Fred Melville - Organised Philately

Organised Philately

Melville was active in many branches of philately. He was a member of the Fiscal Philatelic Society from 1911 and he served on many philatelic exhibition juries. He won the Congress Cup at the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain in 1935, for his work The Lives of the Forgers and when the Postal History Society was founded in 1936, he was elected as the first President of the society.

He appears in the 1938 Blue Book of Philately where his specialism is shown as philatelic literature and his address is given as 10a Ardberg Road, Herne Hill, London.

Melville organised the Imperial Stamp Exhibition of 1908, the War Stamps Exhibition in 1915 and the first international airpost exhibition, APEX, in 1934. He also edited the catalogues for the international philatelic exhibitions held in London in 1912 and 1923.

Although principally an author and journalist, Melville did also deal in stamps and a full page advert appeared in Stamp Lover in June 1920 offering stamps for sale from the firm of Fred J. Melville Ltd.