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The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists (RDP) is a philatelic award of international scale, created by the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain in 1921. The Roll consists of five pieces of parchment to which the signatories add their names.
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The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists (RDP) is a philatelic award of international scale, created by the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain in 1921. The Roll consists of five pieces of parchment to which the signatories add their names.
Those who have assisted the development of philately through their research, expertise or giving their time can be candidates to sign the Roll if they are sponsored by one of the existing signatories. The following four years, the candidate is examined once a year with the other current ones by a Board of election. [1] : 33
The ceremony of signature of the Roll happens at the annual Philatelic Congress of Great Britain. [1] : 37–38 Under the Congress' rules, the signatories can talk and vote during the Congress. [2]
Forty-two philatelists were honoured posthumously on the first page of the Roll as "Fathers of Philately". [3] : 9–27
Four other names were added in the 1950s at the bottom of the first page. In 1951, Edward R. Woodward (died 1931) and J. Stanley Telfer (died 1938) were honoured by the Board of election because they were two important philatelists and member of the Board. In 1956, because the Board was sure they would have been called to sign the Roll if they would have lived longer, United States citizen Clarence W. Hennan and A. Tort Nicolau of Spain were added too. [3] : 26–27
On 30 October 1919, Percy C. Bishop, a member of the London Stamp Club, proposed the institution of an "Philatelic Order of Merit" to honour philatelic writers. This order would be given more importance than existing philatelic prizes and would have an international importance. In late 1919, F. H. Vallencey, president of the club, presented the idea to the readers of his Stamp Collecting paper. In March 1920, a jury of five [4] published a list of twenty-five names who the jury selected from the ninety-one names sent by the readers and British associations. [5]
However, to gain official recognition, the London Stamp Club let the associative members of the 1920 Philatelic Congress of Great Britain in Newcastle upon Tyne decide the future of Bishop's idea. A sub-committee was constituted to find a new name and write rules of the award. [6]
At the 1921 Congress in Harrogate, the "Roll of Distinguished Philatelists" was created without any discussion. [7] The subcommittee has already got the signature of King and philatelist George V on the printed parchment, the twenty-four of the selected by the first jury and fifteen other philatelists were already invited to sign the Roll on the last day of the Congress. [8]
Starting in 1922, the selection of the signatories was annual except between the Congresses of 1940 and 1946 because of World War II. [9]
The names of forty-two deceased philatelists are printed on the Roll page that was signed between 1921 and 1935. They were placed in the ribbons that ornate the two columns on each side of the page. They were included as "fathers of philately". [3]
In 2021, two new names were added to the "fathers of philately" to represent the many German and Austrian philatelists who were omitted due to anti-German feeling when the roll was created immediately after the end of the First World War:
Among the forty first signatories are twenty-four out of the twenty-five proposed by the initial jury [4] in 1920: [18]
Chosen by the 1920 jury, the British A. B. Creeke was forgotten by the Philatelic Congress' subcommittee in 1921. [8]
The subcommittee added fifteen philatelists in 1921 [8] with a larger majority of Britons than in the 1920 jury's selection. [25]
Finally, before the day of the first signing ceremony on 6 May 1921, King George V was the first to sign the upper part of the Roll ("George R.I."). [26] He was invited to do so because, when Duke of York, he was President of the Royal Philatelic Society London from 1896 to 1910, and was still a collector and philatelist with the help of the late John Alexander Tilleard and Edward Denny Bacon.
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William Russell Lane-Joynt, born in Limerick, was an Irish barrister, philatelist and Olympic shooter. He founded the Irish Philatelic Society in Dublin and assisted the Duke of Leinster to form his collection which was bequeathed to the Dublin Museum of Science and Art. Lane-Joynt was one of only two Irish philatelists to be honoured by signing the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists.
Lionel William Fulcher B.Sc. was a British philatelist who co-edited, with Stanley Phillips, Gibbons Stamp Monthly, was Vice President of the International Philatelic Union and was a key figure in the Fiscal Philatelic Society. He was an expert on the early stamps of Japan and also studied Venezuela, Peru, Nicaragua, Papal States and Norway.
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Albert Edward Basden, MBE 1918, was a philatelist who was a specialist in the stamps of South Africa and Transvaal in particular. In 1940, with J.H. Curle, he was awarded the Crawford Medal by the Royal Philatelic Society London for his work Transvaal Postage Stamps.
Johannes Schmidt-Andersen was a Danish philatelist who in 1952 was awarded the Crawford Medal by the Royal Philatelic Society London for his work The postage stamps of Denmark 1851–1951. Gibbons Stamp Monthly called him "the Father of Danish philately". He signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1950.
Arthur Ronald Butler was a British philatelist who was President of the Royal Philatelic Society London from 1978 to 1980. He was a specialist in the stamps of Australia and in 1978 was awarded the Crawford Medal for his work The departmental stamps of South Australia.
Emil Carl Christiaan Tamsen was a South African philatelist, who was entered on the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1921. He was also a signatory, in 1932, to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists of Southern Africa. Tamsen was an expert in the stamps of Transvaal, about which he researched and wrote, and he was one of the founders in 1894 of the Johannesburg Philatelic Society.
Hedwige Alma Lee FRPSL RDP was a Swiss-born naturalised British philatelist who specialised in the stamps of Switzerland and in topical collecting. She won large gold medals for her displays at Naba 1984, Stockholmia 1986, Hafnia 1987 and Finlandia 1988 and her collection was exhibited in the Court of Honour at PhilexFrance 1989 and New Zealand 1990. She signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1991 and later became the only non-resident member of the Consilium Philateliae Helveticae. The Royal Philatelic Society London award the Lee Medal in memory of Alma and her husband Ron.
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