The Philatelic Society of India (PSI) was formed in 1897 Distinguished Philatelists - Sir David Parkes Masson - The Greatest Indian Philatelist.
Peshawar Stamp Society. Retrieved 13 August 2011. by a group of, mainly, expatriate Englishmen resident in the country as the first all-India

philatelic 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 ...

society. During its first fifty years the society included most of the important Anglo-Indian philatelists and had a particularly strong publications record with two award-winning books. The society meets every first and third Saturday at the Mumbai G.P.O., convened by Dhirubhai Mehta, President, and D.M. Pittie, Hon. Secretary.

History

The idea of an all-India

society arose at the ''Philatelic Society of Bengal'' in 1896 and an open letter was published by

Charles Stewart-Wilson Sir Charles Stewart-Wilson (1864 – 20 July 1950) was Barrister and an official in the Indian Civil Service who rose to become the Indian ''Director-General of Posts and Telegraphs''. He was a prominent philatelist and one of the instigators, ...

in Calcutta calling for expressions of interest. The first meeting took place at 6 Middleton Row, Calcutta on 6 March 1897 where Charles Stewart-Wilson was appointed the first President and Lady Collen, Professor O.V. Muller and Major C.H.I. Hopkins were each appointed Vice-Presidents. The first Treasurer was Wilmot Corfield and the Secretary Mr. P. Aylwyn Selfe of the Bank of Bengal. Most of the original members were Englishmen. Mr. C.K. Dutt, of Calcutta, the first Indian, was admitted in 1907. In March 1957 an exhibition was held in Bombay to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the society and in 1997 the Society celebrated its centenary with a display in Bombay titled ''Centipex '97'' at which a red

Scinde Dawk Scinde Dawk was a postal system of runners that served the Indus Valley of Sindh, an area of present-day Pakistan. The term also refers to the first adhesive postage stamps in Asia, the forerunners of the adhesive stamps used throughout India, ...

and other rarities of Indian philately were exhibited.

India Post India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings ha ...

also issued two

commemorative stamp A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event, person, or object. The ''subject'' of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike def ...

s to mark the centenary.The Philatelic Society of India.
India Post. Retrieved 11 April 2012
Archived here.
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Early members

This is a partial list of early members of the society: *G.A. Anderson * Walter Dorning Beckton *Lady Collen * Wilmot Corfield * C.S.F. Crofton * L.E. Dawson *C.K. Dutt (First Indian member 1907) *Capt. Hancock *Lieut.-Col. G.F.A. Harris * Leslie L. R. Hausburg *Mr. T. Hoffmann *Maj. C.H.I. Hopkins * John Ernest Buttery Hotson *Charles Frederick Larmour *

James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, FRAS, Knight of the Thistle, KT (28 July 184731 January 1913) was a British astronomer, politici ...

*Lieut.-Col. C.P. Lukis *A.A. Lyall *Lieut. T.E. Madden * Sir David Parkes Masson *Maj. du Moulin *Prof. O.V. Muller *F.N. Schiller *Mr. P. Aylwyn Selfe *

E.A. Smythies Evelyn Arthur Smythies, CIE (19 March 1885Bateman, Robert. ''Stamp collectors' who's who''. London: Stanley Gibbons, 1960, p. 81. – 10 January 1975), was a distinguished forester and philatelist, born of British parents in India. Smythies was ...

* Sir Charles Stewart-Wilson An Indian Civil Servant (I.C.S.), and ''Director-General of Posts and Telegraphs'' 1906-1913. *Mr. E.W. Wetherell

Publications

The society had a strong publishing record with Martin and Smythies' ''The Four Annas Lithographed Stamps of India, 1854-55'' and L.E. Dawson's ''The One Anna & Two Annas Postage Stamps of India, 1854-55'' both winning 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 ...

from 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 ...

(1932 and 1950 respectively). The first seven books produced by the society each received volume numbers, although they did not form part of any coherent work. The society's journal, the ''Philatelic Journal of India'', was published from 1897. *Anderson, G.A. ''Notes on the Postage Stamps of Bhopal.'' Calcutta, 1899. (Vol. 3) *Crofton, C.S.F. and Wilmot Corfield. ''The Adhesive Fiscal and Telegraph Stamps of British India''. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1905. (Vol. 6) *Crofton, C.S.F. and L.L.R. Hausburg & C. Stewart-Wilson. ''The Postage and Telegraph Stamps of British India''. London:

Stanley Gibbons The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and philat ...

for the society, 1907. *Crofton, C.S.F. ''The Fiscal and Telegraph Stamps of Ceylon''. Ed. B. Gordon Jones. London: Bridger & Kay for the society, 1911. *Dawson. L.E. ''The One Anna & Two Annas Postage Stamps of India, 1854-55''. Birmingham: H. Garratt-Adams & Co. for the society, 1948. *Giles, D. Hammond. ''Companion to the handstruck postage stamps of India''. Bombay: Arvind M. Pakvasa, 1967. *Masson, Sir David Parkes. ''Jammu and Kashmir''. (Two parts bound together) Calcutta & Lahore: 1900 & 1901
Online excerpts
(Vols. 4 & 5) *Masson, Sir David Parkes and B. Gordon Jones. ''The Postage Stamps of Afghanistan''. Madras: Higinbotham & Co., 1908. (From notes originally prepared by Gilbert Harrison.) *Roberts, Col. G.L. and E.A. Smythies. ''The Japanese Occupation Stamps of Burma.'' 1947. *Smythies, E.A. and Martin, D.R. ''The Four Annas Lithographed Stamps of India, 1854-55.'' Stanley Gibbons for the society, 1930. *Smythies, E.A. and Dawson, L.E. ''The Postage Stamps of Jammu & Kashmir Simplified''. Lahore, 1937
Online excerpts.
*Smythies, E.A. and Martin, D.R. "The Half Anna Lithographed Stamps of India". Published for the Philatelic Society of India, Lahore, 1927. Originally, this appeared in supplements to the Philatelic Journal of India, Apr.-Aug.? 1927.WorldCat, on line. *Stewart-Wilson, Charles. ''British Indian Adhesive Stamps Surcharged for Native States. Part I''. Calcutta, 1897. (Vol. 1) *Stewart-Wilson, Charles. ''British Indian Adhesive Stamps Surcharged for Native States. Part II''. Calcutta, 1899. (Vol. 2) *Stewart-Wilson, Charles and B.G. Jones. ''British Indian Adhesive Stamps surcharged for Native States''. Calcutta, 1904. (Revised edition) (Vol. 7)

Notes and references

External links

Society webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Philatelic Society of India, The Philatelic organizations Clubs and societies in India Organizations established in 1897 Philately of India