Stampex International Court of Honour Celebrates 50 Years of Concorde

Autumn Stampex 2019 International featured the Brian Asquith’s Collection “Faster than a Bullet – The Concorde Story” to mark the 50th Anniversary of the maiden flight of Concorde.   Brian’s collection showcases the story of Concorde and alongside pieces of philatelic interest Brian has also collected other memorabilia including flight certificates, stickers, menus, postcards and even champagne.  His proudest pieces include a GB imprimatur block of 4 for the 3 Concorde stamps issued in 1969. He also owns a wonderful letter from HRH Prince Philip from Buckingham Place to Sir Harold Hartley GCVO in which the Prince documents his first journey on Concorde.

His collection also includes a card signed by Tony Benn Minister of Technology who on 11th December 1967 confirmed that Concorde would be spelt with an “e”. And towards the end of the display there is a flight certificate marking the last flight of Concorde.  As a privately held collection it is wonderful to have it on display.   Brian has been lucky enough to travel on Concorde 6 times and has been a guest of the Chief Air France Concorde Pilot Captain Edouard Chemel and on one occasion flew in the cockpit.

He collected stamps as a child and came back to the hobby in 1968 the year before the first Concorde flight. His passion for collecting was ignited by his childhood love of aviation and he started collecting Airmail, focusing on Chinese Air Mails.  His collection “On Dragons’ Wings – Chinese Airmails” has been awarded two gold medals and in 2009 it was shown in the Court of Honour at the Beijing 2009 Aeropex international exhibition where he was also an international judge. The Chinese Post Office has since published  a book of the  exhibit in both English and Chinese. He was a founding member of the Concorde Study Circle in 1978 and has been Chairman and Newsletter Editor since then.