Australian Airmails across the Pacific Ocean 1937 – 1951 with Laurence Kimpton

The society was delighted recently to welcome Laurence Kimpton to our meeting to talk to us about his collection of Australian Airmails across the Pacific Ocean between 1937 and 1951.

Starting in 1937, Laurence told us about the development of the first service to Hong Kong and Singapore and showed covers displaying the standard and stepped rates for that route. From there he discussed the North Pacific and South Pacific routes taken by aircraft of the day, the cachets applied, and inevitable accidents that happened as these services developed.

Further frames showed first flight covers and airmail to Australia and New Zealand, as well as mail going in the opposite direction to the USA, Canada, and the U.K. Inevitably for this period, there was some censored mail and airgraphs and prisoner of war mail.

Jonathan Guy gave the vote of thanks and the society enjoyed viewing the material Laurence had bought. His book on the subject (shown below) is available for sale from all good bookshops and is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in this material.