The Stuart Rossiter Trust is pleased to announce that the Stuart Rossiter Memorial Lecture 2010 will be given by Gavin Fryer FRPSL, at 5.00pm on Friday 5th November at The Royal Philatelic Society London with the title How the Blind have been served by the Post.

The lecture is based on Gavin’s worldwide collection of postal items and brings to view a number of aspects of social and postal reforms as well as opening the minds of many philatelists to the realisation that special postal tariffs and arrangements have been developed during period of over a century.

Gavin has been researching this subject for many years and his lecture will illustrate the context and postal story that begins in the 1820s and will include the struggle of those working for the blind against British government bureaucracy particularly in the period 1894 to 1906. The postal franchise laid down by the Universal Postal Union which became effective from 1966 has meant that gradually the use of adhesives to prepay postage has been eliminated, as will be illustrated. Most classes of mail can be found involving the blind including disaster mail and air freight.

Gavin is the author and publisher of the forthcoming book Blindman’s Mail – How the Blind have been served by the Post which is expected at the end of the summer of 2010.

Gavin Fryer is a Fellow and a Past President of The Royal Philatelic Society London and a Trustee of the Stuart Rossiter Trust.

Free admission is by non transferable ticket only on application to: The Stuart Rossiter Trust, c/o David Beech, The British Library, Philatelic Collections, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB, UK or DRBeech@btinternet.com Early application is advised.

The Lecture is one of the events in the London 2010 Festival of Stamps.