Robert Wilson: A passion for passports
This guest article is from Rob, whom I’ve known for years, and I’m grateful to him for sharing these insights with us. Robert Wilson Passion Passports
Robert Wilson, a retired civil servant from Scotland, spent his entire career working with passports, serving in the UK Passport Office for over 25 years. Awarded an MBE for his contributions, Robert has maintained a passion for passport history that extends well beyond retirement. He regularly delivers talks on the subject, drawing from his personal collection of British passports, which dates back to 1855. Known for his enthusiasm, Robert continues to expand his collection and remains a trusted expert in the field, staying informed on worldwide developments. Robert Wilson Passion Passports
I have 2 favorite documents in my collection: the first is a British passport issued in 1896 to a Miss Isabel Mary Chadburn to enable her to go cycling on the Continent. This document was given to me by a total stranger who attended one of my talks and asked me to accept it as a gift because he recognized my passion for both the subject and old passports in general. What I love about this document is that not only is it in excellent condition, but it is accompanied by both Austrian & German cycling club membership cards, and the former includes a photograph of Miss Chadburn almost 20 years before photographs were included in British passports.
"Rob, I've personally encountered this a few times, where complete strangers offer me travel documents because they recognize the joy and passion we share for them. It's something to truly appreciate, as such acts of generosity are becoming increasingly rare these days."
The other passport that I treasure is one of my own issued on 15 August 1988. The significance of that date is that it was the day on which the first burgundy-colored machine-readable passports in the European Community common format were issued in the UK. My passport is numbered 000001001 which makes it the first to be issued – numbers 1 to 1000 were retained and issued over a period of time to senior politicians, public figures and senior civil servants. For example, passport no. 000000001 was not issued until 26 October 1988 and the recipient was the then Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd. For the record, the Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe, asked for and was issued with passport no. 000000007. Robert Wilson Passion Passports
However, what makes my own passport so special to me is that it was my own staff, unbeknown to me, who decided that I should be given the very first document to come off the print line … and my wife received the second one! We used the passports to travel to Crete some 2 weeks later and brought passport control at Herakleion airport to a halt as these were the first examples of the new British passports that Greek immigration officers had seen.
As indicated earlier, I continue to deliver my talk on passport history and I am indebted to Tom Topol for keeping me up to date on developments worldwide and for allowing me to use a couple of photographs to illustrate my talk. He also gave me a mention in his book, Let Pass or Die!
I still make occasional additions to my passport collection and remain interested in acquiring British passports from the 19th century … in good condition and at a reasonable price! Robert Wilson Passion Passports
Tom Topol | Passport History Expert & Author.
Featured in media incl. CNN, BBC, Newsweek. Awarded by the U.S. Department of State.
"Want to go deeper? My book Let Pass or Die covers the full 500-year history"
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