Four to sign Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in England

On Feb. 6 the board of election of the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists selected four individuals to sign the prestigious roll, considered one of the hobby’s most significant honors. The honorees are Adriano Bergamini of Switzerland, Birthe King of the United Kingdom, Eddie Leibu of Israel and Simon Richards of the United Kingdom.

The signing ceremony will take place May 9 at 5 p.m. local time during the May 8-11 EuroPhilEx international philatelic exhibition in Birmingham, England.

As long-time president of the Philatelic Club of Lugano, Switzerland, Adriano Bergamini has also served as president of the Swiss national stamp exhibition (NABA) in Lugano in 2018 and the Helvetia international exhibition in 2022. He has sponsored and organized several meetings of the Royal Philatelic Society London in Lugano and a meeting of the Monte Carlo Club in Lugano.

Bergamini collects the postal history of Austro-Hungary, and his international award-winning exhibits include “Postal Relations between Ticino (Switzerland) and the foreign countries before the UPU” and “The Austrian Post in Hungary 1850-1867.” Other exhibits include “Hungarian postmarks used on the first issue of Austria 1850-1858” and “The postal history of Croatia 1815-1867.”

Birthe King is active in the promotion of open philately, which promotes the use of both philatelic and non-philatelic material as an approach to collecting and exhibiting. Her own award-winning open class exhibits include “Denmark: Conscience, Conflict and Camps 1932-1949” and “The Re-Unification of Southern Jutland with Denmark 1864-1920.”

King promoted the Federation of European Philatelic Associations regulations for picture postcards during her time as director of the federation from 2013-2019. The regulations were agreed to in 2015, and picture postcards were adopted as an International Federation of Philately (FIP) experimental class in 2018.

In addition to her roles with the FIP and Federation of European Philatelic Associations, King has been a council member of the Royal Philatelic Society London from 2012-2019 and chairman of its membership and representatives committee.

Eddie Leibu, author of numerous articles on Ottoman and Holy Land subjects, edited the three volumes of The Postal History of the Transition Period in Israel, 1948. He served as the philatelic advisor to the Israel Philatelic and Postal Museum and chairman of the Society of the Postal History of the Holy Land.

Leibu was a member of the organizing committees for several international stamp exhibitions in Israel, and was president of the jury for World Stamp Championship Israel 2018. His own exhibits include “Romania: outbound mail, from the Crimean War to the UPU,” “The Stamps of British Palestine 1917-1927” and “Taxed Mail of the Holy Land 1850-1950.”

Simon Richards is chairman of the exhibitions and international committee for the Association of British Philatelic Societies, and he is a director of the Stamp World Exhibitions company. He represented the United Kingdom during the Federation of European Philatelic Associations congress during the Hafnia 2024 exhibition.

Richards was elected president of the Royal Philatelic Society London upon the recent death of president Mike Roberts, and was the acting president during the former president’s illness. He also serves as president of the West Indies Philatelic Study Group and is a member of the Royal Expert Committee.

His exhibits include “British West Indies Maritime Mail,” “The Postal History of Savoy,” “The Postal Stationery of Grenada” and “Classic Victoria.” His recent book Dominica: Philately to 1967 includes original research that was not covered in previous volumes on the subject.

The invitation to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists is the highest and most prestigious of honors in philately and is the world’s oldest philatelic honor. The roll was instituted in Harrogate, England, in May 1921, and the signature of King George V appears at its head as the first signatory.

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