I first became interested in hockey stamps in 2005 when I was researching on Sikhs worldwide who had played hockey at Olympic Games.
I found eight hockey stamps which featured Sikh Hockey players. My interest on collecting stamps grew from there.
With the encouragement and assistance of my brother Kul Bahra, who has immense philatelic knowledge, I have put together a comprehensive collection of hockey stamps which I have now placed on the web to share with others and for everyone to see. I currently have six hockey stamp albums - two in date of issue order with stamps and miniature sheets and the other four in country order which includes mint, used, imperforate stamps, miniature sheets, first day covers, maxi and post cards, aerograms, hockey cancellations and information sheets.
I am in contact with most of the hockey stamp collectors worldwide.
Shinkichi Yokohama Sugahara of Tokyo, Japan, a former Japanese Hockey international, was an expert on Olympic Games Stamps who wrote a book on Olympic Games stamps in 1964.
Bill Malherbe of Pretoria, South Africa was a keen collector of hockey books and hockey stamps. In the 1960s he compiled a list of all the hockey stamps.
Ken Howells of England was another of yesteryears hockey stamp collectors. Unfortunately,like Bill Malherbe, his collection has been lost.
Ernie Wall, of Scotland, is another stamp collector. He has been very supportive and his continual assistance has been much valued. Ernie has been collecting hockey stamps over many years and in 2011 he donated all his collection to the European Hockey Federation.
Antoni Karwacki, who wrote the hockey stamps book ‘Hokej Na Trawie' and Romauld Litewka (both of Poland) are regular communicators who exchange stamps and views.
Morley Pecker and Philippe Demaret (Belgium), David Sumpter (England) are regular ports of call, and they too share a keen interest in hockey stamps.
Mike Smith and David Wareham, fellow trustees at The Hockey Museum, have been collecting hockey stamps for some thirty years now.
Stan Salazar of Australia, Sandeep Nakai of India, Jan Dinares Quera of Spain and Bjorn Kraft of Germany are other hockey stamp collectors I am in regular contact with.
Hopefully, through this website we can provide a complete list of hockey stamps.