About Me

My name is Nigel Shanks. I was born in Bermuda in 1972. My father was Bermudian, and he met my mother in New Zealand. They went back to Bermuda to marry and lived there for a short time, but when I was three months old the family moved back to New Zealand. I grew up a long way from the island, but Bermuda has always been part of who I am.

Where it began

My maternal grandfather, Jim Langabeer, was a passionate stamp and postal history collector. He had already built a gold medal winning airmail collection when he travelled to Bermuda for my parents' wedding. Like so many visitors, he fell for the island and its stamps, and he turned his attention to Bermuda, in particular its postal stationery. He couldn't afford much of the better material, so his Bermuda collection stayed a modest one, built mainly around stationery. When the Bermuda Collectors Society was formed in 1986, he was delighted to join.

My father's parents lived in Bermuda until they died in the early 2000s, so we made family trips back when I was a child. On those visits I'd go into Larry Swain's stamp shop armed with Jim's wants list and try to find something for him.

Jim was the reason I started collecting. As a boy, though, Bermuda wasn't my interest. I collected New Zealand and built up an interesting collection. It was when I inherited Jim's modest Bermuda collection that the island's postal history really took hold.

A young Nigel Shanks with his grandfather Jim Langabeer in front of exhibition frames — With my grandfather, Jim Langabeer, at the New Zealand 1990 International Stamp Exhibition in Auckland.

The Bermuda Collectors Society

I joined the Society in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and it has been an important part of my life ever since. In September 2006 I became the fifth editor of Bermuda Post and held the role until September 2014. After a few years as an ordinary member, I became President in January 2022, a position I still hold. I write regularly for the Society.

Over the years I've been helped enormously by fellow members of the Society, who have shared their knowledge, material and encouragement freely. Bill Gompel, John Puzine, John Paré, Horst Augustinovic and David Cordon are just a few of them, and I'm grateful to them all.

Front cover of Bermuda Post, January to March 2025, showing a Grenadier Guards cover, graves and a sketch of the returning Guards — The January–March 2025 issue of *Bermuda Post*, featuring my article on the Grenadier Guards in Bermuda.

It's the story that matters

I appreciate rare markings and unusual usages, but what excites me most is the story behind a cover. It might be a censored letter, a Boer War prisoner, a camp, or a ship. With a ship, it's the ship itself, the people aboard and what became of it. The thread I always follow is how it all connects back to Bermuda.

That's why exhibiting has never appealed to me. I find it very restrictive. Visitors walk past frames that may or may not interest them, the pages can be hard to read, and a complicated story can't be told properly on a one-page summary. Technology has finally given me a way to tell these stories in full, on a site anyone can visit at any time. I think it's a wonderful way to show material.

The collection and this site

The collection now runs to around 70 volumes of Bermuda postal history. I'm starting with naval mail, and the site will grow from there. It will add World War I and World War II censorship, the Boer War, airmails, the military regiments stationed in Bermuda, maritime mail, instructional markings, and a collection of combination covers used out of Bermuda I'm particularly proud of. Later it will take in Dockyard, the postal history of the Dock and Caravel issues, registered mail, OHMS, St. David's and postage dues, among others.

Presenting all of this is going to give me a great deal of joy. I hope it also reaches people who can add to the stories, fill in some of the gaps, or simply enjoy what's here. I'd love to hear from you.

You can get in touch through the Contact page.

A leather-topped desk with a computer, magnifier and tongs, looking out over paddocks — My desk at the farm, where the research and writing get done.

Away from the collection

I've had a career in New Zealand across marketing, advertising and a number of directorships. These days I'm semi-retired, though I still have work commitments. My partner and I split our time between our farm north of Auckland and our home in the city, and we travel a great deal. I'm also one of the owners of Auckland City Stamps and Campbell Paterson Limited, two of New Zealand's larger stamp dealers. I'm not involved day to day, but I look after the IT side and help my business partner David Holmes, one of New Zealand's leading stamp dealers, at shows and auctions when needed. I'm still an active buyer and as committed to collecting as ever.