Norman ‘Mac’ McClaren: an Obituary

Mac died on 21^st February aged 76 after a long battle with of metastatic colon cancer which spread to other areas of his body.  He was born in Stretford, Manchester and was the eldest of four children.  The family had an Army background which is where Mac got a first taste of the Far East.  He later had a career in civil engineering being involved in several long- term overseas projects and working past normal retirement age in his industry.  He was a valued colleague.

He will be much missed by all who knew him (and that is many, not just in the UK but also in Singapore and Malaysia) for his wry, self-deprecating wit, his generous-mindedness and for being an all-round gent. Mac was also an excellent and very knowledgeable philatelist, willing to share his knowledge to help other members with difficult aspects of their collection; or with sensible, sometimes inspired, suggestions for new collecting avenues.  He gave many displays at meetings in London, Worthing, Leicester and Milton Keynes, and published articles in The Malayan Philatelist.

Born in 1945, Mac spent time in Malaya as a child, while his father was serving there, with the British Army. The seed of Mac’s interest in Malayan philately started then.

Mac joined the MSG in 1989, became a member of the Executive Committee in 2002 and from 2004 became the Group’s Publicity Officer until 2010 when he took over the Editorship of the MSG Newsletter which he held until 2016.  He subsequently resumed the Publicity Officer role until his cancer was diagnosed in 2019.

In 2009 when the MSG had its Golden Jubilee, Mac was one of the members who put displays into Stampex as part of the celebration.  He was awarded a Gold medal for his WW1 Censorship, and a Silver for his ‘Orchids and Butterflies’.  Later that year his displays appeared at the Royal as part of the MSG’s Anniversary display

Mac also founded the Milton Keynes meetings which were popular with a goodly number of members who could not get to our venue at Spink.  Sadly, after a few years, the comfortable (and very economical) venue Mac had identified was scheduled for redevelopment and the MK meetings had to cease.

He created an outstanding collection of modern Malaya, focused around the thematic issues common across the States (orchids, butterflies, agri-horts and flowers).  This included all the proofs, watermark varieties and plate blocks, which made for a number of impressive displays over the years.  There was also a thematic collection of turtles.

Mac also collected later Victorian overprints on Straits which he dubbed the ‘Rainbow Years’.  He found the ‘Slug flaw’ on the 1867 and the 1888 Straits 6c lilac, now listed in the SG catalogue as well as the broken ‘E’ on the 12c value from the same issues.

Another interest was UPU specimens and at one meeting, Mac and a fellow member put up adjacent displays, each of which, by strange coincidence, contained part of the one set sent to Bechuanaland of the Pahang 1935 set perfined specimen which was additionally hand-stamped when received.  Some brief, good-natured haggling ensued, leaving Mac in possession of the complete set, thus re-uniting a unique set of archival material that had become separated in years gone by.

Mac’s interest in postal history, particularly centred on wartime censorship, also led him to feature the ‘clipped corner’ square censorship mark used early in WW.II in Singapore and to confirm that the clipping of corners was due to the very rapid expansion of censorship requirements in 1939 at the beginning of the war.  Two sets of similar handstamps being made identifiable by removing corners of one set until further handstamps were produced.  Mac’s excellent display certainly spread this information to the general membership; and he discovered this independently of others who had dithered over publishing the information.

I am also personally grateful to Mac for making the journeys home from MSG meetings as engaging and agreeable as the meetings themselves and the ‘in the pub afterwards’ session. We lived two stops apart on the railway (and probably bemused fellow passengers with our ongoing Malayan philatelic talk!).

Through that connection, I came to know the wonderful Brenda, Mac’s wife (and a good friend to the MSG) and one of his three sons, James. Our deepest sympathies and condolences go out to them and to the rest of Mac’s family. Lovely man: requiescat in pace.

Dominic Morris – with contributions from Susan McEwen and Andrew Norris.