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The London Philatelist

Letters to the Editor

From John Lush FRPSL

Postal History is Less Than Half What Story?

ichard Berry FRPSL, writing in the July-August 2020 issue of The London Philatelist
R(pp256-61), may well be right when he says that postal history is less than half the story. But
what story is he trying to tell, how is he telling it, and to whom? From the examples he gives, and
by his own admission, his focus is on the human story and then he brings in the philately. So the
story is social history, illustrated by philately. No wonder postal history is less than half of it. And
he was wrong to say that “outside this room nobody cares less about your squiggles, inky marks,
routes, rates, shades and printings!” I was not in that room and I do care about most of them! Of
course he was trying to be provocative, and he asks for constructive feedback.
After some time as a stamp collector (not to be confused with a philatelist) I became interested
in postal history. One evening I attended a stamp auction with a stamp club colleague, really only
for the sake of something to do. In the auction was an old letter. It was scruffy, dog-eared, cheap,
and fascinating. On an impulse, I bought it. It is still in a cupboard somewhere, but I was hooked
on the subject so I gradually formed a small but nice collection. When I started on it, postal history
was rigidly and exclusively defined as ‘routes and rates’ (squiggles and inky marks), but what
interested me more was the way in which the letters I was collecting told the story of how the
(British) postal service had developed. For me, postal history was the whole story! At the time, my
approach was unfashionable.
Over the years, I have displayed this collection, by invitation, to a Probus club, a youth club, a
ladies’ group, a Rotary club, and several philatelic societies. To all of them, the story has been the
same, describing the history of the postal service and using my squiggles and inky marks to illustrate
it. But the emphasis and level of detail has been tailored to my audience. All of them expressed their
appreciation. One Rotary club member said that he had not realised how much could be learned
from a few inky marks. I was less sure about the youth club, so I asked the organiser afterwards if
he thought they had appreciated it. Oh yes, he said, they were quiet! The lesson is simple – know
your subject, and know your audience, especially the latter.
I am not averse to being provocative. Being a committee member of my local stamp club (which
made no claim to being a philatelic society), I thought that I should show a good example by entering
their annual nine-sheet competitions. I then ‘graduated’ to my local philatelic society where, having
successively entered mileage marks, London penny and two-penny posts, and Bishop marks
(criticised as ‘not being complete’), I entered ‘English Privately Carried Letters of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries’ to see what the judges would make of it (not a route or rate in sight, of
course, but surely a part of postal history). The only comment they made was that the writing-up
was a bit small!
Of course, I understand Richard’s concerns about a perceived lack of new recruits to our hobby.
But what is our hobby? Essentially, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (2006), philately is
‘the collecting and study of postage stamps or other devices used for or relating to the prepayment
of postal charges; stamp collecting,’ derived from the Greek words philo (loving) and ateleia (tax
exemption), because postage stamps exempted the recipient from paying the cost of a letter. As R
W Willcocks points out in his 1975 work, England’s Postal History, (pp20-21), since the earliest
letters carried by the British postal service were also pre-paid and pre-payment was always an option
(though not much used), postal history falls legitimately within the definition of philately. Where
I personally draw the line is at ‘thematic philately’ and ‘social philately,’ which I regard more as using
philately to tell a non-philatelic story (subjects illustrated on philatelic items, or social history,

129 – 354 September 2020