The West Indies seemed to be the natural place for me to go this week, starting with the short lived political union that existed from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962. Ten British West Indian territories with Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados as the principal members and many of the Leeward and Windward Islands became -
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| The West Indies Federation |
This stamp, issued 22 April 1958, shows their location. It was accompanied by two others of the same design - a 3c green and a 6c blue.
The seat of government for the Federation was in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, where
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| Trinidad & Tobago - 12 September 1960 |
Whitehall was used for the Federation offices.
Built in 1904 by Joseph Leon Agostini, a cocoa planter, it later became the office of the first prime minister of Trinidad & Tobago after independence and was occupied by prime ministers of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago until 2009.
A Royal Visit made to Jamaica in 1966 is recorded by the overprint on this stamp issued on 3 March.
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| Jamaica - Palisades International Airport |
The airport, renamed Norman Manley Airport in 2011, serves Kingston - the capital of Jamaica.
For other stamps from the western hemisphere check out the links at Sunday-Stamps-II-113.
6 comments:
Hi Bob - if we take the time to look ... these stamps do give us a brief history of the area and times - don't they ...
Interesting to see them - thank you ... cheers Hilary
I didn't know about the federation, nice to see the island mapped out. Seems that the cricket team was more successful in combining nationalities.
I sadly admit that my knowledge of the history of the West Indies is sketchy at best.
I should gather all my Caribbean stamps together and see what I can learn from them.
Always fascinating to take a trip through history on stamps.
Well we visited a few of those islands once upon a time. They seemed predominantly French rather than British, but maybe that was just the ones we visited.
Interesting stamps.
Thanks for the information about the West Indies, I really like the first stamp with the map.
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