WELCOME TO THE HOME FOR YOUR HOBBY –
The Philately & Postal History of Southern Africa and Beyond!
*****
ZOOM in on
Jamie Smith’s Displays
Jamie Smith is constantly adding Zoom displays to our website. You can see Jamie’s South African Cinderellas of WW2 by clicking on the link here.
Socotra lies southeast of Yemen to which it belongs. The island is included within Africa because it is an extension of the ‘Horn of Africa’. Click on the link here.
Mesopotamia aka Iraq is more often in the news today than not. Discover its colonial postal history with our resident expert.
See it by clicking here.
Enjoy Jamie’s philatelic and postal history tour de force beyond the battlefields of British East Africa during WW2.
See it by clicking here.
Follow Jamie’s unfolding saga of British Somaliland, a British Protectorate closely linked with the history of Ethiopia.
See it by clicking here.
Yet another wonderful display from Jamie. A noteworthy feature of his Sudan Military History Part 1 is the resistance of its people to ancient Egyptian ambition and British imperial conquest during the late 19th Century.
See it by clicking here.
Postal Stationery is normally Prepaid (& Formula) items issued by the Post Office for public use. This display covers Postal Stationery issued and used by government and military forces in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika during the ‘K.U.T.’ period.
See it by clicking here.
Egypt is South Africa’s North African counterpart. It has a wonderful postal history which Jamie Smith presents in all its enchanting glory.
See it by clicking here.
Two views of the same postcard – Church Square, Grahamstown.
How to Colourise B&W
Photos and Postcards
New AI products will automatically colourise your old Black and White Photos and Postcards. Its quick and easy! Our Technology section shows you how to add colour to history. Click here to see how.
BONCs (Barred Oval Numeral Cancellers).
See our Forum Discussion on BONCS
Making Sense of BONCS
David Mordant has released the Fourth Edition of his ‘The Barred Oval Numeral Cancellers of the Cape of Good Hope from 1863 – 1963’. You can study David’s work for free as an on-line resource or you can print out a copy, (one only, please). Our grateful thanks to David for making this vital Cape philatelic resource available free of charge to the South African Philately Club’s members. An excellent research work!
View the Fourth Edition here!
1951. Christmas Card ex-US 18th Fighter-Bomber Group which included No. 2 Squadron, SAAF, ‘The Flying Cheetahs’. (See the Springbok roundel arrowed top right!), The professionalism of this unit won the respect of the USAF.
No. 2 Sqn SAAF in Korea.
‘The Flying Cheetahs’.
The postal history of the Union of South Africa’s involvement in the defence of South Korea (1950-1953) is a limited field largely due to the small numbers of participating SAAF personnel. Jamie and Steve are proud to present pretty much the best assembly of material and displays on the subject. Our thanks to Dr Jim Findlay for providing his exhibit, “The South African Air Force Deployment in Korea, 1950-1953″.
See the Archive: Click here.
2024. President Donald Trump defiantly raises a fist after being nicked by a bullet. On the right is a 1967 Verwoerd Commemoration 15c stamp showing the ‘bullet hole’ variety. Dr Verwoerd was assasinated in Cape Town in 1966.
TRUMP and VERWOERD.
More than meets the Eye.
There is a small but hopefully interesting connection between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister H F Verwoerd of both the Union and Republic of South Africa. Can you guess what it is? The clue lies in the fact that both men suffered assassination attempts by the Liberal Left.
January 1879. Welshmen defend Rorke’s Drift on behalf of aggressive British imperialism against the Zulu kingdom. (Uniforms & Weapons of the Zulu War. Christopher Wilkinson-Latham. Painting by Jack Cassin-Scott. Batsford)
ZULULAND GB Overprints: 1888 – 1896
The Zulu War of 1879 was fought, illegally some argue, to destroy the military might of the Zulus in the run-up to Britain’s planned South African confederation of its colonies with the Boer states. Having smashed the Zulu impi’s Britain failed to take responsibility for its actions by ensuring its victory gave the Zulu people a better future. Instead, it allowed the neglected country to slide back into bloody domestic strife. The best the illiterate Zulus got out of this colonial mess was a British-style post office using overprinted GB stamps in 1888. Tony Stanford’s display is a rare and comprensive treat from this difficult time in the history of the Zulu people.
Please post comments on this display here!
An unintended racist parody of the White South African nightmare –
Native people rise up against their colonial ‘masters’.
German SWA: 1914 – 1923
The Union Land Grab
The WW1 postcard above expresses the British hope that the oppressed indigenous people of Germany’s African colonies would rise up against the ‘Hun’. This did not happen because Germany had established a barbaric record of suppressing rebellion against its colonial authority and second, fearing the political consequences of allowing Blacks to kill Whites, Prime Minister Louis Botha of the Union of South Africa reached agreement with the Germans to keep it a ‘White Man’s War’. The Union invasion of GSWA was never about justice for those who had suffered German genocide and lost their traditional tribal lands. It was a South African land grab bent on maintaining the regional racial status quo.
Please post comments on this display here!
Four Perkins brothers stand outside the family shop in Worcester, one of the great repositories of South African postal history.
From the Postbag of J Perkins
This is the second of two award-winning displays by Gawie Hugo detailing the postal history of his home town, Worcester. The display is in Afrikaans with an English translation at the end. As a repositry of 19th c. commercial and private correspondence, (postal history), J Perkins needs no introduction to those who collect Cape Colony mail. This display adds to our knowledge and provides a local insight into the Worcester store of James Perkins Senior and Junior.
Please post comments on this display here!
The Worcester Post Office began in the room arrowed above on a remote Western Cape farm ins in 1819.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
If you want to comment on this website, or have some suggestions for its improvement, please do so via Letters to the Editor.
Read Adel’s Newsletters here –
Keep abreast of what is happening in her Wonderful World of Philately.
News & Views
Does Sydney Sweeney
collect stamps?
Can AI Save Our Hobby?
The ripple of the first wave that will be the tsunami of AI is upon us. It offers our hobby the accumulation of data without proper personal research. More importantly, what our hobby really needs AI to do is create a new generation of young collectors. Don’t hold your breath!
Sophiatown Postal History –
Apartheid, Tsotsis, Drum Magazine and ANC Corruption.
RSA
This strip of three recently sold for £3200 in the SACS Auction. For further details,
click here.
ETHIOPIA
We begin with its History and its Postmarks, including the
Maltese Cross Canceller
of the Khedivate of Egypt used in Harrar – and elsewhere!
TECHNOLOGY:
New ImageSleuth Software
Enhances Indistinct Postmarks
For FREE
Read more here…
Go Bokke! Go SA!
Let’s hope South Africa’s Politicians can rehabilitate themselves the way Springbok Rugby has done!
Read more here….
SIMONSTOWN BONC 1047
Under the authority of the Cape Post Office Simonstown used BONC 27. The remarkable ‘Hyacinth Cover’ reveals that during WW1 Simonstown used another unrecorded BONC.
Unravel the mystery here.
As a clue to his identity, he was SA’s most identifiable sailor in WW2. This short display includes several navy-oriented SA WW2 Cinderellas that complement Jamie Smiths display left opposite.