When David Cordon’s father tore stamps off letters to give to his nine-year-old son, he could not possibly have dreamt of where it would lead.

Because 55 years later, Mr Cordon reached the pinnacle of stamp collecting — being invited to show his collection at the prestigious Royal Philatelic Society in London.

“I started collecting when I was around 9, and I have been collecting ever since,” he said.

“My father was in the insurance business, and he would get letters from around the world which in those days all had stamps, and he got me into the hobby.

“He would rip off the stamps from the envelopes.”

Now Mr Cordon has the biggest and most comprehensive collection of Bermuda stamps put together in the world.

Getting to exhibit at the RPS was not all straightforward.

After showing a Queen Victoria stamp at the society in 2018, he was invited to exhibit his full collection in 2020. Then the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

A date was later set for September this year when Mr Cordon agreed to show a 1pm display. The RPS offers two slots — at 1pm and 5pm — with the earlier designed for the display of an entire collection.

It meant getting together almost all of his Bermuda collection, a mammoth task to organise.

“I had to take everything over and of course bring it back,” he said. “It was on display for just four hours.”

Mr Cordon, who played bridge for Bermuda and swam for the island, added: “The number of people who get invited to the Royal to show a 1pm show are maybe six a year.

“It is exceptionally prestigious.”

He said a number of stamp auction houses had been in touch since the RPS show and asked him about selling his collection.

Mr Cordon added: “I told them I would like to do another international show and get an award, but they said I didn’t need to as once you have shown at the Royal that is it.

“That is as high as you can go.”

The oldest item in Mr Cordon’s collection is a 1617 cover, or letter. “First of all you had letters that were folded and they were sent through the mail with no stamps up to 1865, after that stamps were then placed on those envelopes.”

Although there were no official stamps on the island until 1865, the earliest recorded Bermuda stamp was the Perot post stamp in 1848.

Mr Cordon said: “These were provisional stamps issued by Mr Perot, and that was because people would put envelopes into his mailbox at night and the next morning they would all have a one penny charge to get from Hamilton to, say, St George’s.

“He made his own stamp using a hand stamp.”

Just 13 of those stamps have been recorded, and they can fetch up to $150,000 each at auction.

Mr Cordon, a former chief underwriting officer at Zurich Insurance, is now gearing up to sell most of his collection. “I have achieved the best I can, and now I will slowly start to sell over time. It is a hobby that is also very expensive.

“You have to carry on, and it would be nice to give someone else the chance to enjoy some of my items.

“A lot of them are unique, so for someone else to start collecting Bermuda stamps seriously, they can’t, because they cannot find any of stuff they might like as it is all in my collection.”