Some Brecqhou History
Past owners of Brecqhou Island (part of the Channel Islands) include: Sibyl Hathaway and Angelo Clarke but it is, I believe, the owner prior to the Barlcay's who perhaps pioneered 'helicoptering' to the isle.
From 1966 to 1987 the island was owned by Leonard Matchan who owned several helicopters and at least one fixed wing.
Leonard took it upon himself to commission a series of Brecqhou stamps and, one is mighty glad he did, for it is from these stamps that we are able to piece together a little of the island's rotary-wing history.
In 1969 Leonard commissioned a first day cover which looked something like this:
First Day Cover of indigenous Brecqhou stamps dated 30th September 1969 and stamped "Brecqhou Island Heliport"
On the cover we see a two shilling stamp (below):
One of the first Brecqhou stamps depicting a Hiller UH-12E4 with floats
Separate sources show the following actual helicopter (below) as having visited the island:
Hiller UH-12E4 over Brecqhou Island c. 1969
Now, I have not yet been able to tie Leonard Matchan to the ownership of a Hiller UH-12E4 but .. on the Nostalgia Thread we have looked at
G-ATDW a couple of times, each time located at Southampton, each time wearing fixed floats and both times between 1966 and 1967. So, I think there
may be a case to surmise that just possibly, Leonard was chartering the Hiller from Bristows?
Let's look at another stamp from the same period:
Leonard Matchan's 75p Brecqhou Island stamp depicting Brantly 305 G-ATLO
Well well. As we know from the Nostalgia Thread, there were very few Brantly 305's in Britain and this one we have certainly covered previously. She is of course none other than Tommy Sopwith's former mount (son of the designer of the WW1 bi-plane the Sopwith Camel .. for those just joining us).
Tommy sold ATLO in 1966 to BEAS (the Brantly distributor) who then sold it within a matter of months to Leonard Matchan (although the craft was registered to 'Bouley Investments' of St. Helier).
A little later we find another 75p stamp issued by Matchan:
Leonard Matchan's 75p Brecqhou Island stamp depicting Gazelle G-BBHU
Now when I saw this I thought .. aye aye .. we're back to chartering and he's rented it from Specialist Flying Training (for one recognises the scheme) but no .. Leonard bought BBHU from Westland Helicopters in 1974 and kept her until 1985 when she was then sold to SFT. So, our island owner was traversing the channel for over a decade in this little Gazelle fitted with skid-mounted float 'bags'.
Regarding the stamps, I came across this:
In September 1969 the then owner of Brecqhou, Leonard Matchan, planned and executed an issue of stamps, more properly called "carriage labels" they were ostensibly to pay for the cost of delivering letters and parcels to a recognised General Post Office. The older spelling of Brechou was used on these stamps. The day after the issue, stamps of Brecqhou were suppressed by the Guernsey Postal Authority when they took over responsibility from the UK for the issue of postal stamps.
One more item of 'stamp history' to come.