Oct 2026 – President’s Newsletter
President’s Newsletter October 2026
Thank you for your overwhelmingly positive response to the ‘flip-book’ version of the London Philatelist. The October one is now available and was ‘uploaded’ on the same day as the physical copies were posted.
You will need to be ‘logged-in’ to access it this month and it can be accessed via the button on the home page or directly to the LP Digital Edition. That will take you to a page in older website style where you need to look at the side bar, about half way down under London Philatelist Digital Edition Flip Pages, select that and you will be taken to a page offering both this month’s LP and last month’s LP.
The plan is for the three most recent LP’s to be available as ‘flip-books’ thereafter the pdf version will be available to members as normal. You may wonder why the navigation is slightly complex and this is because we are slowly migrating our website to a more modern and widely used technology. Of the course of the next twelve months we hope to complete the migration and this will come with a significantly improved digital offering to both members and the public.
2026/27 Programme
The 2026/27 programme has started with two excellent physical meetings. First a superb display of material from the collection of His Majesty the King; secondly the postal history of three Chinese cities by Dr Sam Chiu. Who added a presentation to the wonderful material. His talk was a real treat and I hope he may have inspired one or two others to try out exhibiting.
Tuesday 6th October RPSL Zoom Meeting
Dr Vernon Morris, whose exhibits were so successful in Boston, will talk to us on the Postal Crisis of 1775, which will demonstrate some wonderful postal history of the then British Colonies in North America.
Thursday 8th October RPSL Meeting Day 1.00 p.m
Early postal history is also the theme of the first physical meeting of the month when FEPA President Bill Hedley will entertain us with the Republic of Venice. The Republic was abolished by Napoleon in 1797, but the mercantile history of Venice has preserved a rich history of very early letters.
Thursday 29th October RPSL Meeting Day 1.00 p.m
Three weeks later the Postal History Society will be celebrating their 90th Anniversary with a group display. These events are always popular and feature a wide variety of material. The display takes place during Stampex and is sure to be an excellent philatelic week in London.
Regional Meetings – the RPSL at Ulm
There is a three week gap between meetings as your Society has been invited to be the lead guests at the annual Postal History Masters in Ulm. Members have rallied round to support Chris King with some very fine exhibits to compete for the famous Posthorns. There will be plenty of dealers there, and active social programme and a number of talks, of which I am giving one on the Friday.
If you’ve never been I urge you to give it a try, and if you are a regular attendee I look forward to meeting you there.
The autumn programme of regional meetings are well underway.. John Stimson and the membership team are working hard to ensure all regions in the UK hold at least one meeting a year and preferably two.
My thanks to the Royal representatives in Canada and Australia who have held successful events in recent weeks.
Full details of these and our regional meetings can be found on the website. Do encourage non-members to attend as your guest. With fewer local Societies these days it is an opportunity for all and an opportunity to recruit new members.
Yours sincerely
Simon Richards
Simon
Simon Richards RDP FRPSL
President of The Royal Philatelic Society London
