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Having given us a brief taster of his St Christopher collection at the Golden Jubilee meeting, Brian treated us to the full main course at the Convention, encompassing the period from 1600 to 1890.

The display commenced with his earliest letter from Nevis 1661, which would have passed through St Kitts, followed by the earliest incoming (1689) from Holland; a merchants’ letter dated 1716; a cover carried by the short-lived packet service which operated with 6 vessels between 1745-55; a 1745 cover bearing the only known 2 line ST CHRIS / TOPHERS; and a 1762 ship letter from St Kitts to GB and privately forwarded to Madeira.

After this fine assembly of historical letters, Brian led us through superb examples of all 11 types of the straight line St Kitts marking with no less than three of the 1st type!

As a result of insurance fraud in the 1780s-90s it was decided to have dated postmarks, two different styles were shown. After 5 years these were changed to a large fleuron but these are always poor strikes.

The Postal History section was completed with a wide selection of small fleurons, small dated types, paid marks & the Leeward Is ‘F’.

The adhesive stamps were equally well represented (but unfortunately the Editor didn’t have sufficient time to take scans of this section). All the GB Used in St Kitts adhesives were shown off cover (with A12 obliterator) plus the 6d on cover. Brian had seen a 4d and a 1s on cover to Australia but never seen a 1d on cover.

St. Christopher’s own adhesives were introduced with die proofs before & after striking of the 1870 issue, ink recipes with De La Rue dummy stamps and an imperf plate proof of the 6d.

Throughout the display specimens by DLR, including strips, figured prominently. Brian explained their use for various purposes (GPO,

DLR file copies and for Exhibitions). The 1d and 6d were shown in sheets marked cancelled.The first issue concluded with blocks and both the 1d and 6d stamps used on cover; Brian described the 6d as ‘easy’ but the 1d on its own difficult.

The 1875 to 1881 line perf 14 was represented with sheets of 1d & 6d and used on cover to various destinations, including a 6d pair to Demerara, one to Turks Is., and a cover bearing 1d x 4.

The CA issues included a magnificent cover to Barbados with a block of 11 of the 1886 1s, the 1884 4d on 6d surcharge double, a 4d on 6d with full stop, and an 1885 ½d inverted surcharge.

The feast continued with the 1886 overprints – 2 x 1d on 6d with inverted surcharge, used on cover, and the 4d on 6d with 1 stamp taken from sheet.

The 1888 overprint, of course, contained a used 1d on 2½d without bar, a full sheet of the 1d on 2½d and 3 used copies showing the surcharge inverted (with bar).

From mid Nov to 5 Dec 1889, the Island ran out of certain values of stamps and they needed to bring back into use the ‘St Kitts Paid’ in black. Brian showed us covers with the earliest example dated 17 Nov and the latest dated 5 Dec. In 1890 the Island ran out of 1d adhesives and received permission to use Antigua stamps (1920 sent). Brian showed two examples: on St Christopher Advertiser dated 13 Mar 1890, and a strip of 4 plus 4d x 2 on cover, to make up the 1s rate.

Police carried the post around the Island, and Brian concluded his display with a section of the manuscript marks employed as a consequence followed by a selection of the Revenue stamps.

Peter Fernbank gave the vote of thanks.