Born in Plymouth, Stanley Gibbons developed a keen interest in stamp collecting from an early age. At 16, he took a desk in his father’s chemist to sell stamps.
In 1874, Gibbons moved to London to develop his stamp business, settling in Gower Street in 1876. The first mention of ‘Stanley Gibbons & Co postage stamp dealers’ appears in ‘The Post Office Directory’ a year later. He sold the business to Charles Phillips from Birmingham in 1890, for £25,000 and retired.
Phillips opened the ‘Stanley Gibbons’ shop on The Strand a year later – where it still remains today.
1900s GPO Rescue and Salvage Squad
2000s 50 Years of Special Stamps
1700s John Pratt writes to John Palmer to inform him that he hasn’t been appointed to Government (August 1782), (from the private papers of John Palmer)
1900s David Gentleman
1900s A job for life and two World Wars
1900s Royal Silver Wedding (1948)