YACHT CLUB ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATED ON STAMPS

Guernsey Post Stamps announces the release of its latest stamp issue to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club (RCIYC), which began life as the Jersey Yacht and Rowing Club (issue date 25 July).

Since becoming the sixth yacht club to carry the designation ‘Royal', an honour bestowed upon it by Queen Victoria in 1862, the RCIYC has enjoyed a distinguished history with some eminent members including WW2 hero Commander Loftus Peyton-Jones, who was awarded the DSO for gallant conduct in the Battle of the Barents Sea and was also Guernsey's first vice-commodore; Christopher Nicole, Guernsey's first commodore and writer of over one-hundred novels; and the ‘darling' of Victorian society Lillie Langtry, the RCIYC's first lady member.

"We wanted to mark the RCIYC's special anniversary as, whilst it was originally established as a Jersey club, there were Guernsey members from the start," explains Dawn Gallienne, head of philatelic at Guernsey Post. "Guernsey membership had grown to several hundred by the 1950s and the island was given its own flag officers and premises."

"These stamps perfectly capture the dynamism of the sport, as well as the camaraderie among crew members," said Dawn Gallienne, head of philatelic at Guernsey Post.