Sir Edward Denny Bacon, KCVO (29 August 1860 – 5 June 1938)Biography
in the

American Philatelic Society The American Philatelic Society (APS) is the largest nonprofit stamp collecting foundation of philately in the world. Both the membership and interests of the society are worldwide. History The organization, originally named the ''American Phil ...

's Hall of Fame. was a British

philatelist Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possi ...

who helped with the enlargement and mounting of collections possessed by rich collectors of his timeNicholas Courtney (2004). ''The Queen's Stamps'', pages 138–140. and became the curator of the

Royal Philatelic Collection The Royal Philatelic Collection is the postage stamp collection of the British royal family. It is the most comprehensive collection of items related to the philately of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with many unique pieces. ...

between 1913 and 1938.

Early life

Edward Bacon was the son of a London malt producer, and worked in his father's factory until its closure in 1895.

Philately

After 1895 he decided to become a full-time philatelist. His two main collections were of Japanese stamps (later acquired by

Philipp von Ferrary Philip Ferrari de La Renotière (January 11, 1850 – May 20, 1917) was a noted French-born stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is likely to exist. Amongst his extremely rare stamps ...

) and of

postal stationery A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related servi ...

(later in the ownership of

Thomas Tapling Thomas Keay Tapling (30 October 1855 – 11 April 1891) was an English businessman and politician. He played first-class cricket and was also an eminent philatelist who formed one of the greatest stamp collections of his era. Early life Taplin ...

). He joined the Philatelic Society, London in 1880, in which he served in all the principal positions. He was elected President in 1917.''Who Was Who?''
, British Philatelic Trust. He was known to help some British collectors to manage their philatelic possessions. The first one was Thomas Keay Tapling; when Tapling bequeathed his collection to the British Museum, Bacon mounted the ensemble and wrote its description, a task he undertook for an exhibition in February 1897, after Tapling's death in 1891. After that, he managed Henry J. Duveen's collection, and published in 1911 the catalogue of the Crawford Library. In 1907 Bacon was the first President of the Philatelic Literature Society."The Philatelic Literature Society" in ''

The London Philatelist ''The London Philatelist'' was first published in January 1892
by

Fiscal Philatelic Society.

The Royal Philatelic Collection

A week after John Alexander Tilleard, "Philatelist to the King", died in September 1913, Bacon was invited by King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. Born duri ...

to be the Curator of the

. He accepted and travelled from his residence in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

two or three times a week until his death to work on the collection, to buy stamps, to receive items from the post offices in the United Kingdom, and the British Dominions and colonies, and to mount all this in uniform red stamp albums, while Tilleard had accumulated and mounted only when the King was preparing an exhibition at the

Royal Philatelic Society London The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as ''The Philatelic Society, London''. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History, at its he ...

. Nevertheless, John Wilson, Keeper of the Collection after Bacon's death, criticised the way Bacon added new hinges without removing old ones. Whereas

deafness Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

isolated Bacon from the others members of the Royal Court, he alone succeeded in balancing the collection's budget when the King bought a lot and to mount every project, essay and issued stamp received. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the session in the Stamp Room placed inside Buckingham Palace diverted the King from matters of state and the war, and made him consider the curator as a friend like Tilleard. After George V's death in January 1936, Bacon continued his tasks on a collection that became part of the royal heritage. Even if Kings

Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 19 ...

and

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...

were less enthusiastic stamp collectors than their father, they made sure that all British and colonial postal authorities continued to send philatelic material to the Curator. But Edward VIII ordered that the collection had to be financially self-sufficient, through the sales of duplicate stamps. In July 1936 Bacon was authorised to sell two 500-dollar stamps of the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...

featuring King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

for 1,000 pounds. In April 1938 Bacon announced to the King his retirement on the next first of September. John Wilson was quickly chosen because, as President of the Royal Philatelic Society London and chairman of its Expert Committee, he already knew the collection well. However, Bacon died of influenza in June 1938. From 1904 until his death, he lived in Croydon, commuting to work at Buckingham Palace.

