The Small Queens
John
Hillson
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Born
in December 1933, the author still does not quite understand why, when his
mother asked him after his ninth birthday what he wanted for Christmas, he
replied ‘Stamps’, whereupon Mum lashed out two shillings on an album, a
packet of stamps, and a packet of hinges. And forgot to give it to him, though
not the box of Canadian Mounties nor the model 25 pounder howitzer to which they
fell victim. The album, etc., was discovered a day or so after Christmas hidden
under a cushion in the lounge. It turned out to be the most expensive present he
was ever given.
Of
Scottish parentage he was nevertheless educated at St. Paul’s School, London,
his parents having removed to Kew Gardens just before the Second World War. Now
retired a career was pursued first through the Motor Industry, where dealing
with designers he learned to look at colour, and, in the final two decades of
his working life, at the selling end of the Insurance Industry, notably Life
Insurance, Pensions and Investments. |
A
member of the Canadian Philatelic Society of Great Britain since July 1955 – a
life member a
year later, being able to recognise a bargain when he saw one, and having a
business degree which enabled him to acquire some understanding of the mysteries
of double entry
book-keeping, he was asked in 1980 to become Treasurer of that Society, a
position relinquished ten years later, but again assumed in 1996 and which he
still occupies.
Awarded
a Fellowship of the Society in 1990 for research, having been twice awarded the
Founders trophy for his work on the Small Queens, he also collects G.B. Line
Engraved, and the British Empire issues of King George VI, which he mistakenly
thought would be a cheap sideline to his main interest.
Robson
Lowe twice
published his works on the Small Queens, the first in 1980, a small monograph on
the subject, which is still regarded as useful, though the Chapter on the Six
Cents value is best ignored, and the magnum opus in 1989, the considerably
expanded hardback. Recently the Canadian Philatelic Society of Great Britain
published ‘Small Queens Reappraised’, which updates and corrects, where
necessary, that hardback.
Married
twice, he has two daughters from his first marriage, a granddaughter and two grandsons. Luckily,
his second wife, Christine, puts up with the not inconsiderable time devoted to
THE hobby.