A Brief Postal History of Estonia & the Formation of the Union of South Africa

We were delighted to welcome Dr Tim Harrison to our early March meeting to show us a Brief Postal History of Estonia & the Formation of the Union of South Africa. We had rearranged the schedule to make it more convenient for our speaker and we were delighted by the quality of the material he brought to show us.

In part one he covered the postal history of Estonia from 1800 to 1945, which included a wide range of material, much of which was extremely scarce. From pre stamp letters through the early adhesives phase, we saw an incredible range of uses and destinations, dovetailing in with the history of Estonia. Finally, he displayed some occupation mail focusing on first the Soviet and then the German occupation.

In part two we were treated to a short history of pre Union South Africa, with stamps and mail from all over the continent, including Cape of Good Hope, Orange Free State, Natal, Zululand, Swaziland and the New Republic. Many of the stamp sets were quite challenging to put together and large parts of the postal history were also uncommon.

The society are very grateful for Tim agreeing to show this material, and the final vote of thanks was given by our Chairman Jonathan Guy.