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WASC records of past in-person meetings

 

Descriptions of displays can be found in Newsletters (up to the Salisbury Meeting of 2023). From Conference 2023 onwards the Newsletter contains a short account of proceedings with more detailed summaries published in the following edition of Cameo. Presenters are not required to provide files of their displays, but where those are available we have added links below. We do not have summaries of all the annual Salisbury meeting displays to hand.

Between 2021 and 2023 we experimented with video recording presentations to produce livestreams of meetings, but found it difficult to make recordings of good enough definition to justify the effort.

The first section below provides records by year. The second section links to video recordings.

Files of past Zoom sessions are given on on the WASC Zoom session files page.

2026

March 14th meeting at the RPSL. Simon Heap showed Abeokuta !WASC members only including a mix of history, stamps, cancellations, local news, covers from beginning to the 21st century. Then Peter Richards: West Africa Airmails 1926 to July 1940 to mark the centenary of the first airmails from the UK to West Africa. In the afternoon members' displays included Rob May:The Cross River service !WASC members only using timetables, maps and covers to illustrate postal traffic using one of Eastern Nigeria's major rivers. Then John Powell: Gold Coast Government Telegraphs to and from the Gold Coast between 1936 and 1954. Steve Garland showed material from the Worner collection of St Helena !WASC members only mint and used stamps from 1884 to 1912. Tony Plumbe displayed Nigerian Instructional cachets showing a comprehensive range of markings on covers, from the (relatively) common ‘INSUFFICIENTLY PREPAID FOR TRANSMISSION BY AIR’ to unique 'MISSENT TO...' examples. John Froggatt showed a selection of Oil Rivers correspondence between Victorian stamp collectors and their agents  !WASC members only, and finally Simon Heap showed newspaper reports relating to a temporary relocation of Lagos GPO to the Gardiner Memorial Hall in the late 19th century, during improvements to the Balogun St site.

Further links to .pdfs of the presentations will be added as they become available.

2025

The WASC 75th anniversay display. On Thursday 20th November WASC held a display at the Royal Philatelic Society to mark our 75th anniversary. Twenty-two WASC members showed high-quality material over 59 frames, dealing with virtually every aspect of philately that WASC covers.

The display was very well attended – indeed we ran out of printed brochures just before the end, but you can download a copy here. Its 40 pages cover all the displays. In his vote of thanks RPSL past-President Peter Cockburn was gratifyingly positive about the event.

Special thanks to John Hossack for all his work organising the day, and to Rob May for preparing the event brochure.

The WASC Conference September 2025. With a wide range of presentations and other events the WASC week-end conference at Kenilworth was a full-on event. There's a separate web-page devoted to Conference 2025, with news and with links to files for presentations.

The London Meeting on 8th March 2025 at the RPSL Presentations were: QEII Ascension (Robert Hurst), Nigerian Aerogrammes !WASC members only (Rob May), Gold Coast Eastern Railway (John Powell), Some WASC history items (John Powell), Summary of talk given to recent Conference of the Pan-African Philatelic Union on digital philately !WASC members only (Paul Redhead), Sierra Leone self-adhesives and Niger definitives (Michael Round), Some more QEII Ascension material (Philip Quirk), The West Africa Airways Corporation (WAAC) (Barbara Priddy), Sierra Leone Mountain railway !WASC members only (John Hossack), The Lagos 1884 issue code letters and their significance !WASC members only (Simon Heap), Images from the visit of Edward Prince of Wales to Nigeria in 1925 !WASC members only (Simon Heap).

2024

The London meeting on 2nd March 2024 at the RPSL, was held jointly with the Forces Postal History Society. Presentations were: Cameroons WW1 Postal History and the 1960-62 Plebiscite Period (Rob May), West African Military Air Mail 1939-1945 (Peter Richards), Northbound mail from BWA, September 1939 – June 1940 (Barbara Priddy), 81st & 82nd West (African) Divisions & their Field Post Offices in India and Burma 1942-46 (John Powell), Sierra Leone surprises (John Hossack), WW2 Censored Covers from Calabar, Ibadan, Lagos & Port Harcourt (Simon Heap), Peace Keeping Soldiers' Mail from African Forces (Graham Mytton), Gold Coast Military (John Powell), Nigerian Troops on UN Peacekeeping Roles (Tony Plumbe), WW2 Army Signals West Africa & Ascension Islands (Michael Dobbs), Miscellaneous General Display (Richard Berry), Cameroun Covers, mostly WW2 (Michael Round), Aspects of Military Mail Ascension Islands and Gold Coast (Robert Hurst), Postal Stationery (Peter Burrows), Army Telegraphs & First World War Censorship (John Mills).

