24.01.1939 – 19.10.2023
We are greatly saddened to learn of the sad passing of long-time volunteer with The Hockey Museum (THM), David Sumpter on 19 October 2023.
You could take the man out of Lincolnshire, but you could not take Lincolnshire out of the man.
David was a graduate in Agricultural Sciences. A regular attendee at THM during our formative years at the Butts Road and Poole Road premises, at the latter he used his ‘arboriculturalist’ skills to manage the weeds and undergrowth and enable access to our external shipping container.
David was also a nationally renowned philatelist (philately is the study of postage stamps and postal history) and an Associate of the British Philatelic Society – he regularly displayed and lectured on his collecting passions as a leading authority on Gibraltar, the GB Penny Lilac, as well as ‘The Bounty’ (the ship HMS Bounty) and associated islands.
Very few philatelists collect only stamps. Most largely specialise and David was no exception. He was acknowledged as an expert on the stamps of Gibraltar and when he sold his collection, which was complete (every stamp Gibraltar ever issued), it attracted many bids and sold for a significant sum. It was fully written up with information on every stamp – a collection which took him 50 years to put together.
David’s other collections were narrower in extent. The GB Penny Lilac was a single stamp, but there were many variations because of different issues from printers in different parts of the country. These were identified by David and other interested parties, and they were able to build up a full history of this single stamp, tracking its development through time. His collection on ‘The Bounty’ was borne out of the discovery of a few stamps issued by the islands visited by the ship. David sought to discover every stamp issued featuring HMS Bounty and then built a story and a collection around this; he gave lectures and talks to Philatelic Societies about his efforts and discoveries.
David enthusiastically took on the role of compiling and documenting a complete set of every postage stamp featuring hockey to have been officially published across the world, including many First Day Covers issued by national post offices. As THM Founder Trustee David Wareham recalls:
“Mike Smith and I started our collection of hockey stamps when we both attended the 1982 men’s Hockey World Cup in Bombay, India. A stamp was issued for the event and that made us both think ‘How many more are there?’ and the search began. We have not stopped since. I met David at the 1986 World Cup at Willesden and he started collecting hockey stamps soon afterwards. When he was putting together the Museum’s philately collection, we often met to discuss stamps and issues. Mike and I probably provided David with almost 50% of the stamps and covers now forming a part of THM stamp collection. David wrote up the whole collection drawing on skill and knowledge acquired through the numerous displays and exhibitions he had been involved with over many years.”
David also oversaw the Museum’s postcard collection, his research shining fresh light on many of the Victorian, Edwardian and Services hockey photographs reproduced in postcard form.
David was always a warm and generous character. A genial conversationalist, he was well liked by those who knew and worked with him. His time and dedication to THM reflected his voluntary life within hockey; he was a respected umpire as well as serving as a committee member for and thereafter Vice President of East Grinstead Hockey Club.
A tribute to David can be found on the East Grinstead HC website: https://www.eghockey.co.uk/club-news/remembering-david-sumpter
