A CHANCE meeting on a boat at Bournemouth Air Festival of Cllr John Adams, now Mayor of Bournemouth, and Claire Scott, president of the Postal History Society, led to an invitation to the annual conference of the society at Bournemouth.

He was so impressed at what he saw that he gave his support to a postal history exhibition being held at Bournemouth. The Postal History Society will have its 80th anniversary this year.

Cllr Adams, with Claire Scott and her husband John and Charles Kiddle from the Postal History Society, opened ‘A Postal History of Bournemouth’ on the second floor of Bournemouth Central Library.

The exhibition is based on a collection put together by Robson Lowe, a professional philatelist, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer in Bournemouth and founding member of the Postal History Society. The collection was later sold to former Mayor of Bournemouth Gordon Anstee and was then subsequently acquired by Bournemouth-born Charles Kiddle in 1992. His late brother, Francis Edgar Kiddle, a British philatelist had an international reputation.

Two volumes provide a history of the postal service as it relates to Bournemouth during the 19th and early 20th centuries, including the first post office in the town at the Tregonwell Arms in 1839 before that post was dealt with at Poole and Christchurch.

The postal history highlights key personalities such as relatives of Isaac Gulliver, Rev John Keble of the Oxford Movement, Lady Annie Russell Cotes and correspondence from Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight to Prime Minister Disraeli staying at the Royal Bath Hotel.

There are also postcards on the Bournemouth Centenary Fetes of 1910 and in the same year Bournemouth’s first air show, the International Aviation Meeting, featuring many of the world’s experienced aviators.

The fascinating exhibition runs from May 3 - 26. Contact the library on 01202 454848 for more details on the exhibition or claire@historystore.ltd.uk for information on the Postal History Society.