The Mauritius "Post Office" stamps were issued by the British Colony Mauritius in September 1847, in two denominations: an orange-red one penny (1d) and a deep blue two pence (2d). Their name comes from the wording on the stamps reading "Post Office", which was soon changed in the next issue to "Post Paid". They are among the rarest postage stamps in the world.
The Inverted Head Four Annas of India is a postage stamp prized by collectors. The 1854 first issues of India included a Four Annas value in red and blue. It was one of the world's first multicolored stamps; the Basel Dove preceded it by nine years. However, an invert error occurred during production, showing the head "upside down."
Edward Benjamin Evans, RPS, a British army officer also known as "Major Evans", was a distinguished philatelist, stamp collector, and philatelic journalist. His philatelic specialization included Mauritius, the Confederate States of America, the Mulready envelopes, and the Indian feudatory states.
Sir Edward Denny Bacon, KCVO was a British philatelist who helped with the enlargement and mounting of collections possessed by rich collectors of his time and became the curator of the Royal Philatelic Collection between 1913 and 1938.
Arthur Hind (1856–1933), of Utica, New York, was an English textile industrialist and philatelist.
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 three pieces of parchment to which the signatories add their names.
David Richard Beech MBE was the curator of the British Library Philatelic Collections from 1983–2013. He is a Fellow and past President of the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL). In 2013, it was announced that Beech will receive the Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award for outstanding lifetime accomplishments in the field of philately.
The British Library Philatelic Collections is the national philatelic collection of the United Kingdom with over 8 million items from around the world. It was established in 1891 as part of the British Museum Library, later to become the British Library, with the collection of Thomas Tapling. In addition to bequests and continuing donations, the library received consistent deposits by the Crown Agency and has become a primary research collection for British Empire and international history. The collections contain a wide range of artefacts in addition to postage stamps, from newspaper stamps to a press used to print the first British postage stamps.
The Tapling Collection of postage stamps was donated to the British Museum from the estate of Thomas Tapling in 1891.
Marcellus Purnell Castle (1849–1917), known as M.P. Castle, was a British philatelist who was President of the Royal Philatelic Society London from 1913 to 1917, the first editor of The London Philatelist from 1892–1917 and whose name was entered on the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists as one of the "Fathers of philately". He was also awarded with the Lindenberg Medal in 1909.
Maitland James Burnett was a British philatelist who was one of the "Founding fathers of Philately" entered on the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1921. He was also editor of The Philatelic Record for the first seven years of its existence from 1879.
Henry Haslett was one of the small group who met regularly at the Rev. Stainforth's Rectory that formed the nucleus from which The Philatelic Society, London, subsequently The Royal Philatelic Society London, was formed. He may therefore be called one of the first philatelists.
William Edmund Image FRCS DL JP was a surgeon and early philatelist.
William Amos Scarborough Westoby M.A. (1815–1899) was an English philatelist who was one of the "Fathers of Philately" entered on the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1921. His obituary in The London Philatelist stated that he had "...fairly earned the title of the Grand Seigneur of Philately." By profession, Westoby was a Barrister of Lincoln's Inn.
William Wilmot Corfield was a British philatelist who was an important figure in Anglo-Indian philately. By his own account, he was an auditor by profession.
Frank Jukes Peplow was Borough Librarian at Deptford and a philatelist who won the Crawford Medal from the Royal Philatelic Society London in 1927 for his work The Postage Stamps of Buenos Aires. He signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1933.
Henry Joseph Duveen was an art dealer who co-founded the firm of Duveen Brothers with his sibling, the first Sir Joseph Joel Duveen. After his brother's death from Bright's disease in 1908, his nephew, the future Lord Duveen, worked alongside his uncle. He was also an eminent philatelist who was one of the Fathers of Philately named on the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1921. His great-grandson is the artist, kryptologist, and bonsai tree master Vincent van Volkmer.
George Ginger was a British philatelist who signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1934. Ginger was an expert on the stamps of Victoria and prominent in philatelic circles in Manchester.
Thomas Ridpath was a Liverpool stamp dealer who handled some of the greatest rarities in philately such as the British Guiana 1c magenta of 1856 and the block of four of the 1869 24c United States stamps with inverted centre. He gave philatelic lantern displays at which the differences between genuine and forged stamps were shown enlarged on a screen and supplied the philatelic press with reports of new finds that they reported in their columns.
