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It was going to be a busy day for me - I just knew that ! I arrived at the UJC well before the official start of 10.30am to ensure that I had time to unpack what I had brought before the members started to arrive and greet me, ask me questions, etc. However, there were a few early souls already there. Alistair had unpacked the auction lots he had organised and I quickly started to unpack mine, as well as put out the revised description sheets, which calmed a few down as they had been in receipt of an earlier version and many lots were not on their copy ! I also put up a welcoming display on several boards which comprised my collection of Commonwealth Korean War material (British, Australian, New Zealand and Canadians FPOs in Korea and Japan). Alistair Kennedy put up a display of 18 pages on the First World War in the UK, including Fair Isle, Belgian refugees at Elisabethville and bomb damage at Colchester while Nick Colley put up a display of the RAF in Malta 1939-1945. These formed a backdrop for members to view during the informal morning session. In fact the whole day was informal - we like to think we are a very friendly and informal Society. More members started to arrive along with the teas and coffee and with the arrival of two of the three Lincolnshire contingent including our President (Ian Muchall) we called everyone to order. Ian formally opened the meeting and we stood in two minutes silence in memory to the late John Daynes. After which I gave a resume of the funeral service in Seaton, Somerset and also the memorial service organised by Rotary International in Creeksea, Essex (next door to where John lived most of his working life at Burnham-on-Crouch). The informal session got underway with brief descriptions of the displays Nick, Alistair and myself and John Leathes also entertained by showing us a query cover he asked about some two years previous. It was a message in German but in some form of code, we couldn't provide an answer then - he subsequently displayed it at a meeting of another society and one of their members stated that whilst he couldn't crack the code he knew some gentlemen in Cheltenham who could ! The code was eventually cracked and John was provided with the decrypted message (in German of course) and a translation together with a list of the symbols used and their meaning, in other words the key that cracked the code. Far from being a 'top secret' operational message it was of a sailor writing home to his loved one ! There was plenty to occupy members before lunch - the static displays, the lots for the auction, the material brought by a number a members for sale and the selection of books brought by Peter High as well as a large miscellaneous selection of material from the John Daynes' collection that we had not been able to lot and he was open to offers - business was indeed brisk ! I then asked for lots for the President's Cup Competition and my time was kept busy organising that part of the day. Entry forms were given out and eventually all entries were displayed (see below) and ballot slips produced for members to complete in their own time. It was then lunch time - no rest for me as we had to hold a Committee meeting (one of the few times that many 'out of towners' can get together, including our Treasurer, so we could not pass up this opportunity). So that we wouldn't be disturbed during our deliberations we retired to a local hostelry across the road (was this a wise move ?). Amongst the many items we had to discuss we agreed to hold subscriptions for a further year, with a reminder from the Treasurer that we would need to consider an increase in two or three years. Others commented that we should work towards gradual increases rather than hit the members with a large increase all at once. We also agreed to give more flexibility to the Editor with regards to the number of pages with colour illustrations. We had problems getting a meeting room at the UJC in May 2009 and so agreed that we would have a weekend away. We had an offer to host one in 2010 in Newcastle, but an alternative suggestion bringing the weekend further south at Oxford was also suggested. We await costings. We discussed the major logistics of dealing with the John Daynes material and several of the Committee volunteered to hold the material in safekeeping, I had received an offer from our postal auction manager that he could collate the postal bids and Ed Hall volunteered to set up a website for the auction list(s) in due course and also deal with the successful postal bids. Our President would volunteer is someone took on the task of Packet Secretary. He did comment that he was lacking in quality material, but we re-assured him that there would be quality material coming his way from the Daynes collection. Lunch over we returned to the meeting room to look at the Competition entries and cast our votes. There were a healthy eleven entries from which to choose and this provided a wide variety of topics and the high standard made the task more difficult. However, I would like to thank all those members who submitted an entry - the eventual winner was not present, but sent his entry to me by post and this is something you can do for both our 9 and 16-sheet competitions. With votes counted the President announced the winner, by a very clear margin, as Tony Walker with his "British Navy WW1 - The Battle of the Falkland Islands 1914" which is an extract from a larger display centred on the Battle of the Falkland Islands (1914 vintage), with mail and correspondence from Albert Smith on board HMS Macedonia as the link. Perhaps there is not enough postal history for the purist, but nevertheless fascinating naval history, including his 2700 word letter to his parents written during the battle. Second was Alistair Kennedy with the "Brazilian Expeditionary Force in Italy" where Brazil sent an infantry division to Italy in July 1944 (arrival being spread over several months). This Force (F.E.B) was accompanied by four Field Post Offices and a Base PO, supported by a Base PO in Brazil. F.E.B. served in the United States Fifth Army in the western sector of the Allied line. The entry showed the progress of the Force from arrival at Naples, going into action near Lucca, spending the winter months facing the Germans on the Gothic Line south of Bologna (with totally unknown weather conditions of snow and blizzards) and then the spring offensive which took them through Bologna, Parma and Turin to end the war at Susa on the French frontier. Joint third winners were Tom Handley with the "Invasion and Occupation of Ethiopia by the Italians (1935/36)" with covers from the various Italian military post offices during the invasion and Robin Davis with "The EOKA Campaign 1955-59 Censorship" which showed censorship of both civil and detainee mails by the military in Cyprus during the EOKA campaign of 1955-59. The other entries were: Nick Colley with "The Royal Navy in Malta WW2" which, as its title suggests, concerned the RN in Malta during the war years; Ed Hall with "German POW Working Companies" concerning Post WW2 German POWs who were formed into independent working companies under the Pioneer Corps. The entry consisted of letters and cards to and from Egypt with cachet marks and manuscript markings. John Leathes with "They also served" which concerned a number of submarines from the occupied countries which were attached to RN flotillas during WW2. The entry showed mail to and from some of these boats, Ian Muchall with the "Occupation of Madagascar WW2" which included an air dropped leaflet, South African, British and East African APOs, 1944 Christmas pictorial air letter and a pictorial airgraph, Peter O'Keeffe with "RAF Privilege Envelopes" which showed the five types in use (except type RE2 which was only used from Aden and few were locally printed - they are rare !); Frank Schofield with "HMS Warspite" which was a short study that told the postal history of the battleships' 30-year service, Eddie Weeks with "Zeppelin mail WW1" which showed examples of mail from crew members of German airships. Then came the auction and we are indeed grateful to Peter High and Alistair Kennedy who acted as auctioneer and records keeper respectively. Also thanks to Peter Burrows and Peter O'Keeffe who acted a 'runners' for the afternoon. There was some keen bidding going on and quite high prices fetched for a number of items - at the same time other items fetched either the estimate or even under. Suffice to say everything sold and there were plenty of happy smiling faces. I pointed out that this was 'taster' as there would be plenty of material to come and we intended to have a large auction open to postal bidders at our AGM next year. Some material would also be sold through our postal auctions and through our packet. There may also be opportunities to hold additional auctions or even circulate sales lists. It is clear that there is sufficient material to keep our 'live' and postal auctions, together with the packet, well supplied for some time to come but it will take a great deal of work from your already hard pressed Committee, so please be patient. |