If you have an interest in history and, in particular, the history of the Nelson Tasman region, an event on Saturday is worth a look.
Nelson Philatelic Society is hosting their annual Collecting History event at Founders Park on Saturday.
Historical items from hobby and professional collectors will be on display, and a range of interactive workshops will teach you how to preserve your own slice of history.
Nelson Philatelic Society committee member David Loe will once again be taking along some of his priceless local artefacts.
This year, a welcome addition to his collection is a postcard sent in 1900, which he purchased for $1 from a part time dealer in Stoke because of the “nice Nelson postmark”.
While it has resided in his collection for some time, it wasn’t until recently that David took a closer look.
“I thought ‘hang on a minute’, it’s been set from Beira in Mozambique, in 1900.”
He turned his mind to the Boer War, but Nelson didn’t have a contingent.
“The Fourth Contingent were a bunch of volunteers from all over the place, so although they left from Otago, they were from all over,” David says.
“So I turned it over and lo and behold it’s a postcard sent from Biera to his mother, so he’s obviously volunteered in the Army.”
The text reads “some of the beauty spots of Biera, will send more later, expecting a letter. Well and happy, still encamped er in Biera. Expect to get away any day."
David’s research shows that Biera was on the end of a railway line which was taking troops down to the conflict zone.
The postcard continues with “Some of our boys have had fever. Escaped myself so far.”
“So, there’s a huge backstory to this, which I love because is cost me $1, and all because I was buying a postmark," David says.
Prior to last year’s event, Nelson Weekly published an article about another of David’s historic letters.
A family member of the letter receiver read the article and reached out to David.
“The family didn’t know anything about this guy, because being a conscientious objector was sort of a big no no.”
“So I met a guy over in Māpua and he showed me family photographs of who had received the letter and who had written it and so on.”
David says Founders Park is the perfect location for the Collecting History event, because the entire site is about history and heritage.
Collecting History, Saturday, 18 October, 10am to 4pm at Founders Heritage Park. Free entry for locals.
