This Branch first appears in the July-August 1956 edition of “The Cartophilic World” (Vol. 11, No.124), where it says that an inaugural meeting of the Cameric Club`s "New Birmingham Branch" was convened by Dr. J.H. Millen and Mr. J.J. Powell on Thursday 14th June, at the Cambridge Inn, Cambridge Street, Birmingham, with the intention of forming a Midlands Branch of the club.
For a while I was stymied by this, as I easily found Mr. J.J. Powell in the Cartophilic Society membership roll for 1949-1950 as living in Sutton Coldfield. However Dr. Millen does not appear. It takes until “The Cartophilic World” : Vol.11, No.1677 to sort this out, for under “New Members”. on the inside front cover, there suddenly appears “MILLEN, Dr. James Hastings, Birmingham” ,This means he must have only a member of the Cameric Club before this date, and joined the Cartophilic Society later.
From reports we know that this inaugural meeting saw seventeen members present, including two from London, one from Blackpool, one from Sale and one from Stoke on Trent. I believed the Blackpool member was Cyril Marsden, but it was not as the piece goes on to say:
- Apologies for absence and good wishes to the new Branch were received from Mr. Gore, Mrs. Button and Mr. Stevenson, and Cyril Marsden the Honorary Secretary of the Lancashire Branch, and Miss Dorothy Bagnall of the London Cigarette Card Company also write and expressed their best wishes for the future prosperity of the Branch”. Mr Powell was elected Chairman, Dr Millen as Secretary and Treasurer and Mr. A. Willis as Auction Secretary, because the immediate intention was to hold a monthly auction, and in fact at the end of that inaugural meeting a small auction of cards took place, selling cards donated by members. This was in order to raise funds for promoting the Branch by way of an intensive recruiting campaign, plus advertising in the local press and at information centres like libraries throughout the City, The next meeting was also announced to take place at the same address on Thursday the 12th July at 7.30 pm.
July/August 1959`s “Cartophilic World” details the Cameric Club`s Annual Rally, which had taken place on the 30th of May. Over 90 members and friends sat down to luncheon for about half an hour. The most important thing for us is that it is noted that “The Birmingham Branch of the Cameric Club put on a very good display of cards entitled Pageant of Cartophily. The arrangements were in the capable hands of Dr. J. H. Millen.”
In July 1964 Dr. Millen had retired as Secretary, not due to ill health, at least not his own, but due to the increasing pressure of his medical work. At that time Monthly meetings were held at Arden Hotel, Birmingham.
After him Mr. Leslie Higgs of Castle Bromwich became Secretary and we know quite a bit about him, thanks to a "Pen Portrait" which appeared in the first ever "Cartophilic Notes and News" magazine, dated January/February 1965.
That tells us he was "born in July, 1914 and was infected with the collecting bug from birth", though actually between the ages of twenty and forty his collecting passion was postage stamps; however, one day, out of the blue, he felt it was a never ending pursuit, and so looked about to find something else to collect. What he found was "a quantity of Kensitas Flowers", at a junk shop, which brought back lots of memories, and so he bought them.
For quite some time he specialised in silks, but slowly incorporated cards as well. This found him a new friend, Mr. Fred Willetts, who took him to a Cameric Club meeting. That was in August 1956, and it was the Midlands Branch. In fact it was only the third meeting of the Midlands Branch.
The meeting, and the accumulated, assorted cards on display were very encouraging, and soon Mr. Higgs was a collector of all manner of things, to quote his own words "anything issued with a commodity to promote sales. including chocolate wrappers, "rock" pictures, and gum cards. His maxim is if it is in Mr, Burdick`s catalogue and he fancies it he will collect it. Amongst his favourites, his first love is "silks", of which he has about 2,000, the artistic cards, usually without borders (Player`s "Military Headdress") Liebigs, and similar cards. He dislikes the photo types of the Senior Service kind as when mounted they look too much like snapshots. For quantity, Leslie Higgs has about 20,000 cards (over 15,000 in complete sets) but he could not care less what they are worth on the market - to him they are priceless. Housed generally in cigarette cartons and tin boxes his collection is in process of being mounted on black sheets (loose) for insertion in his own made file type of portfolio. As to the hobby generally, Mr. Higgs does not think, as most do, that it would necessarily be improved by the reissue of cards as tobacco inserts. He says "I think we should through the medium of the Club and exhibitions make the general public more card conscious, this might in turn result in manufacturers taking notice. I also think there is a little too much `politics` in the Club and not enough attention paid to the real job of collecting. Meetings always seem to me to contain too much on the Agenda. But perhaps I am an impatient collector, but I consider myself an ardent member and hope to continue so for many years to come. As a tail-piece, I also collect post-cards and match labels."
In The Cartophilic Notes and News (Vol.1 No.2 March/April 1965 p.34) a lot more is told of that Birmingham Rally. In fact it did not visit Birmingham every year, it toured. In 1965 it was on Saturday May 29, they sat down to lunch at 1.30, (costing 12/6 a head) then the hosts, Birmingham Branch, put on a short presentation and a display of cards. Many Branch Secretaries arranged coach parties up there, including London Branch, which left from Croydon at 8.30 am (Fred Piper, the organiser of the rally, who had just rejoined the Council, being based in Croydon) and called in at Victoria at 9, then took the M1 to Birmingham, arriving about 1.15. They left Birmingham at 6pm for home.