Narbonne, R.F. (Hank) (2009). Postal Service in the Bathurst District of Upper Canada (Upper Ottawa Valley).

Since acquiring this exhibit, originally formed by Eric Manchee of Ottawa, Hank Narbonne has added three frames of new material, the product of many years of research, bringing the exhibit to its present seven-frame size.Included in the exhibit are all of the known postmarks, including the four known manuscript cancels, used by each office in the Bathurst District from 1818 to 1850, when the district was reorganized into the present counties of Carleton, Lanark and Renfrew. Included are cancels from well-known towns Perth, Carleton Place, Smith(‘s) Falls and Bytown, the future Ottawa, and not-so-well known locations such as Admaston, Bellamy’s Mills and South Westmeath. Featured are covers with social and/or historical content, attesting to the many hardships endured by our early pioneers. Of special interest is a letter from Archibald McNab, the ‘Laird of McNab’, who tried unsuccessfully to set up a feudal system in the district.Although the exhibit is an on-going study, it has been praised for setting the standard on how county and district postal history exhibits should be presented in the future.Hank Narbonne took early retirement from the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1978 and became a full time stamp dealer, specializing in Canadian Postal History under the name of Greenwood Stamp Company. A National level judge, he is also a qualified British North America Philatelic Society (BNAPS) judge. He served as Secretary of the Postal History Society of Canada for eighteen years, and has been a Director of the PHSC since 1985. Since 1995 he has also served as Dealer Liaison and Advertising Manager for BNAPS. He has written many articles for BNA Topics and the PHSC Journal. In 2003 Hank was elected to the BNAPS fellowship, the Order of the Beaver, and in 2005 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada.