Page 22 - Demo
P. 22


                                    knew each other, and it would have been natural for Circle to use Harry%u2019s cachets on its Prexie covers. As for the lower-value covers in my set, it%u2019s unknown how the addressee, R.A. Derrick, found out about Ioor cachets, or how he arranged for the covers to be mailed to him in Fiji%u2014but there were several First Day Cover services he could have utilized back then. What is known about Ronald Albert Derrick himself is that he was a well respected historian, and the author of two highly praised books, A History of Fiji, Volume One(1946) and The Fiji Islands; a Geographical Handbook(1957). Derrick was born in 1892 in Victoria, Australia, and later moved to Fiji, where he founded the Davuilevu Technical School in 1919, which became a part of the Fiji National University. He was named an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), and also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in Great Britain. In 1953, he was appointed curator of the Fiji Museum in Suva, and served until his death on November 13, 1960. After his passing, the Fiji Times said, %u201cTogether with a kindly sympathy went a solid fund of shrewd common-sense and a quiet, observant sense of humour that made him eminently approachable to people who might otherwise have been unduly overawed by his brilliant attainments and his achievements.%u201d In 2016, Fiji%u2019s Derrick Bridge was named in his honor.I did learn something else about R.A. Derrick. Because the boy I bought the covers from said he got them from his uncle, that meant that one of Derrick%u2019s 5 siblings would have been one of the boy%u2019s parents. But because there is no indication that any of the siblings ever left the South Pacific, it is unlikely that Derrick was his uncle. Perhaps one of their descendants came to America, and lived in Lafayette, and R.A. was the boy%u2019s great uncle, or perhaps some other relative. It%u2019s also possible that the boy was totally unrelated to Derrick, and his uncle somehow obtained the covers from R.A. Today, there%u2019s no way to know.As I grew into adulthood, Dad would regularly ask if the value of that Presidential set had gone up in price. But it never did. About the time I entered high school, I quit philately, and eventually sold off most of my collection. However, I did keep those Prexie First Day Covers, along with the one addressed to R.A. with the 10%u00a2 National Park Souvenir Sheet. Then, not long after Lynn and I moved to Monroe County in 1984, I decided to sell them. I contacted the local library and learned there was a Bloomington Stamp Club, and that a man named Mark Goodson was its president, so I Ronald Derrick.The only cover I have left that was addressed to Ronald Derrick.First Day Covers
                                
   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26