Not Such a "Wild Man of Borneo"
I have been collecting stamps since some time in the last century. It sounds like a long time ago and it is. Some of the areas I am interested in are Judaica and also North Borneo. Why North Borneo? I'm not too sure, but maybe, as a young boy, the stories about "wild men," head hunters and strange animals caught my imagination. Some of my collection is shown here.
What is the Jewish connection? You will notice that in the King George VI set issued in 1950 the 50 cent value has two stamps depicting the Clock tower at Jessleton, the Capital of North Borneo. On closer inspection, you can see that the second stamp has the name corrected to Jesselton. While we were living in Ilford, Essex, I met a fellow philatelist and during a conversation with her, I learned that she was related to a certain Toby Jessel, M.P. for Twickenham 1970-1997. She also spoke about some distant relation who was connected to the Government of North Borneo. - Sir Charles James Jessel, 1st Baronet of Ladham, barrister, businessman, and Vice-Chairman of the British North Borneo Company. The then capital ofNorth Borneo, Jesselton, was named in his honor. North Borneo, now known as Sabah, shares the Island of Borneo, the world's third largest Island, with Sarawak, Brunei and Indonesia.
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