The Rhodesian Study Circle is a philatelic website for the areas of Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, British Central Africa and Nyasaland, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
On 14 May 1980, the first Zimbabwe Parliament was opened by President Cannan S Banana with Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.
The President outlined the objectives of the new government, the scrapping of laws based on racial discrimination and plans to improve the life of the country’s poor. The country would be non-aligned and seek friendly co-existence with its neighbours.
He also addressed the assurance that European farmers would not be chased off their lands but maintained that a land resettlement programme would be launched.
Rhodesian Study Circle 2021 Annual Conference and AGM
Due to the ongoing restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been decided to hold a Virtual Conference in 2021. The success of our many virtual meetings in 2020 has provided us with the encouragement to plan and deliver such a venture. The programme will be designed to flow across various time zones to allow as wide a participation as possible from our membership spread across the world.
The Conference is open to all and we hope that as many members as possible will be able to join some or all of the sessions.
Running concurrently with the Conference will be our Livermore and Postcard Exhibit competitions along with a Single Sheet Competition. These, as in 2020, will be Virtual competitions and all entries will be up on the website prior to the start of the Conference. The results will be announced at the Conference.
At the start of the Conference we will hold our annual AGM. Reports will be available beforehand.
Welcome and address by the Chair (Patrick Flanagan {South Africa})
RSC 2021 AGM
Acceptances of 2020 Reports (Previously circulated)
Acceptance of 2020 Accounts (Previously circulated)
Office Bearers for 2021
Subscriptions for 2021/2022
Announcement of Awards
C. Dann Trophy (for the best publication in the previous two years)
Alan Drysdall Award (for the best article in the Journal over previous two years)
The Simpson Salver (for services to RSC)
The Plato Mavros Trophy (for services to Rhodesia and Nyasaland philately)
The Editor’s Prizes
Announcement of new Fellows of the RSC
8.45pm
The Journey of a Pioneer. (Dirk Kind {UK}) A presentation based upon two large photo albums in his possession from his great-great-uncle, William Harvey Brown, who became a Pioneer and wrote On the South African Frontier.
9.15pm
Three new Rhodesia-related publications in 2021:
Rhodesian Philately to 1924 – The British South Africa Company Period by Brian Trotter, Colin Hoffman and Patrick Flanagan – a RPSL publication (Brian Trotter {UK})
The British South Africa Company King George V Admiral Stamps 1913-1924 by David Spivack and Stephen Reah-Johnson – a RPSL publication (David Spivack {USA})
Memoir 30: The postal history of the Paris Missionary Society in Barotseland 1884-1924: the people, the place and the time by Sean Burke, Paul Peggie and Patrick Flanagan (Sean Burke {Australia})
10.15pm
Buying and selling at auction at a time of lockdown (Ian Shapiro {UK} from Spink)
10.45pm
Independence Forgeries: a mystery solved (Dave Trathen {UK})
11.15pm
The Cancellation Types of Zambia (Mark Thomas {UK})
Saturday 24 April
(Moderators Adrian de Bourbon {am} and Brian Trotter {pm})
The Nyasaland 1934 Leopard issue (SG 114-122) (Colin Fraser {USA})
9.00pm
From the Limpopo to the Zambezi: History, Politics and Ideology in 101 Stamps and Covers. (Nahendra Morar {UK}) This presentation will showcase excerpts of a much larger piece of work that he is undertaking on the history and politics of Zimbabwe, from earliest times to the present, as refracted through the prism of its stamps and postal history.
9.30pm
Southern Rhodesia Postal Stationery – archival material, the issued material and usage (Patrick Flanagan {South Africa})
10.00pm
Mission Mail:
Some missionary postcards from Catholic Missions in Southern Rhodesia (Mark Loomis {USA}),
John and Helen Springer, Methodist missionaries in Central Africa (Paul Peggie {Australia}).
Sunday 25 April (Moderator David Spivack)
8.00-11.00pm (London)
9.00pm-12.00am (Cape Town/Paris/Harare)
12.00noon-3.00pm San Francisco
3.00pm-6.00pm New York
5.00-8.00am Melbourne (26 April)
8.00pm (London)
The Kariba Dam – 60 years on (Jono Waters {Zimbabwe})
8.20pm
Noel Brettell, ‘Poet who shied away from any sort of limelight’ (Ian Menzies {Switzerland})See article here
8.40pm
A Quartet of Registered-Mail Indicators from Lusaka, 1978–1999 (David Frye {USA})
9.00pm
To dream the impossible dream – updating the SG listing on the Double Head Issue (Sean Burke {Australia}, David Spivack {USA}, Colin Hoffman {UK})
9.30pm
Southern Rhodesia: The last two issues of coil stamps; the Harrison printings. (Brian Eyre {South Africa})
10.00 pm
Encyclopaedia of the Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland (Geoff Brakspear {UK}}
There is a time set aside at the Conference for a short Question & Answer session. If you wish to participate, please forward your question with a relative scan to the Conference Organiser Adrian de Bourbon. His email address can be found in the Journal or
As in 2020, we will hold a virtual competition for our annual Livermore and Postcard Competitions. The rules for these competitions are available on the RSC website.
