SIGNATORIES TO THE ROLL OF DISTINGUISHED PHILATELISTS 2007

The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists was established in 1921 by the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain with the approval of His Majesty King George V who was the first Signatory. An invitation to sign the Roll is regarded as the world’s premier philatelic honour. Including the newly elected RDPs, of some 330 philatelists from 45 countries who have achieved this distinction, there are at present 70 Signatories from 27 countries including 13 from the United Kingdom.

The 2007 signatories were:

Paulo Comelli Brazil

Dr Ulrich Ferchenbauer Austria

Dr Peter P. McCann United States of America

Paulo Comelli - Brazil

Paulo Comelli specialises in classic Brazil and Brazil postal history. His exhibit of the Dom Pedro II stamps was awarded Large Gold Medals on a number of occasions between 1985 and 1996 and more recently he has formed a collection of Brazilian Mail to Foreign Destinations: from Correo-Mor to UPU. This was awarded a Gold medal at Philanippon and is the subject of a paper presented to the Royal Philatelic Society during 2006.

Paulo has carried out research into the Bull’s Eyes, and Dom Pedro issues and into Brazilian postal history. Notably he was editor of MOSAICO from 1990 to 2003. He also carried out significant research into Brazilian forgeries and contributed articles to Fakes, Forgeries Experts issues 7, 8 and 9.

He has also been a leading contributor to South American philately having served as Vice President of the Brazilian Federation of Philately, and Vice President of the Interamerican Federation of Philately. He is an accredited FIP juror and has served on the jury on a number of occasions since apprenticing at India in 1997. Since 1993 he has served as Chairman of the jury at many of Brazil’s national exhibitions. He is a member of the Association Internationale des Experts en Philatelie (AIEP) and was elected a Board member in 2006.

Dr Ulrich Ferchenbauer - Austria

Dr Ferchenbauer is the leading expert on the classic issues of Austria and is responsible for Austria 1850-1918 - Handbook and Specialised Catalogue, the 6th Edition of which received a Large Gold in the literature class at WIPA 2000 and the Crawford medal of the Royal Philatelic Society in 2001.

He has put together a number of reference collections of classic Austria and his exhibit ‘Austria 1850-1864 - irregular and unusual frankings’ obtained Large Gold medals at Espana 2004 and Bruno 2005.

His predominant work is as a philatelic expert and he has been President of the VOB (Austrian Association of Philatelic Experts) since 1986, and has been a member of AIEP since 1997. He is currently Vice President of Vindobona (Austria’s most prestigious collectors club. He has also served as a FIP juror in the traditional class.

In 2002 the President of the Republic of Austria awarded the title ‘Professor Honoris Causa’ to Dr Ferchenbauer for his scientific accomplishments in the field of philately. This is the only time that this distinction has been awarded for philatelic work.

Dr Peter McCann - USA

Peter McCann is best known for his research into the postal history of the small islands in the Caribbean and in the South Atlantic. His exhibit of British Virgin Islands has achieved Gold at international exhibitions on a number of occasions. He is also author of over thirtyfive articles on various facets of West Indies philately and was co-author of The Postal History of the Cayman Islands published in 1989. More recently he was joint Editor of Thirty Years of St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cuhna Philately published in 2006.

He has had a distinguished career in service to philately, most recently being elected in 2004 as a Vice President of FIP. He is also a trustee of the Philatelic Foundation, a member of the Smithsonian Institution National Postal Museum Council for Philatelists and was President of the American Philatelic Society from 1999-2003. He has served as an international judge since 1993 and was Chairman of the exhibits committee for Washington 2006.

He has received a number of awards including the Eugene Klein award for 1990 for the best book published by a member of the American National Congress, the Phoenix Award for 1993 for service to philately and in 2006 was recipient of the Skavaril Award.