The London meeting on 2nd November 2024 at the RPSL Presentations were: Back of the book Gold Coast (John Mills), Gold Coast / Ghana covers relating to Giffard (later Burma) Camp (Philip Quirk), Gold Coast KGV Keyplates (John Powell), Oil Rivers/ Niger Coast overprints (Tony Stanford), The lesser-known postmarks, flaws and peculiarities on Nigerian Stamps 1980-86 !WASC members only (Tony Simmonds), The last eastbound Aeromaritime flight from Gold Coast, June 1940 (Barbara Priddy), Nigerian proofs and essays associated with the 1960 definitives (Tony Plumbe), Recent airmail acquisitions (Peter Richards), Togo occupation railways 1914/1919 (Ian Anderson), 150 year anniversary of Lagos first issue (Simon Heap).

2023

The London meeting on 4th March 2023 at the RPSL, was held jointly with the France & Colonies Philatelic Society. The two main sessions were presented by Michael Round: 'Ivory Coast: the Carbon-Copy Colony?' and by Rob May: French Cameroons. Additional members’ displays included Aeromaritime flights connected with the Gold Coast by John Powell, Jet Age airmails from French colonies by Barbara Priddy, and the Joseph de la Nézière issues of French West Africa by Mick Bister.

At the Salisbury Meeting on 17 June 2023, themes were Queen Elizabeth 2nd, and censorship. The displays were written up in the WASC Autumn 2023 newsletter but were not recorded.

The biennial WASC conference took place at the Hayes centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire, on 29 September to 1st October 2023. Main displays were: St Helena Postal History 1856-1896 (Bernard Mabbett), Tristan Volcano Period (Richard Moss), West African Airmails - the Jet Age (Barbara Priddy), Internal Mail Routes of Nigeria and Research from Original Sources !WASC members only (Rob May), Nigerian Forces Mail in the Congo 1960-64 (Gerald Marriner), Lagos GPO Cancellations and Handstamps to 1960 !WASC members only (Paul Redhead), Ghana Stamp Errors & Varieties Ian Anderson), St Helena Forgeries (Roger West), Sierra Leone Village Postmarks pre-1961 (John Hossack), How Postal Agreements are Negotiated: the Deutsche Lufthansa South American Route via Bathurst 1934-1939 !WASC members only (Gary Loew), Aspects of Sierra Leone Post Independence(Philip Quirk), French Cameroun - A Potpourri of Unusual, Misleading and Incorrect Cancels (Marty Bratzel), St Helena Rates and Covers from Joining the UPU in 1896 (Barry Burns), Nigeria QEII Definitives !WASC members only (Ray Harris).

The London meeting on 4th November 2023 at the RPSL featured displays by Simon Heap on the ‘Postal History of Port Harcourt’, by Majed Halawi focusing on the ‘Sierra Leone 1963 Flowers issue and its overprints and surcharges (the Churchill-Margai issue)’, and Barbara Priddy on ‘Wartime West Africa airmails after Operation Torch’.

2022

We had a table at London 2022 on the Wednesday of the exhibition, and had a most enjoyable lunch nearby. Our meeting in Salisbury in June went very well in the Scout Hut at West Harnham. The subjects were (i) Revenues, and (ii) Postal rates.

We held our first meeting of the year in London on 5th March, jointly with the King George VI Collectors' Society. Some of that was livestreamed (see below).

We also met in London on 12th November where presentations were by Brian Lythgoe: A Cameroons Miscellany, and by Wilf Vevers: Ascension Island Postal History.

2021

Our first meeting of the year (in March) was held via Zoom. Displays from that meeting are available as PDFs at this link. The second, in November, was held in London in person and some of it was livestreamed (see below).

We had a stand at Midpex on 3rd July. Our biennial conference was held very successfully from 24th to 26th September in Redditch. Part of this was also livestreamed, though not perfectly as it was our first attempt.

Video recordings of meeting displays

The youtu.be links below will take you to recordings of meeting displays. Generally the recordings have not been edited, so there is usually some 'dead time' at the start and sometimes during the session. Other display material is available in .pdf or powerpoint form. Technical difficulties made it difficult to produce worthwhile recordings.

Conference 2021 Redditch

November 2021 London Meeting

March 2022 London Meeting

November 2022 London Meeting

Two vidoes available for most displays, differing somewhat in clarity and whether they include shots of each display frame as well as the presentation.

March 2023 London

September 2023 Conference Swanwick

Problems with Livestreaming and recording meant that the videos of Conference displays that we have been able to upload are often of poorer quality than we would like

November 2023 London