25^th anniversary of the Royal Colonial Institute. No’s 327-328

Philatelic material.

First Day Covers (FDC)

Note: Blanco or airmail envelopes are not shown here but do exist

(Although this envelope is used for this FDC, it is not certain that this envelope was intended for this series. There are other series in FDC with the same envelope used).

Luxury sheet & introduction sheet with text:

Souvenir envelope, cancelled 4-3-55 (1955). This envelope was issued to commemorative the 20th & 30th anniversary of the liaison between Belgium-Congo.

Depicted is Edmond Thieffry.

Edmond Thieffry (1892-1929) was Belgium’s third-highest scoring air ace of the First World War. Also known as ‘The Flying Judge’ (because of his civil lawyer activities before the war), he made a decidedly inauspicious start, crash-landing more aircraft during training than any other pilot before him. Brought down in flames in 1918 he nevertheless survived both the accident and the war.

An early commercial pilot (and co-founder) for Belgian airline Sabena (with whom he flew from Brussels to Leopoldville in 51 days), Thieffry was killed while flying an aircraft in Africa on 11 April 1929. The recipient of the Belgian Order of Leopold II, he was aged 36 at his death.