Regular Meetings at 15 Abchurch Lane
Meetings are held at our London premises usually twice per month from September to June.
The Meeting Programme for the 2023-2024 Session
The full meeting programme for the 2023-2024 session, including a programme of online presentations, can be found here.
Collections Events
From time to time informal talks and seminars take place, showing the diversity of philately and how it can provide unexpected insights into social, cultural and local history. Click here for information about these events.
Society Medals 2024
The recipients of the Society's medals for 2024, ratified by Council, are as follows:
The Tapling Medal for the best article or supplement published in THE LONDON PHILATELIST:
Ulf J. Lindahl FRPSL for his article Restoration of the Ethiopian Posts: 1941-1952
The Tilleard Medal for the best 1pm display given to the Society:
Peter Chadwick FRPSL for his display Great Britain Postal History Prior to 1840
The Lee Medal for the best 5pm presentation:
Howard Hughes FRPSL for his presentation The Maltese Cross
The Lee Medal for the best online Zoom presentation:
Steven Harrison FRPSL for his presentation The Philatelic Congress of Great Britain
The London Medal for exceptional service to the Society:
Paul Leonard FRPSL for work within the Expert Committee
Eric Hutton FRPSL for work as a volunteer
Alex Haimann FRPSL for the production of the “Clash of Empires” exhibition.
Congratulations to all the medal winners. More information about the medals can be seen here.
The Stuart Rossiter Memorial Lecture
The Stuart Rossiter Memorial Lecture will be at 5pm on Wednesday 15 May 2024, at the Royal Philatelic Society London.
The speaker will be Simon Martin-Redman FRPSL. The title of his lecture is
"Postal History – Which is more interesting, the postal aspect or the history aspect?"
Under the revised FIP Postal History Guidelines (May 2022) a Postal History exhibit should "generally emphasise rates, routes, regulations, markings, usages, and other postal aspects, services, functions, and activities related to the history of the development of Postal Services".
Who wrote the letter, why the letter was written and the contents of the letter are of much more interest, probably, to the majority of collectors. It is suggested that the "romance" of the cover is more compelling than just the rates and routes, etc. This lecture will try, by showing examples, to justify this hypothesis.
Entry is by ticket; please book by emailing Rex Dixon at rexdixon@btinternet.com.
The event is free and light refreshments will be served afterwards.
Fake stamps being sold by rogue firms in Britain
Chris Harman RDP, Hon FRPSL, Past President of the Royal Philatelic Society London and Chairman of the Expert Committee, met with Matthew Allwright, BBC Watchdog presenter, and helped confirm that some stamps sold by a Post Office were fake, and that a stamp that Royal Mail had identified as being a fake was actually genuine.
This was as part of a BBC Watchdog programme on the subject of how there has been a rise in complaints that stamps bought from legitimate stores are being deemed to be counterfeit, and anyone receiving a letter with a fake stamp is charged £5 by Royal Mail.
You can watch the key parts of the programme on YouTube here.
The Society at Stampex 2023
The Society had a stand at Stampex 2023. You can watch a short video about this here.
President’s Newsletter
I am hoping for better weather and no train strikes, which on both counts may be a triumph of hope over expectation. I believe we have had another good month with some excellent presentations and exhibits. I was fascinated by the superb efforts of the British Thematic Society; many of the members contributing interesting topics. It was so different and many of us learnt something.
The end of March saw a first; our premises at Abchurch Lane being used for the National Competitions previously held at Stampex. The space was fully subscribed and display boards were present on three floors. Our building was open to the public for the entire exhibition with no charges being made. We hope that this will have proved to be a success, indeed initial reports show total visitors of over 400 during the weekend and the dealers present appear happy. We would like to repeat this most appropriate use of the building, the promotion of philately.
April commences with a Zoom presentation by Susan Taylor and Graham Stockdale entitled "The Anguilla Story". This will be on Tuesday 2 April at 3pm.
This is followed on Thursday 4th April at 5pm by Lars Engelbrecht giving a presentation "Newspaper Wrappers - The Ugly Ducklings of Postal Stationery." This is yet another interesting but very different topic and given the eminence of the presenter, it should be a truly memorable occasion.
Later in the month will come my own efforts at a 5pm presentation on "The Postal History of the Isles of Scilly". I believe this is the first time this subject has been attempted. I have tried to include many different items of general interest from Wreck Mail to mail from and to the Royal Family and the Prime Minister.
From a general news point of view progress continues to be made towards rolling out a new and more user-friendly web site which we hope to be able to share with everyone in the Autumn.
With best wishes to you all
Mike.
Mike J Y Roberts FRPSL
President
The Royal Philatelic Society London
2nd April 2024
Meeting Videos
5pm meetings that have been videoed may be viewed on YouTube, accessible through links on the All Meetings with Documents page.
The full list of meetings can be viewed here.
Meeting Handouts
Our archives hold about 700 handouts provided by displayers at meetings since 1918. These range from single sheets of paper listing the items on display to extensive publications including complex images that can be regarded as significant contributions to the literature. Explanatory notes were at first provided only occasionally but have become normal practice since the 1980s. Many contain material of value to researchers and their production quality has steadily improved. These have been scanned and converted to searchable PDF documents. Click here for a list of the handouts available to view online.
Standing Displays and Regional Meetings
Information about the standing displays and regional meetings, in the United Kingdom and around the world, can be viewed by clicking the menu to the left.