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The London Philatelist

The donors of the material are also of the highest order. Table 3 provides details of the fifty-three
individual donors recorded on the Collection’s pages. Seventeen individuals made more than one
donation to the Collection.

Individual Pages Donations
Grand Duke Alexis Michaelovich (1875-1895) 1 1
Edward Denny Bacon (1860-1938) 40 18
Arthur Thomas Bate (ca.1850-1921) 1 1
Erskine Beveridge (1851-1920) 1 1
Dr. George Thompson Bishop (1865-1935) 1 1
W.W. Blest 6 3
Samuel Bostock 1 1
Friedrich Andreas Breitfuss (1851-1911) 2 2
William Brown (1864-1927) 6 5
George Campbell 5 4
Miss A. Cassels 4 2
Marcellus Purnell Castle (1847-1917) 3 2
Samuel Chapman (1859-1943) 23 3
Anthony Buck Creeke, Jr. (1860-1932) 1 1
G.E. Cutting 1 1
Dr. Emilio Diena (1860-1941) 4 1
Robert Ehrenbach (1858-1906) 1 1
Major Edward Benjamin Evans (1846-1922) 8 7
Herbert L’Estrange Ewen (1876-1912) 3 1
Philipp La Rénotière von Ferrary (1850-1917) 18 3
Oliver Firth (1860-1913) 3 1
Lachlan Gibb (1852-1922) 1 1
Morris Giwelb (1853-1937) 1 1
William Hadlow (1861-1931) 3 1
Gilbert Harrison (1858-1894) 1 1
Mr Justen 1 1
8th Earl of Kingston (1846-1896) 3 3

Table 3. Individual donors to the Tapling Collection, 1891-1899

In addition to being known associates of Tapling, many of the individuals given in Table 3 are
recognised today as the most notable early philatelists. Amongst the donors are no less than ten of
the forty-three ‘Fathers of Philately’ who died before the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists was
established, but who would have been invited to sign it had they still been alive. Their names are
inscribed in the scrolls at the sides of the Roll: Breitfuss, Castle, Ferrary, Harrison, the Earl of
Kingston, Philbrick, Smith, Tilleard, Westoby and Wright (Birch, 2019). Six more had lived long
enough to sign the Roll. These included Bacon, the Collection’s first curator, who made no fewer
than eighteen separate donations to the Collection, making him the most prolific donor. The other
five signatories were Bate, Chapman, Diena, Evans and Hadlow (Butler).
Two of the donors were a member of royalty or the aristocracy: Grand Duke Alexis Michaelovich
of Russia and Henry Ernest Newcomen King-Tenison, the 8th Earl of Kingston. Others such as

129 – 340 September 2020