The Cape to Cairo Railway is an uncompleted project to cross Africa from south to north by rail. The original proposal for a Cape to Cairo railway was made in 1874 by Edwin Arnold, which was joint sponsor of the expedition by H.M. Stanley to Africa to discover the course of the Congo River. The proposed route involved a mixture of railway and river transport between Elizabethville, now Lubumbashi in the Belgian Congo and Sennar in the Sudan rather than a completely rail one.
Imperialist and entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes was instrumental in securing the southern states of the continent for the British Empire and envisioned a continuous “red line” of British dominions from north to south. A railway would be a critical element in this scheme to unify the possessions, facilitate governance, enable the military to move quickly to hot spots or conduct war, help settlement and enable intra- and extra-continental goods trade. The construction of this project presented a major technological challenge.
British interests had to overcome obstacles of geography and climate, and the competing imperial schemes of the French and Portuguese. In 1891, Germany secured the strategically critical territory of German East Africa, which along with the mountainous rainforest of the Belgian Congo precluded the building of a Cape-to-Cairo railway.
04.10.1904
The southern section was completed during British rule before the First World War and has an interconnecting system of national railways. Construction started from Cape Town and went parallel to the Great North Road to Kimberley, through a part of Bechuanaland to Bulawayo. From this junction the link proceeds further north to the Zambezi crossing. The Victoria Falls Bridge was completed in 1905.
In 1916 during World War I British, British African, South African and Indian soldiers won the Tanganyika Territory from the Germans and after the war the British continued to rule the territory, which was a League of Nations mandate from 1922. The continuous line of colonies was complete. The British Empire possessed the political power to complete the Cape to Cairo Railway, but economics, including the Great Depression of the 1930s, prevented its completion before World War II. After World War II, the decolonisation of Africa and the establishment of independent countries removed the colonial rationale for the project and increased the project’s difficulty, effectively ending the project.
A new consortium is to be signed between Hitachi and JK Minerals Africa to resume mapping of the Cape to Cairo railway route in 2020.
Whether you are a new or experienced collector, the Great American Stamp Show packs four days of shopping, seminars, exhibits, education and fun for all ages. (Bring your most comfortable shoes, you will need them!)
The Great American Stamp Show brings together stamp collectors from all over the world to share their ideas on the future of the hobby, the chance to reconnect with old friends and make new ones!
The free event is co-sponsored by the United States Postal Service. The USPS will also have a large retail presence offering a selection of current U.S. stamps for sale.
75+ Dealers – Public Auction – Cachetmakers Bourse
800+ Frames of Exhibits & Three of America’s Rarest Postal Items
In 1982, Zimbabwe hosted ZIMFARI 82′ in celebration of the 75th Anniversary of world Scouting. It was an international camp with Guides and Scouts coming from all over the world. The camp was held in various different places all over the country.
Among the countries represented were Canada, England, Finland, France, India, Israel, Kenya, Libya, N.Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, Venezuela, Wales and Zimbabwe. The International Contingents were able to see Harare, Inyanga, Mutare, Great Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls.
Girl Guides is a movement found worldwide, which was originally and still largely designed for girls and women only. This organisation was introduced in 1909, because girls demanded to take part in the then grassroots Boy Scout Movement.
A Ranger or Ranger Guide is a member of a section of some Guiding organisations who is between the ages of 14 and 25. Exact age limits are slightly different in each organisation. It is the female-centred equivalent of the Rover Scouts.
23.07.1948
Empire Ranger Week was celebrated throughout the British empire from July 18 to 25, when land, sea and air rangers camped together, demonstrated ranger activities to the general public and took part in the special re-dedication and Empire Ranger week service. In Southern Rhodesia, the event took place at Victoria Falls.
The Imperial Economic Conference (Ottawa Conference) was a 1932 conference of British colonies and the autonomous dominions held to discuss the Great Depression. It was held between 21 July and 20 August in Ottawa.
The conference saw the group admit the failure of the gold standard and abandon attempts to return to it. The meeting also worked to establish a zone of limited tariffs within the British Empire, but with high tariffs with the rest of the world. This was called “Imperial preference” or “Empire Free-Trade” on the principle of “home producers first, empire producers second, and foreign producers last”. The result of the conference was a series of bilateral agreements that would last for at least 5 years.
27.07.1932
The conference was especially notable for its adoption of Keynesian ideas such as lowering interest rates, increasing the money supply, and expanding government spending. The United States were annoyed by the implementation of Imperial Preference as it affected them economically.
It was the last Imperial Conference that any Irish government participated in, and also the last that Newfoundland attended as an independent Dominion.
Melbourne 2021 Stamp and Coin Exhibition is an International exhibition with the Federation of Inter-Asian Philately (FIAP) recognition. They expect to show 1,100 frames at the Caulfield Racecourse venue and host a large number of Australian and International dealers.
