Everard F. Aguilar

Everard Francis Aguilar (14 March 1913 – 16 August 1966) was a Jamaican horticulturist, stamp dealer, and philatelist.

He was a member of a family of Jamaican businessmen known for their connections to the horse racing industry. He first worked in real estate before dividing his time between horticulture and philately, both of which were his hobbies as well as his professions. He wrote and published a handbook of the philately of Jamaica in 1949 and from 1949 to 1958 edited and published the British West Indian Philatelist.

He wrote a survey of the postal history, postage stamps and postmarks of the Cayman Islands with Philip Saunders that was published in 1962 and became a standard work on the area. He re-established the Jamaica Philatelic Society in 1963 and edited its journal but his later years were marred by feuding with the Jamaican government, post office, and others. He fell seriously ill in early 1966 and died the same year, being buried at sea rather than at the family grave plot in Kingston.

Early life and family

Everard Aguilar was born on 14 March 1913 in Kingston, Jamaica, the third and youngest son of the Jamaican-born financier and auctioneer Thomas Newton Aguilar (1851–1937) and his second wife, an Englishwoman named Miss Bastian. Thomas Aguilar was a successful businessman who owned the Knutsford Park Racecourse in Spanish Town, a funeral business, Aguilar's Furnishing Warehouse in Kingston, and was a director of several large companies in Jamaica. and they had daughters Frances and Anne.

Career

From 1935 to 1938, Aguilar worked in real estate but later divided his time between horticulture and stamp dealing. He dealt in the stamps of Jamaica, preparing first day covers for new issues and obtaining covers showing TRDs (temporary rubber date-stamps) from the island's many rural post offices that were popular with collectors. The book received a positive review in The London Philatelist, apart from criticism of the omission of the "scandal" of 1907/08 when Cayman Islands stamps were hand-surcharged to alleviate a shortage of half and one penny stamps. The surcharging was seen in philatelic circles as unnecessary and an attempt to benefit officials or local collectors.

In 1963, Aguilar re-established the Jamaica Philatelic Society with the assistance of The Institute of Jamaica, and published and edited its official journal West Indies Stamps. David Horry describes it principally as a vehicle for Aguilar to air his feuds with the Jamaican post office and government, stamp printers, and the large London dealers Stanley Gibbons by whom he felt slighted. He proposed ideas for several stamp issues which were ignored or rejected, such as after the death of James Bond creator and Jamaica resident Ian Fleming, and tighter processes at the Post Office made it harder for him to produce the covers for sale to collectors which formed an important part of his trade.

Death Aguilar fell seriously ill in early 1966 and travelled abroad for treatment but returned to Jamaica still in poor health. He died at his home in Jack's Hill, a suburb of Kingston, on 16 August 1966. He was buried at sea and not at the family grave at St Andrew's Parish Church as his father and brothers were. and the BWISC Bulletin.

Selected publications The Philatelic Handbook of Jamaica. E. F. Aguilar, Kingston, 1949. (2nd edition 1959) The Cayman Islands, Their postal history, postage stamps and postmarks. F. J. Parsons, Folkestone, 1962. (With Philip Saunders) "Jamaican stamps" in Morris Cargill (Ed.) Ian Fleming Introduces Jamaica. Andre Deutsch, London, 1965.