Bob Schoolley-West Explained

Robin "Bob" F. Schoolley-West (born 12 December 1937, Brighton,^[1] died 14 July 2012,^[2] Dartford, Kent) was a former Head of the Philatelic Collections at the British Library (originally part of the British Museum).

He joined the Museum in 1973 after he investigated, as a police officer, the theft of items from the philatelic collections by James Mackay. In the mid-1980s he took an active part in tracking down forgeries of classic stamps made by Pro-Phila Forum in Germany based on photographs taken by a visitor to the Library.^[3]

Schoolley-West retired in 1991 and was succeeded at the British Library by his former assistant, David Beech.

Publications

• Stamps, British Library, London, 1987.
• The Care and Preservation of Philatelic Materials, British Library, London, 1989. (With T.J. Collings)

Notes and References

1. General Register Office birth entry, Brighton registration district, October–December 1937, Volume 2b Page 230
2. "Membership News" in The London Philatelist, July–August 2012, No. 1397, Vol. 121, p. 236.
3. "Library uncovers fake stamp haul" by Sarah Jane Checkland in The Times, 25 November 1987, p. 6.