Page 111 - Falkland Islands King George VI Definitive Issue, 1938-1950

HUGH OSBORNE, FRPSL

Hugh was born in Wellington, New Zealand but he and his Mother soon left to re-join with his
Father then a career Royal Naval officer who had been recalled by the Admiralty. En voyage
at New York he had his first birthday and successfully crossed the north Atlantic docking at
Liverpool in 1944.

As a school boy he collected stamps, a hobby he has enjoyed ever since, although somewhat
inactive whilst his two sons grew up. After they had left home, he returned to develop his
collection soon to concentrate on the Falkland Islands after discovering the FIPSG, the
Falkland Islands Philatelic Study Group. He joined the society and became an active
committee member holding such offices as Auction Manager, Secretary and finally Chairman,
in office for seven years, but now retired. He joined the Royal in January 2004 and was elected
to Fellow, November 2013.

His collecting preferences have changed – initially developing a significant FI collection, his
King George VI definitives particularly the first issue, 1938~50, and Queen Elizabeth Birds,
1960~66 were deemed to be amongst the best formed. The interest waned to be replaced with
a passion for postal history. He has exhibited at Stampex growing from initial one frame entries
to a five frame exhibit of South Georgia Postal History, achieving a Large Gold medal at
Autumn Stampex, 2015. He has now taken on the international scene achieving 85 points for
5 frames of SGPH at New York, 2016 and he has been accepted by Finlandia, 2017. His
ambition is to achieve Gold internationally for an 8-frame exhibit, but five frames first as a
stepping stone.

His ‘Falklands’ passion has been most rewarding, his first visit to the Islands was with a small
group of eight lead by Ronnie Spafford in 2003. Three years later he and Mary travelled to
Antarctica for three weeks on a small expedition ship spending nearly a week exploring South
Georgia. Since then he has returned to the Falklands on a number of occasions. He knows
well the Jane Cameron National Archives at Stanley, volunteered to help the move of the
national museum to its present historic dockyard site, and assisted with the restoration of the
Old Post Office building at Fox Bay, West Falkland over the last three astral summers. He is
also the Hon Secretary of the English charity Friends of the FI Museum and Archive since
launched in September 2012.

He has written philatelic articles, principally on matters Falkland Islands and/or South Georgia
for the London Philatelist, Upland Goose, FIPSG house magazine, Gibbons Stamp Monthly,
Sixth Sense and others including FIJ, FI Journal. He is an active member of the editorial
committee that assist Stefan Heijtz author of The Specialised Stamp catalogue of the Falkland
Islands and Dependencies.

On a number of occasions he has been the guest speaker invited to present from his Falklands
and South Georgia postal history collections. He showed SGPH at the Philatelic Congress,
Cambridge 2016.

May 2017

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