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Friday, 17 June 1921
edition of the China Mail reported the following:-
"At a meeting held yesterday
evening (16 June), at the offices of Messrs. W. A. Hannibal & Co., it was decided to
form a Philatelic Society for the Colony limited to twenty five members,
which still leaves a few vacancies. Mr. H. W. Dick was elected president,
and Mr. John Robertson hon. secretary. Rules for the conduct of the Society
were discussed and approved."
The
first President was Mr. H. W. Dick and the Hon. Secretary was Mr. John
Robertson. In the early years, the Society was relatively inactive and it
was not until 1934, under the energetic Presidency of Mr. H.W. Hammond that
the Society began to thrive. The Society grew in size under Mr. Hammond’s
successors, Messrs. René Ohl, W. Sayers, Mitchell and A.R. Osborne until the
membership reached 100 before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Formed to promote philatelic activities in
Hong Kong, the Philatelic Society once contributed a column in the Hong Kong
Daily Press under the pseudonym of "WS" in the 1930s reporting on both local and foreign philatelic activities and
developments. After the war, the Society recommenced publishing its
newsletter from 1949 onwards. Apart from the monthly newsletter, the Society
published its first
annual journal
in 1997. The Society's
website www.hkpsoc.com was inaugurated in August 2000 providing a quicker
means of philatelic information exchange between members.
During the 1930s meetings were held on the last Thursday of each month in
the Board-room of the South China Morning Post Building. The venue was
changed to Club Lusitano under the reign of Chris D’Almada in the 1970s.
Following the closure of the Club Lusitano and election of the current
President Mr. William Kwan, members met at World Wide House, 186 Hennessy
Road and in the conference room of Woo, Kwan, Li and Lo Solicitors at
Jardine House in succession.
Locally, our Philatelic
Society is active in promoting stamp collecting as a hobby as well as raising local
standard of exhibiting by supporting Hongkong Post's Inter-School Stamp Exhibits
Competition. Internationally,
we are one of the founder member of the Federation of Inter-Asian Philately
(founded on 14 September 1974) and a member of the Federation Internationale Philatelie
(F.I.P.).
We organise annual
competitive stamp exhibitions to qualify new exhibits formed by local collectors for future
FIAP & FIP exhibitions. The first such exhibitions, Hongpex 96 was
jointly organized by the Hong Kong Philatelic Society, China Philatelic
Association, Tsim Sha Tsui Philatelic Club, Police Philatelic Club and
supported by Hongkong Post. In 2002, when we became the sole organizer,
Hongpex was re-named Hong Kong Stampex.
The
Christopher D'Almada trophy,
in memory of our former President, is the Grand Prize for the best exhibit
in the show. From 2010, a second award, the Philachina Plate
donated by Vice
President Ms. Anna Lee is reserved for exhibit with exceptional material or
research.
We co-organised the
first regional stamp exhibition in 1994, the first international stamp exhibition in February
1997 and the 15th FIAP Asian International in February 2001. In January 2004, the Society
co-organised the Hong Kong 2004 Stamp Expo - 17th Asian International Philatelic
Exhibition which was a big success. This was followed by Hong Kong
2009, 23rd Asian International Philatelic Exhibition in May 2009, the first
exhibition organized solely by the HKPS under the patronage of
FIAP and sponsorship of Hongkong Post. |
The
Hong Kong Philatelic Society
