John Wilson (philatelist)

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John Mitchell Harvey Wilson (October 10, 1898–February 6, 1975)[1] was a British philatelist, Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection from 1938 to 1969. He introduced dividing the collection by reign and, after World War II, loans from the collection to international exhibitions.

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[edit] Biography

John Wilson was the second Baronet in his family, title received by his father for his actions for the Scottish agriculture. He inherited an estate near Glasgow.[2]

While serving in the Coldstream Guards during the last months of Great War, he was hospitalised in Stirling, Scotland where he first became interested in stamp collecting after his father brought his own collection to help his son pass the time.[2] After the war was, he soon was a barrister but retired in the early 1930s to manage his estate full-time and his philatelic collection. Generally, he specialised himself in small countries or in short philatelic periods of a country, studied it, then sold the collection to begin another one.[2]

He was President of the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) from 1934. In October 1936 he accepted the offer to succeed Edward Bacon, the Curator of the Royal Philatelic Collection. Wilson knew the collection well: he visited it regularly with the RPSL Expert Committee[3] of which he was Chairman from 1937 to his death.[1] He became "Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection" on June 20, 1938, shortly after Bacon died.[4]

Because King George VI was less enthusiastic than his father, King George V, and had less time available for the Royal Collection, Wilson's first task was to move it upstairs in Buckingham Palace.[5]

After a study of the red albums, the Keeper established that Bacon mounted and commented almost all acquisitions and issues up to the Edward VIIIreign. In December 1938 George V agreed that his reign's part be stored in blue albums.[6] As previously, all stamp projects and issues came from the British General Post Office and from its Dominions and colonies.

Wilson's work slowed during World War II because of phlebitis and the storage of the red albums in a safe provided by a Lloyds Bank's subsidiary in Pall Mall. He began the work on the first blue albums.[7]

With peace re-established and following George VI's wish,[8] the keeper travelled regularly with stamps from the Collection to present them during international philatelic exhibitions: first the Nevis collection in Bern in 1946, then for the different Dominions' stamp centenaries[9], and even outside Commonwealth countries during the 1960s.[10]

In 1949 and 1950, Wilson was again elected president of the Royal Philatelic Society; a mandate he abandoned in 1940, but he remained chairman of the Expert Committee and prepared the Royal Collection panel for the RPSL annual exhibition. After King George VI died in 1952, he continued, alone like his two predecessors, to build the blue collection and store the issues of Elizabeth II's reign to be mounted at an appropriate future date.[11] He also participated to some stamp advisory meetings where, between 1964 and 1966, he fought against Postmaster General Tony Benn's idea to replace the Queen's effigy on the stamps with the country name.[12]

In 1969, he retired as keeper of the Royal Collection and proposed John Marriott as his successor.

[edit] Publication

  • The Royal Philatelic Collection, 1952. An history of the Royal Philatelic Collection and catalogue of the red albums, mainly collected by King George V, John Tilleard et Edward Bacon. Awarded the Crawford Medal by the Royal Philatelic Society London in 1953.

[edit] Honours and awards

  • Tapling Medal in 1950 awarded by the RPSL for an article published by the The London Philatelist: "British Guiana, the 1853–60 issues".
  • Crawford Medal in 1953 awarded by the RPSL for The Royal Philatelic Collection.
  • Alfred Lichtenstein Memorial Award awarded in 1956 by the Collectors Club of New York for his outstanding service to philately.

[edit] Sources and references

  1. ^ a b Biography in the American Philatelic Society's Hall of Fame.
  2. ^ a b c Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, pages 252-253.
  3. ^ Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, pages 250-251.
  4. ^ Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 252.
  5. ^ Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 253.
  6. ^ Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, pages 253 and 255.
  7. ^ Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, pages 256-257.
  8. ^ Quoted in John Wilson, The Royal Philatelic Collection, 1952, page 63.
  9. ^ Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, pages 267-268.
  10. ^ Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 287. Courtney gave for examples Poland and Spain for the year 1960.
  11. ^ Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 273.
  12. ^ Benn told about episodes of this confrontation in his diaries published in 1988: Out of the Wilderness: Diaries, 1963-67 ; quoted in Nicholas Courtney (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 290.

* Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps. The Authorised History of the Royal Philatelic Collection. Methuen. ISBN 0413772284. 

[edit] External links

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