The Malaya Study Group

Leicester - Meeting Report Members displays

March 6th 2010

by Dominic Morris & Susan McEwen, pictures by Susan McEwen

Introduction

The MSG's annual gathering in Leicester was held on Saturday 6th March. We believe that this was the 21st Annual meeting at Leicester. The displays were continuous from 11:00 am till about 5:00 pm ! with a lunch break of course. Our thanks to John Jackson and Mike & Jane Ludlow for organising the meeting and dinners.

Chairman Peter Cockburn in cheerful mood introducing the meeting.

John Jackson arranged the Standing Display of Picture Postcards of the Trams of Burton, a display loaned by Richard Farman of Burton on Trent, to greet members to the Leicester meeting (and to ease those who had been there the night before through any lingering hangovers that the Regency Hotel’s breakfast had not already cured). Please don’t examine your correspondent on the linkages between Burton Trams and Malaya. But people present seemed to enjoy them.

John Jackson speaks to Richard Farman's standing display of Burton trams

Joe Robertson opened the main displays with a round of postage due covers, mainly QV- George V, with some rare North Borneo covers. As ever, immaculately written up and thus a wealth of information on marks, rates, routes and postal peccadilloes.

Joe Robertson, postage due on postcards

Joe Robertson with display and some of the attendees

Mike Waugh followed with some MBEs and a range of late pre-War striated and ordinary papers, including an almost complete Perak Iskander 1938 2c sheet from Gaden Robinson’s collection.

Mike Waugh with MBE's and Striated papers

Nigel Tyre showed postcards on the theme ‘going shopping’, including Sultan Ibrahim’s motor cars, cards from Mr Nelson, one to Dr Woods in Wales with a scarce rubber PD chop and an expedition of the wives of the Sultan of Perak on elephants crossing the river from the palace at Kuala Kangsar for the weekly grocery shop.

Nigel Tyre and his display of postcards

Iain Dyce showed a wide range of salvaged crash covers from the 1931 Singapore to Australia inaugural flight that crashed in Timor to 1952 and 1954 Comet crashes. He also showed AV2 (subsequently ‘To be forwarded by air from Singapore’) marks used for mail 1940-41 from Allied forces in Palestine via the trans-Pacific route after Italy’s entry into the War had effectively closed the Mediterranean route; and the 5/- rate from the UK to Singapore.

Carl Stott broke with long-standing habit and brought a couple of items, including a block of four CTO 25c Labuan pale blue shade.

Andrew Norris showed a selection of revenues including Kedah and a couple of crash covers.

Andrew Norris and his revenues display

Mike Ludlow showed postcards from the Straits Steamship Company and a couple of additions to his hotels collection including a re-addressed label from the E&O. He also showed some nice 1934 Survey Department essays from Perak and Straits (for which I am always a sucker).

Jon Higgins showed a selection of North Borneo postal stationery mainly the 1c and 3c from 1889 to 1895, including ‘Postage and Revenue’ cards (Revenue??).

Jon Higgins, looking pensive with his North Borneo postal stationery.

Peter Cockburn FMS Revenues on documents, always an interesting study, plus mint and used FMS Judicials, ephemera and perfins.

Rob Holley showed a wide range of postcards from (I think) every state, including Johore, Kedah, elephant postcards form c1900, Sultan Badlishah, the WW1 memorial in Kelantan, the well known one from Negri Sembilan depicted ‘The Sultan of Selangor’ but which is in fact the first Agong) cards from Tanah Rata which, Rob asserted, even Gordon Peters does not have (illustrating neatly what a high benchmark and standard Gordon has set for fellow collectors in the Group over the years!). Rob finished with postcards of the Emden and material taking us through the epic story of the return of the Emden’s crew post Cocos to Ottoman Turkey and thence back to Germany.

Susan McEwen concluded the day’s fine round of displays with a short study of the JapOcc 4c Tin-dredger postal stationery cards, illustrating the different printings; some judicial overprints and one on document stamped at a Magistrate’s Court without overprint.