The Mosely Collection of British Africa stamps dating to 1935 was formed by Dr Edward Mosely of Johannesburg, South Africa. The collection was donated to the British Museum by his daughter, Kathleen Cunningham, in 1946 and is now held as part of the British Library Philatelic Collections

British Library Philatelic Collections

The British Library Philatelic Collections is the national philatelic collection of the United Kingdom with over 8 million items from around the world. It was established in 1891 as part of the British Museum Library, later to become the British Library, with the collection of Thomas Tapling...

. After the Tapling Collection

Tapling Collection

The Tapling Collection was donated to the British Museum from the estate of Thomas Tapling in 1891.The probate value of the Tapling collection was set at £12,000 but on arrival Richard Garnett estimated their value at more than £50,000 and described the bequest as the most valuable gift since the...

, this is considered the Library's most important philatelic acquisition due to the number of countries represented and the number of unique items included.

Collection scope

The collection consists of stamps of the following countries and colonies:
Ascension; the Bechuanalands; Cape of Good Hope (including Mafeking and Vryburg); Gambia; Gold Coast; Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika; Lagos; Mauritius; Natal; Niger Coast Protectorate (now part of Southern Nigeria); Nigeria; Northern Nigeria; Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia); Nyasaland; Orange Free State; Rhodesia; St. Helena; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Union of South Africa; Southern Nigeria; Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); South-West Africa; Transvaal; Uganda Protectorate; Zanzibar; Zululand.

Of particular note for quality and completeness are the collections of Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Orange Free State, and Rhodesia. Mosely spared no efforts to try to make his collection as complete as possible, and included all known varieties, as well as essays, proofs, 'specimens', and stamps on original covers.

Highlights of the collection include:

• Ascension Island: a page of British stamps cancelled with the Ascension postmark before special stamps were introduced in 1922.
• Cape of Good Hope: Die proofs of 1d., 6d., and 1s with the rarest item being a 4d. black, one of seven known to exist.
• The Niger Coast collection has a number of proofs of the 1893 issue, some of which are unique.

See also

• Postage stamps and postal history of the Cape of Good Hope
  Postage stamps and postal history of the Cape of Good Hope
  This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Cape of Good Hope.The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, led by the explorer Bartolomeu Dias. A supply camp was established by the East India Company in 1652 in the area which later became Cape...
  
  
• Postage stamps and postal history of the Niger Coast Protectorate
  Postage stamps and postal history of the Niger Coast Protectorate
  This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Niger Coast Protectorate.The Niger Coast Protectorate was a British protectorate in the Oil Rivers area of present-day Nigeria, originally established as the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1891 and confirmed at the Berlin Conference the...
  
  
• Postage stamps and postal history of Zululand
  Postage stamps and postal history of Zululand
  This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Zululand under British rule.The Zulu Kingdom was defeated by Britain in the Anglo-Zulu War and was annexed as a British territory in 1887...