects that were previously regarded as controversial and philatellically inappropriate, like “The Rise and Decline of the National Party in South Africa, 1948/94”, shown in Honiley Court Hotel to SACS in 2016. This won him the 2016 Tony Chilton Memorial Trophy. In the same year Paul was honoured for his contributions to South African philately by signing the Roll of Honour of Distinguished Philatelists of Southern Africa at the SA National in October.

Asked about the curious spelling of his surname which differs from the standard South African ‘van Zyl’, Paul explained that his ancestors were Hollanders who came out to the ZAR (Transvaal) in the 1890s to work as Dutch language bureaucrats in the Kruger government. Born in Worcester, Cape, in 1950, Paul was introduced to stamp collecting by his father in Pretoria where he grew up, matriculating from Christian Brothers College in 1967. The influence of his Irish Catholic teachers was strong and apparent in Paul’s deep understanding of history and politics. In a discussion about South African politics and White fear of the “Swart Gevaar”, (Afr. Black Threat) Paul noted with some irony that he was a representative of the “Roomse Gevaar”, (Afr. Roman Catholic Threat).

In 1968 Paul did his nine months National Service in the SADF (Army), then began a career in banking in 1969, later earning a B.Com Honours (Economic Sciences) degree part-time at the University of Pretoria. He joined the SA Reserve Bank where he worked in the Gold and Foreign Exchange, as well as its Exchange Control and Economics Division until 1979 when he moved to the Economic Research Division of Standard Bank in Johannesburg. This included raising loans for the Apartheid Homelands. During his lunchtime breaks he would leave the world of big banking to pursue his hobby in the stamp shops of central Johannesburg. This hobby became a sideline after he discovered how much he enjoyed the ‘wheeling and dealing’ of the stamp business. This lead him to start a postal auction in 1978, a year before he joined SACS.

After returning to his beloved Pretoria to work for a development-oriented parastatal organisation in which he was a corporate planner for various government organisations, Paul was required to work closely with various Black communities during the final years of the Apartheid regime. His development organisation was closed down before the democratic change took place in 1994. He nevertheless continued to work with these communties to direct their organisational development needs. It was a difficult and anxious time in South Africa. Paul experienced hatred, hostility and deep suspicion from some within the communities he was trying to help. Like many White South African men, he became redundant post-Apartheid. This compelled him to turn what was essentially just a profitable hobby into a new, full-time career. He did so with his hallmark energy and enthusiasm. By February 2000 Paul was the President of SAPDA, the South African Philatelic Dealer’s Association.

Simon Peetoom first met Paul as a stamp-dealer in 1999 at The Rosebank show in South Africa.  “He had one of the most diverse stocks of anybody there,” said Simon. “Modern stamps and covers mixed with old postal history, postcards and ephemera. For certain, I bought an invite / ticket to the opening of The Union Parliament from him.  I never bought much, but whatever I found in his stock was always interesting.  His stock was a reflection of him, a bit untidy, slightly chaotic but ultimately rewarding if you gave it some of your time. He was a serious philatelist, a real fixture at the Joint Conference for a number of years and was well-liked by many members, including myself”.

Steve Hannath says “All of our collections have been improved by Paul’s material. However, on a deeper level, I am also the richer for having his friendship. Long before I met him, his reputation as a dealer preceded him. I first heard of him from a British dealer who realising I was a South African said “oh, you must know Paul van Zeyl then”. I didn’t. That was about 2005. The dealer implied that Paul was a sort of philatelic Father Christmas with an amazing bag of goodies and that I was the poorer for not having met him.”

“Our paths finally crossed at Capex 2015 in Cape Town. The venue was so empty I wondered what I was doing there but then I turned a corner and saw more buyers than could be accommodated in one booth spilling out onto the aisle, all in a busy frenzy swarming around Paul’s Rand Stamp honey pot. Despite the chaos he made me welcome and we began an enduring conversation. By the end of the day we promised to meet up in England again and did in Honiley in 2016. I was proud to carry his bags at York in 2017 and Meriden in 2019. The latter was memorable because it was the World Cup Rugby Final against England. Both Paul and I wore our Springbok rugby shirts that day.”

“Once, when describing how much he wanted to return to a SACS meeting again, Paul, now a double amputee, broke into Afrikaans to express his strength of feeling for our Society. “Hulle is my mense!” , he said. (They are my people.) This tribal turn of phrase was used in South Africa to describe the bonds of blood that united Afrikaners through a shared history at the hands of the British Empire, most especially in the South African War which ended in ‘Boer’ defeat and the near genocide of their womenfolk in ‘concentration camps’, (another display by Paul). To have a South African from Pretoria, an heir to all that Afrikaner history, say that we in the UK are his people is a profound testament to Paul’s gracious belief in the uplifting power of philately to overcome the divisions of history.”

One benefactor of Paul’s largesse was Tony Howgrave-Graham, our past Chairman, now President, a retired GP. Tony said “I was extremely fond of Paul and admired his visits to the joint meets (both SACS and the Conference of Societies). He always went out of his way to find things for me, especially with regards to SWA and the Rebellion. He always said how glad he was to pass these on to me. I thought I was special but then I realised he was like that with everyone! As Paul was diabetic I always took a couple of Mars Bars to the Leamington meetings as he was always so enthusiastic about what he was showing that he got over-excited and developed a hypo (low blood glucose level) condition. It happened every year”.

Bob Hill has happy memories of Paul that go back to Philatex 2010 in the Horticultural Hall, London. Because he was so busy Paul gave Bob three stockbooks and told him to “go look at them in the tearoom and have a cup of coffee on me”. “And I did. He deducted the cost of the coffee from what I paid him”, said Bob. “Who else would do that? He was the nicest and the best of dealers. You could always haggle with him and he was never offended. He would always give you a discount. He was never in a bad mood or grumpy. You could talk to Paul about anything. He was knowledgeable and was quick to share information with you. Wherever he went as a dealer he was the main attraction. His stock was excellent and he will be missed.”

“I have dealt with Paul over many years” said Roy Ross. “He was a top chap.”

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