With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Lady Mairi's stamps 'to raise £2.6m at London auction'

She was an aristocrat and an eccentric who greeted guests with a cockatoo on her shoulder.

Lady Mairi Bury of Mount Stewart, County Down, who died last year, was a colourful character who piloted her first plane aged 11 and her last at 85.

She was a close friend of politicians like Harold Macmillan. She was also one of the UK's greatest stamp collectors.

Her collection is expected to raise £2.6m at auction in Sotheby's, London, on 24 - 26 November.

Sotheby's have described it as one of the finest collections of British stamps to come on to the market in the past 25 years....
Read entire article at BBC