The Federation of European Philatelic Associations (FEPA), an international organization of more than 40 philatelic federations, has unveiled a new award for the best website in philately.
The Francis Kiddle Medal, named after a 1995 Roll of Distinguished Philatelists signatory, will honour the hobby’s pandemic-driven developments in the online realm. FEPA member federations submitted about two dozen nominations for review by the FEPA board with the help of an expert panel.
“It is with great pleasure that we have been permitted by Mrs Máire Kiddle to name the award after Francis Kiddle …,” reads this July’s issue of FEPA News, which also lists the nominees.
FRANCIS KIDDLE
A past president of the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL), Francis Kiddle was “a great philatelist, expert on philatelic literature and friend of FEPA,” according to that federation’s July journal. While he served as the U.K.-based Defence Evaluation and Research Agency’s assistant director of space technology research, a role from which he retired in 1997, Kiddle’s philatelic accomplishments are similarly impressive:
- from 1996-2000, he served as the secretary of the Federation Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) astrophilately commission;
- in 1977, he served on the RPSL council;
- from 1979-94, he was the RPSL’s honorary librarian;
- from 1994-96, he served as the RPSL president;
- from 1996-2005, he chaired of the British Philatelic Trust;
- from 2000-08, he chaired the FIP philatelic literature commission;
- in 2001, he recieved the Royal Mail Lifetime Achievement Award;
- in 2006, he signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists and received the U.S. Smithsonian Museum Lifetime Achievement Award;
- from 2008-15, he chaired the FIP revenue commission;
- in 2009, he was named an honorary Fellow of the RPSL;
- in 2012, he received the Lichtenstein Award; and
- curated the RPSL’s Perkins Bacon Archive until his death in 2015.
Kiddle also served as a judge at many exhibitions around the world. He died soon after serving as the jury chair at the London 2015 Europhilex exhibition.
The 2021 Kiddle Medal winner will be announced later this year. Officials hope to present the medal at the FEPA Congress in Athens, Greece, on Nov. 23.