held at The Howard Hotel
Notice of this meeting was given in “The Bulletin” (Vol.3, No.31, February 1942, p.245). This read “The Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held at the Howard Hotel, Norfolk Street, Strand, London, W.C. on Saturday, 14th March, 1942, at 2.30 promptly. The Agenda will consist of Official Reports for 1941, the adoption of the Balance Sheet and General Business. By Order of the Council, A. C. Wiggins, Hon. Secretary 1st February, 1942”
“The Bulletin” dated April 1942 (Vol.3 No.33, page no.263), says “The third Annual General Meeting took place at the Howard Hotel on Saturday April 14th” and gives a full account of the event. It starts by saying although attendance was sparse the gathering represented an excellent cross section of the whole membership. The President in opening the proceedings said he did not propose to make a formal address; and although it was possible to report consistent progress it would be wrong to feel satisfied, for much that is worth while still remains undone. He then called upon the Secretary and Treasurer to make their reports. These were published in “The Bulletin” in full, but we have extracted a just few important parts.
The Secretary reported there had been sixty two new applications for membership during the year. Forty nine members did not renew; but the hope was that when they returned to civilian life they would apply to be re-instated.
The Treasurer said the Society had made a loss, from a surplus of £28 in 1940, they now had a loss for 1941 of £32. However £14 of this was represented by the purchase of a Roneo outfit for envelope addressing and a typewriter. Reciepts from subscriptions had actually gone up by £4, but sales of magazine back numbers, and donations, had fallen. Printing, postage and stationery also cost more; postage up by £3 and stationery up by £7 10/8d. This led to an announcement that the annual subscription would have to be raised to 7/6d which would take effect on January 1st 1943. The shortfall in funds would also be aided by creating a possibility for members to buy Life Memberships. Only twenty would be available and each of them would cost £5 5/- 0d. It was further announced that if more than twenty people applied, a ballot would be held to select the number required. However a ballot was not required, as only eleven members applied. These were Mr. Andrews, Col. Bagnall, Col. Castle, Mr. Crookall, Mr. Gurd, Mr. Huggins, Mr. Osborne, Rev. Pearce, Mr. Pressey, Mr. Ward Petley, and Mr. Wright. They were all elected on the 13th of June 1942, and the remaining nine life memberships were then advertised in the magazine as still being available.
Some of these original newly created life members should be well known to you, and will eventually have biographies online These are :
Colonel Charles Lane Bagnall of Chiswick London, who founded the London Cigarette Card Company
Mr Eric Gurd of East Croydon, author of much early literature and Editor of The Bulletin and Cartophilic World
Mr. C. Glidden Osborne of Marlow, the Society’s first President
And as for the others?
Mr. R.M. Andrews of Neasden in London
Col. G.S. Castle of Bristol
Mr. W. Crookall of Blackpool
Mr. L.A. Huggins of Wallington Surrey
Rev. H Stanley Pearce of Tollington Park in London - a member of the council
Mr. E.F. Pressey of Windsor Berks - a member of the council
Mr. E.L. Ward Petley of Hampstead London - Vice President of the Cartophilic Society
Mr. W.M. Wright of Leytonstone in London - Vice President of the Cameric Society.
Up until 1960 all of these were still very much part of the Society, though Mr Ward Petley had moved to South Africa. However on the 15th of January 1961 Charles Glidden Osborne died; he had relinquished his post of Society President at the AGM in 1960, and another of our life members, Mr. W.M. Wright had taken his place. Rev Pearce intrigues me most. He resigned from “the body” before September 1939, due to pressure of his Parish Work - the “body” being the Cartophilic Council, though he does not seem to appear on the council roll prior to that time. However he remained a member and if you look at the bottom of the back cover of the 1941-1942 “Bulletin” magazines it gives his address as the publisher. In 1960 he was still a member, but had moved up to Wakefield in Yorkshire; he also appears on the 1961 roll, but his address is very curiously marked as “(unknown)”.
In “The Bulletin” dated December 1942, (Vol.3 No.41, page 325) it was announced that six new Life Members were being created. These were Messrs Barrow, Brown, Done, Fowle, Lefevre, and Warwick. That still left three vacant spaces.
All the names in red are as yet unknown to me save the scant details which appear in the magazine. One of them is a military man though, so watch this space!