WASC held its biennial week-end Conference at Kenilworth from mid-day on Friday 26th to mid-day Sunday 28th 2025. Twenty members and two guests enjoyed a busy week-end with 15 presentations on a wide range of philatelic topics. On Saturday we held the WASC AGM, the in-room auction and the 75th Anniversary dinner, at which Jeremy Martin, member since 1964 and founding editor of Cameo, reminisced about WASC people and events over the past 60 years.

The displays are described below. Where available we have included a link to images from the display itself. In some cases these a high quality scans provided by the displayer, but in others the images are from photographs taken at the time, and are generally of lower quality - enough to show the items but not to see finer detail.

The presentations

West African airmail service by Aeromaritime, by Barbara Priddy
Barbara's display (24MB) illustrated the ups and downs of the French company Aeromaritime which began carrying mail across the Sahara in 1935. Affected of course by the fortunes of France when WW2 started, Aeromaritime continued to offer a service to various parts of West Africa until the start of 1944. The .pdf starts with two pages of description, followed by many examples of covers and routes. The sheets have been photographed so the resolution is not good

Nigeria formula Airletters, by Rob May
Formula aerogrammes are aerogrammes without a printed stamp (indicium). They were introduced for military use in 1933, widely used for war-time mail, and then in 1944, were authorised for civilian use. Rob's display (41MB, scanned at good resolution) gives many examples of usage to and from Nigeria between 1941 and 1972

Ghana aerogrammes, by Ian Anderson
Ian's display covered aerogrammes from Independence in 1957 onwards, from examples of Gold Coast Aerogrammes overprinted, then Ghana aerogrammes with indicia showing a steady increase in the cost of mail, catered for through surcharges, additional stamps, and new designs as inflation in Ghana spiralled. Ian's talk was illustrated with unused and used examples, including many in which colours were mssing or misplaced. This .pdf shows 16 of the sheets Ian displayed (reasonable quality 20MB)

Sierra Leone postal Stationery, presented and curated by Philip Quirk, based on Peter Rolfe's collection
Philip presented a comprehensive range of Sierra Leone postal stationery based mostly on Peter Rolfe's collection. The .pdf of the presentation (19MB) is a good quality scan

Expertising in German-speaking Europe, by Jan Clauss
Jan Clauss gave a fascinating talk on the various organisations offering expertising services, some large, some small, some generalists, and others specialising in, for example, Swiss philately. Along the way Jan provided interesting insights into the highly competitive world of auctioneering, and into issues such as legal liabilities for expert opinions. Talk not recorded.

The Nigeria King George VIth definitive set by Paul Redhead
Paul's presentation was based on work he is doing on a monograph for publication, covering the design of the set, variation within the set and illustrated with examples of all the known printings for each value. The .pdf of his display (13MB) is of reasonable quality (though he is not happy with colours!).

The rescue of the St Helena Postal Archives, by Barry Burns
Barry's talk was based on a PowerPoint presentation describing the work that he, Bernard Mabbett and others did in rescuing, conserving and cataloguing a trove of records relating to St Helena postal history which had been mouldering in a cellar below the main post office. The .pdf of the talk (58MB) is of reasonable quality

Gambia to 1952, by Nigel Howey
Nigel's display (16MB) covered the postal history of The Gambia from 1869 to 1949, with a wide range of examples of the stamps, from the first Cameo embossed heads, through the various subsequent printings of Cameos, and the later Crown Colony issues from 1898 onwards. The display continued with a detailed survey of Gambian airmails, and finished with TPOs. The display was photographed in situ, so the quality of the images is not good.

The postal history of Aba, Nigeria, by Simon Heap
Aba is an important town in Eastern Nigeria with a long postal history. Simon covered not only the cancellations and mail but placed them in the context of the commercial importance of Aba as a transport and manufacturing hub. The display (24MB) has been supplemented since Conference with a few extra covers.

The stamps of Biafra, by Tony Plumbe
Tony's display covered the postage stamps issued by, on behalf of, and in the name of Biafra. After a PowerPoint presentation of some of the varieites (converted to .pdf here (7MB)) we saw examples of all the material described, including a range of printing errors. This part of the display (22MB) was photographed in situ so the image quality is not good. It begins with a two-page summary of the display

Sierra Leone 'Wilberforce' set and the KGVI definitives, by Majed Halawi
Majed's display (8MB)concentrated on these two attractive issues, with previously unseen artwork by the designer Father Welch, proof material, plate blocks etc. The display was photographed in situ, so the quality of the images is not good.

Sierra Leone Censorship, by Jeremy Martin
Jeremy's display (12MB) gave a comprehensive account of censorship illustrated with a fine range of covers. The display was photographed in situ, so the quality of the images is not good.

Sierra Leone Censorship WW2 censorship and military mail, presented and curated by Philip Quirk, based on Peter Rolfe
While the topic overlapped with Jeremy's, Philip's display, featuring material from Peter Rolfe's collection, complemented Jeremy's. The .pdf of the presentation (24MB) is a good quality scan

The Cameo issues of the Gambia, by Jan Berg
Jan's display described the long series of issues of the Cameo set, illustrated with much rare material. The display (7MB) was photographed in situ so the quality of the images is not good.

Gold Coast postmarks, by John Powell
John's display gave a comprehensive summary of the cancellations of the Gold Coast from earliest days to around 1920. The first part of his display showed examples of types and individual offices on stamps and pieces, focussing on QV. The second part showed covers and included material on mail routes as well as from individual post offices. The display (15MB) was photographed in situ so the quality of the images is not good.