Two covers appeared on Ebay displaying in total, on the two covers, the 15 different designs of the cinderellas stamps that are derived from a sheet of 30. The format of the sheet was six horizontally and five vertically, with the same order repetition of the first and last three stamps in each horizontal row of six (Figure 1).
The first cover has nine of the 15 cinderella stamp designs as well as the John Ash imprint block of the red 2d 150th Anniversary of the founding of New South Wales, showing Captain Phillip at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788, which was issued as a set of same design stamps (red 2d, blue 3d and 9d purple) on 1 October 1937. The cover is addressed to Mr J.J.A. Walker, Public School, Waratah and the cover has 2 examples of a WARATAH/ -2 OC 37/ N.S.W, Type 2A postmark, and is thus not a first day cover (Figure 2).
The second cover has all 15 of the cinderella stamp designs as well as another cinderella promoting the Philatelic Exhibition in Sydney April 1938 and the green 1d Queen Elizabeth and red 2d King George VI stamps are postmarked with the same type WARATAH/ 12 NO 37/ N.S.W postmarks, and the same recipient is further identified as Mr John J.A. Walker, Public School, Waratah, N.S.W. (Figure 3).
The celebrations went on for more than a year with the publication of special postcards, newspaper illustrated inserts, and the Commonwealth Games in Sydney, to name just a few. I have no memory of receiving a copy of the following book as a Sydney schoolboy, for apparently there was widespread distribution of this book showing Captain Arthur Phillip R.N. at Sydney Cove (Figure 4).
At least several medals with the head of Arthur Phillip were struck as Captain Arthur Phillip or as Governor of New South Wales in or around 1938 for Australia’s 150th Anniversary and examples of the medals are shown. One medal was described as Australia’ 150th Anniversary and has Captain Phillip on the front and a representation of his landing at Sydney cove on the reverse (Figure 5).
Another describes him as Arthur Phillip, Governor New South Wales 1788 on the front and the reverse shows an athlete carrying a torch, and is described as ‘Youth Carries On’, celebrating the 150th Anniversary and possibly the Commonwealth Games (Figure 6).
Lt. (later Admiral) Arthur Phillip was born 11 October 1738 in Fulham, England, educated at the school of Greenwich Hospital, apprenticed to the merchant navy at 13, joined the Royal Navy at 15, saw action in the Seven Years War in 1756, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1762, served in the Portuguese Navy and in 1786 was appointed captain of HMS Sirius and Governor-designate of N.S.W., a proposed British penal colony. He assembled a fleet (the First Fleet of 11 ships set sail on 13 Nay 1787) to make a 8-month journey to Australia transporting 778 convicts plus a contingent of marines and other officers, who were to administer the colony. The lead ship reached Botany Bay (previously recommended by Joseph Banks who was with James Cook in 1770), but Phillip decided to go on to Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788, where all disembarked.
Times were tempestuous, but by 1790 the situation in N.S.W. had stabilised, and Phillip wished to return to England, but it was not until late 1792 that Phillip received permission to leave in the Atlantic, by which time the European population of N.S.W. was 4,221 of which 3,099 were convicts, for the Second and Third Fleets had brought more. Phillip arrived in London in May 1793, tendered his formal resignation, and was granted a pension of £500 annually.
In 1796 he went back to sea, holding a series of commands and responsible posts in the wars against the French; in January 1799 he became a Rear-Admiral, in 1805, at the age of 67, he retired from the Navy with the rank of Admiral, and spent most of the rest of his life at Bath, England. He continued to correspond with friends in New South Wales and to promote the colony’s interests with government officials, up to the time when he died at Bath in 1814. A portrait of Arthur Phillip is shown in Figure 7.
This extremely brief description of Arthur Phillip’s life was extracted from the Wikipedia website.