{"id":1809,"date":"2025-11-23T07:29:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T07:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/?p=1809"},"modified":"2026-05-28T07:03:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:03:47","slug":"on-line-exhibitor-james-oxley-brennan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/2025\/11\/23\/on-line-exhibitor-james-oxley-brennan\/","title":{"rendered":"James Oxley-Brennan (UK)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Exhibits : The Salvation Army Match Factory<\/a>, Swan Vestas<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

My collection began in the early 1950’s with New Forest, a brand made in Belgium.<\/p>\n

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New Forest box label, 35 x 50 mm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were living on the Hampshire\/Dorset border, and my mother liked this box, with its label showing a deer and a sylvan background.<\/p>\n

It was not long before she found another attractive box, and then another …..<\/p>\n

We moved to Norfolk in 1955, when I was seven, and while at the village school I came across a shoebox full of empty matchboxes, most of which were new to me.<\/p>\n

“Could I please have a few for my collection”, I asked.<\/p>\n

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Alpha box label, artb, 56 x 111 mm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They let me have some, and one which I remember well was \u201cAlpha\u201d from United Match Industries.<\/p>\n

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In the late 1960’s I visited an exhibition staged by the Norwich Phillumenists. This was my first experience of a group of like-minded enthusiasts, and I learnt what to do and what not to do – “never show a matchbox a pair of scissors” was the sound advice of Mrs Peggy Thompson. With her husband Fred and son Stephen she was the mainstay of the club.<\/p>\n

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Norwich club label, 1983<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In October 1976 I joined the BML&BS and was enrolled by John Luker. My collection expanded, to take in hardware and ephemera, all helping to complete the picture. In June 1989 I became the Honorary Librarian, and am very happy to hold this post.<\/p>\n

Today I concentrate on British material, and the former British brands from Republic Technologies UK<\/strong><\/a>, the Society’s Patron, especially Swan Vestas. I have never tried to make the biggest collection, preferring quality to quantity, deriving much enjoyment from my collection. Although I don’t have a computer I am pleased to have an Exhibit in our John Walker On-line Exhibition, an important milestone for the Society.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/strong><\/a> to return to the Exhibition Catalogue.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exhibits : The Salvation Army Match Factory, Swan Vestas My collection began in the early 1950’s with New Forest, a brand made in Belgium. We were living on the Hampshire\/Dorset border, and my mother liked this box, with its label showing a deer and a sylvan background. It was not long before she found another […] Read more<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-line-exhibitor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1809"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6523,"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions\/6523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}