E. Victor Toeg

Ezekiel Victor Toeg FRPSL (2 February 1916 – 28 July 2010) was a British solicitor and philatelist who specialised in the postage stamps and postal history of the British West Indies (BWI) and Caribbean. His collection of Antigua won two gold medals at international stamp exhibitions and included a 1693 letter to London that was described in 1990 as the earliest known letter from the island. He wrote a book on the adhesive fees stamps of the Leeward Islands and completed a survey of the stamps and postal history of the island of Dominica to 1935 (1994). He was president of the British West Indies Study Circle (BWISC) from 1968 until his death in 2010.

Early life and family Ezekiel Toeg was born in Shanghai, China, on 2 February 1916. He was educated in England where he attended a preparatory school at Seaford, Sussex, and then Clifton College, Bristol. He studied law at Lincoln College, University of Oxford, and after graduation enlisted in the Royal Air Force. He failed to qualify as a pilot due to his height but served guarding Gibraltar from enemy attack during the Second World War.

He married Laetitia (Lettie) D. Lesser in Marylebone in 1947. They had a son, Nigel. Lettie Toeg died in 2003. and another gold at Stamp World London 1990 after which parts were sold at auction that year by Christie's Robson Lowe. and two of the earliest-known letters from Antigua bearing only a Bishop mark, one of which is a 1693 letter to William Moore in London that was described by the auctioneers as the earliest known letter from Antigua.

His writings include articles for society journals and the index of the first one hundred issues of the British West Indies Study Circle's Bulletin. which he complained had been largely ignored even by most collectors of those islands. When he decided to write the book, he didn't own any of the stamps and had to borrow Michael Medlicott's collection to use as source material.

He completed the work of Philip Saunders, the founder of the BWISC, and others in a survey of the postal history, stamps, and postal stationery of Dominica to 1935 that was published in 1994, the first book devoted to the philately of the island since Bertram W. H. Poole's monograph of c. 1909.

Organised philately Toeg joined the British West Indies Study Circle in 1954 and was vice-president and then president from 1968 until his death in 2010. He was honorary president towards the end of that period after having heart surgery in 1995 following which the position of chairman and president were separated to reduce the strain on his health. and a fellow in 1967. He resigned on becoming a stamp dealer with his wife but was reinstated after ceasing in business. He received an obituary in the Bulletin of the BWISC.

Selected publications Articles "Why not collect Antigua?", Gibbons Stamp Monthly, Vol. 44, 3 parts in Nos. 4, 5 & 6.

Books Antigua Traditional Exhibit, 1693 to 1946 Victory Issue Specimens. c. 1980s. B.W.I. Study Circle Bulletin. Index to Bulletins 1–100. E. Victor Toeg, 1987. The Leeward Islands Adhesive Fees Stamps. British West Indies Study Circle, 1991. Dominica: Postal History, Stamps and Postal Stationery to 1935. Vol. 1. British West Indies Study Circle, St Neots, 1994.