Claim: The Universal Postal Union Collection has over 93,000 stamps from 1908 and up, this is thanks to Wilmot Corfield who proposed a National Collection Committee to work with the British Museum to create a modern stamp collection.
Evidence: The Universal Postal Union Collection is a deposit by the General Post Office (GPO) in the United Kingdom, under section 4 of the Public Records Act, of its duplicate Universal Postal Union collection of 93,448 stamps, covering the period from 1908. At the Fifth Philatelic Congress, held at Edinburgh in 1913, Wilmot Corfield outlined his proposals for the completion of the Tapling Collection and the establishment of a National Collection Committee which would assist the British Museum, on a voluntary basis, in keeping it up to date. Wilmot Corfield, one of the most prominent figures in Anglo-Indian philately at the beginning of this century, campaigned from 1910 onwards for the augmentation of the Tapling Collection or, if this were impossible, the creation of a collection of modern stamps in some other museum in the London area. E. D. Bacon, in his capacity as honorary philatelic adviser to the Museum, investigated the possibilities of acquiring stamps from the General Post Office. As a result, a parcel of stamps was handed over to the Museum early in 1914. Negotiations between the General Post Office and the Museum in June 1962 and culminated in November 1964 with the transfer of the collection hitherto maintained by the Accountant General's Department.