Report of the meeting of September 10, 2005 "ALL DAY" - MEETING DISPLAYS We held a successful meeting largely due, I feel, to the holding of the 'live' auction to dispose of part of the late Ben Ferguson's collection. Before the meeting got underway Peter O'Keeffe, our President, presented the Harry Cope Award for Literature to David Tett for his three-volume "A Postal History of the Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees in East Asia during World War Two". We then held a moments silence to remember those members no longer wish us, in particular Ben Ferguson whose legacy to the Society was in part being auctioned later in the day and to David Cornelius whose death had recently been announced. A number of static displays were on show in an informal setting whilst members arrived and settled down as well as viewing the auction lots. Amongst these both Nick Colley and Michael Dobbs showed the displays they were due to give to the British Postmark Society at STAMPEX the following week - and so more about those displays in the report of that meeting. John Daynes displayed modern material from British elements involved in various Middle East conflicts/duties in recent years (including Op PROVIDE COMFORT - humanitarian relief to the Kurds after the first Gulf War; Op SOUTHERN WATCH - the air watch over Iraq) with covers from a number of BFPOs in the region from the early 1990's till quite recently. John Leathes provided a number of sheets featuring the Spanish submarine stamp issue in 1938 and the Spanish Republican Submarine mail service. Frank Schofield showed postal history of the British Army in Italy during WW1 - this time he concentrated on the overland route from Cherbourg to Taranto and featured the unrecorded skeleton ARMY PO S100 of 11 JU 17 (the only known recording). Bill Collingwood had on display a number of sheets featuring WW2 US APOs in the UK; including UK type forces registration labels, free mail and V-mail. Then came the President's Cup competition - only five entries this year which is disappointing but nevertheless the items in the competition represented a varied, interesting and informative mix. Tom Handley was declared the winner with his "The War in Ethiopia - Fighting the Italians". The display in the main showed censored mail to or from Ethiopia during 1935/36 following the Italian invasion which started on 3 October 1935. However, the display started off with an earlier altercation between the Italians and Ethiopians - in 1896 when the Italians were eyeing up the pastures of Ethiopia for their own farmers from neighbouring Eritrea. Joint second were Alistair Kennedy with "The British Operations at Antwerp in October 1914" and John Leathes with "Western Baltic U-Boat Bases". For Alistair's display - The Royal Naval Division was sent to Antwerp to assist in the defence of the city against German attacks, and to hold up the Germans long enough to allow the Belgian Army to retire to wards the French frontier where they would link up with the British and French troops moving to the coast. After evacuating the Belgians, the RND withdrew for return to the UK, but some where captured and others were interned in Holland. Other British troops were sent in October to help cover the evacuation. For John's display - Apart from the main base at Kiel there were three other U-Boat bases in the western Baltic. They were Neustadt, Flensburg and Stettin. The exhibit covered post from these ports, their satellites and the U-Boats working from them. The remaining two entrants were Derek Hepworth with the "Falklands War" showing Argentine and British mail from the conflict and Peter O'Keeffe with an exhibit entitled "Received From" which showed single and double circle "Received from H.M. Ships" markings of WW1. The afternoon was taken up with the auction - at times a lively affair with a number of bulk lots generating some competitive bidding! The successful bidders were happy with their purchases (I know I was!). All told we made in excess of £1,500 for Society funds. There are still a large number of covers to sort through and I am sure we shall have a bumper sale at our next 'live' auction in the New Year. I subsequently wrote to Ben's brother David and received the following reply: "Many thanks for your recent letter regarding Ben's collection. I'm very glad that we were able to make contact with yourself and other members of the Society. When we read of the magnitude of the task in sorting and identifying, clearly we would never have been able to sort it out. The family are delighted that Ben's wishes are being realised and that the sale of his collection will assist in sustaining the future of the Society."