Ayrshire Philatelic Society welcomed its first visiting speaker of the session on Friday, October 29, when Elizabeth Nairn brought her display of Maritime History.

The collection had its origins in Elizabeth’s father’s work as a marine engineer, initially on tramp steamers of the Merchant Navy and from 1946 as Chief Engineer on the “Shieldhall”, the Glasgow Corporation sludge boat that operated on the Clyde.

The theme developed with the management of navigation on the Clyde, setting up the Arran Mile for ship trials, and then moved on to a fascinating display of Clyde-built ships on stamps, postcard and other documents, including the Umbria which appeared on a Cuban stamp of 1899.

Elizabeth’s display touched on Operation Pedestal - the Santa Marija convoy for the relief of Malta contained many Clyde ships,the Clyde-built ships of the Canadian Pacific fleet, and the sinking of the Empress of Ireland (built by Fairfield at Govan) In the St Lawrence River in 1914 - known as Canada’s Titanic.

The display concluded with a show of the large variety of vessels from Clyde shipyards, from corvettes to hospital ships, the Discovery, the Iolair, the Lusitania, submarine HMAS Onslow and the Queen Mary. The society were very grateful for Elizabeth’s visit, accompanied by Margaret Morris, one of our honorary life-members.

Picture L to R - Ken Gibb (Secretary), Margaret Morris, Elizabeth Nairn, David Connelly (President).