Torquay and Teignbridge Stamp Club formally known as The Torquay Philatelic Society is celebrating its centenary.

Over the past 100 years much has changed in the way we collect. This is best exemplified by the specialist societies we have at our disposal (Airmail, Precancels, Perfins and Thematic) just to mention a few.

Our club had the honour of two of our members obtaining recognition in being awarded ‘Roll of Distinguished Philatelist’ for their collections. Miss Winifred Penn-Gaskell (1938) for aero philately, the first woman to be added to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists and Major John Abdi Lyons Fosbery RDP, FRPSL (1986) for his studies of South American countries. He had been awarded gold medals in Vienna and Madrid for his Brazil exhibits and in Prague for his Haiti.

There have been three Philatelic Congresses of Great Britain held in the Torbay area in 1930, 1936 and 1959, the club was active at all of them.

The club has designed a cover with an overprinted Boots label to mark our centenary, the cover (£10) and the overprinted Boots label (£8) can be obtained separately from the club secretary, or at the Torquay Stamp Fair on October 27 where the club will have a table make it a point to see us.

The club has suffered during Covid but we have a new team and a programme and planned Zoom meetings. If you want to join our Zoom meetings, contact the secretary for a link.

For more information go to www.torquayandteignbridge

stampclub.org.