Catalogue of Postage and Telegraph Stamps 4th ed 1895

Herbert L'Estrange Ewen (1876–1912)Birch, Brian. ''Biographies of Philatelists and Dealers''. 9th edition. Standish, Wigan: 2008, p. 504. was a British stamp dealer and

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. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible ...

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. In the Unit ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

and later in Norwood, London who was an authority on

railway stamp In philately a railway stamp is a stamp issued to pay the cost of the conveyance of a letter or parcel by rail. A wide variety of railway stamps have been issued by different countries and by private and state railways. Railway stamps of an unof ...

s. According to Brian Birch, Ewen collected stamps at the age of ten and started his own firm, the H. L’Estrange Ewen company, on his thirteenth birthday.

Esperanto

Herbert L'Estrange Ewen was a very early adept of Dr L.L. Zamenhof's auxiliary language Esperanto. He is listed as number 2920 in the 'Adresaro de la personoj kiuj ellernis la lingvon "Esperanto"/Serio XV' which lists those who learned the language in the period from 13 July to 13 October 1893.

Philately

Ewen was the publisher of the monthly ''English Specialists' Journal'' which ran from 1895 to 1897 and of ''Ewen’s Weekly Stamp News'' (EWSN) from 1899. In 1914 the ''Evening News'' revealed that Ewen was selling German stamps overprinted ''Belgien'' and accused him of trading with the enemy. Trading with Germany and its allies had been illegal in Britain since the beginning of World War I under the

Trading with the Enemy Act 1914 The Trading with the Enemy Act 1914 ( 4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 87) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that prescribed an offence of conducting business with any person of "enemy character". It was enacted soon after the United Kingdom ...

. Ewen replied in EWSN for 30 January 1915 that the stamps had been brought to England by two Belgian soldiers as their only asset and they had obtained them from a German official in Brussels. Official approval for the sale had been obtained British

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

. In 1949 his collection of railway letter stamps for the period 1891 to 1912 with sheets, proofs, and covers was given to the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

by his sister Mrs Clement Williams and is now in the

British Library Philatelic Collections The British Library Philatelic Collections is the national Philately, 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 b ...

as the Ewen Collection.

Selected publications

*''Standard Catalogue of British Stamps and Postmarks'', 1st edition, 1893. * ''A Complete Priced Catalogue of the Postal and Telegraph Adhesives of Great Britain'' with Walter Morley and Harry Hilckes: Hilckes, Kirkpatrick & Co., London, c. 1894. *''Standard Priced Catalogue of the Stamps and Postmarks of the United Kingdom'', 1898. *''Reference List of Railway Letter Post Stamps'', 1901. *''History of Railway Letter Stamps'', 1901. *''Priced Catalogue of Railway Letter Stamps'', 1903. *''Priced Catalogue of the Unadhesive Postage Stamps of the United Kingdom (1840–1905)'', Ewen's Colonial Stamp Market, London, 1905. *''Railway Newspaper and Parcel Stamps of the United Kingdom'', Ewen's Colonial Stamp Market Ltd., 1906. (Reprint, 1983 by Tim Clutterbuck & Co.)

References

External links

Profile at "Who Was Who in British Philately"Archive here

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ewen, Herbert Lestrange British philatelists 1912 deaths 1876 births British stamp dealers 19th-century British businesspeople