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The London Philatelist

An Index: Why these are Essential in Printed Books.

Lessons Learned from L. N. and M. Williams.

David R Beech MBE FRPSL

t was my great privilege to have known the world-renowned philatelic writers and journalists L.
IN. and M. Williams, known as the Williams Brothers. The elder of the two brothers, Maurice,
was born in 1905 and died in 1976 and the younger, Leon Norman, was born in 1914 and died
in 1999. They had started a philatelic writing partnership in 1935 and this only ended in 1999 on
Norman's passing.

The Williams Brothers. Photograph reproduced courtesy of Marcus Williams

In addition to many thousands of articles, which mainly appeared in the British philatelic press,
the brothers were the authors of many books. Perhaps their most significant publications are Famous
Stamps (1940), More Famous Stamps (1942), Stamps of Fame (1949), all of which eventually appeared
(following Maurice's death) as the two-volume Encyclopaedia of Rare and Famous Stamps (1993
and 1997), A 'Melville' bibliography: being a catalogue of the separate philatelic works written, compiled,
edited or published by Fred J Melville (1941), Priced Catalogue of Local Postage Stamps with E F Hurt
[1890-1952] (1942-1947), revised edition as Handbook of the Private Local Posts (1950), Forged
Stamps of Two World Wars, the Postal Forgeries and Propaganda Issues of the Belligerents 1914-1918,
1939-1945 (1954), The Postage Stamp: Its History and Recognition (1956), Fundamentals of Philately
(1971, second edition 1990). All of these are sound, standard works in a wide range of subjects,
much used by researchers of today and are some of the most important works in philately.
The Williams brothers were also the editors of The British Philatelist (1940-1954), Stamp Lover
(1940-1964), The Cinderella Philatelist (1961-1985, and from 1976 with others) and a number of
other periodicals. Thus the brothers had continued that outstanding writing achievement of Fred
J. Melville (1882-1940), which commenced in 1897, when they started philatelic writing in 1935.
The Williams Papers, the research notes of L. N. and M. Williams, include correspondence,
photographs, lists, etc., are held by the British Library Philatelic Collections and were first donated
in 1990 by Norman, subsequently added to in 2002 by his widow Denise and finally, in 2020, by
his son Marcus.
I had known the brothers since about 1969 and across the years came in contact with them on
very many occasions, both philatelic and social, and took, from time to time, some small part in

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