Titles and awards

In 1917 Bacon was made a Member of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

, then Commander in 1922 and Knight in 1932. He received the

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

Version of the

Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal The Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal is a civil decoration awarded by the British monarch to servants of the royal household for long and faithful service. History The Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal was establish ...

in 1933 for 20 years of service to the Royal Family. In 1906 he received the first Lindenberg Medal from the Berliner Philatelisten-KlubGlossary on the American Philatelic Society's website
. and was amongst the first to sign the

Roll of Distinguished Philatelists The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists (RDP) is a Philately, 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 n ...

with King George V.

Publications

* ''Saint Vincent: With Notes and Publisher's Prices''. Co-Author: Francis H. Napier. London: Stanley Gibbons, 1895. * ''The Stamps of Barbados, with a history and description of the star-watermarked papers of Messrs. Perkins Bacon and Co., etc''. Co-Author: Francis H. Napier. London: Stanley Gibbons, 1896. * ''The Stamp Collector: A treatise on the issue and collecting of the postage stamps of all nations their art, history, and market value, with fascimiles of rare stamps principally from the Tapling collection in the British museum''. Co-Author: W.J. Hardy. London: G. Redway, 1898 * ''Reprints of Postal Adhesive Stamps and Their Characteristics''. London: Stanley Gibbons, 1899. (Republished by Lowell Ragatz in 1954 as ''Reprints of 19th century postal adhesive stamps and their characteristics''.) * ''Grenada: to which is prefixed an account of the perforations of the Perkins Bacon printed stamps of the British Colonies''. Co-Author: Francis H. Napier. London: Stanley Gibbons, 1902. * ''The Postage Stamps of the Turks Islands''. London: Stanley Gibbons, 1917. * ''The Line Engraved Postage Stamps of Great Britain Printed by Perkins, Bacon and Co.''. Two volumes. London: Chas. Nissen & Co. Ltd., 1920. (Awarded the

Crawford Medal :::''See also'' Crawford Award for fantasy novels. :::''See also'' Max Crawford Medal Australian academic award. The Crawford Medal is a vermeil medal awarded by the Royal Philatelic Society London for the most valuable and original contribution ...

in 1921.
Vol. 1 Electronic version here.
* ''The Essays, Proofs and Reprints of the First Issued Stamps of British India of 1854–55''. Lahore: Philatelic Society of India, 1922 *''The Stamps of the Electric Telegraph Company (Great Britain): Issues of 1851–1861''. London: Chas. Nissen & Co. Ltd., 1927. *''The Stamps of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.''. London: W. Brendon & Son, 1928? * Catalogue of Lord Crawford's philatelic library : ** ''Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Vol. VII: A Bibliography of the Writings General, Special and Periodical Forming the Literature of Philately''. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1911. 462p. 200 copies were printed for libraries and bibliophiles. ** Reprinted as ''The Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.'' London: Philatelic Literature Society, 1911. 300 books printed. ** A supplement was published in 1926 (68p.), then an eight-page addenda in ''The London Philatelist'' in 1938. ** ''Catalogue of the Crawford Library of philatelic literature at the British Library.'' Fishkill, N.Y.: Printer's Stone in association with the British Library, 1991 , 560 pages.

References and sources

;References ;Sources * Nicholas Courtney (2004). ''The Queen's Stamps. The Authorised History of the

'', Methuen, , pages 135 to 152. * Jack Shamash (2013). George V's Obsession - a king and his stamps. Available on Kindle https://www.amazon.co.uk/George-Vs-Obsession-king-stamps-ebook/dp/B00FD23JB2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388250079&sr=8-1&keywords=jack+shamash#reader_B00FD23JB2

External links

*
Biography at Who Was Who in British Philately.

in the

's Hall of Fame, posthumous tribute awarded in 1972.
Youtube film by Jack Shamash on Bacon's home
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Edward Denny 1860 births 1938 deaths British philatelists Recipients of the Lindenberg Medal Presidents of the Royal Philatelic Society London Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Signatories to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists American Philatelic Society