John was born in 1914, became an apprentice to the Printing Trade in 1928, printed his first hand-set type brochures in 1931 and founded the Hawthorn Press in 1936, as a Private Press.

Either by then or some short time later, his interest in philately was aroused, for he joined the Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria in 1946 and today is one of its longest serving members.  He was appointed to the Council of the Society in 1953 and became President in 1959, 1973 and 1980.  In 1975 he had been made an Honorary Life Member and remained a Council member until 1981.

He is a member of many Philatelic Societies both in Australia and overseas, including the Papuan Philatelic Society, the Collectors Club of New York and the Royal Philatelic Society of London.  He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the latter in 1956 and an Honorary Fellow in 1990.

He has served on Australian Exhibition committees at Mipex '63 as Executive Officer and Ausipex '84 as inaugural President and Honorary Patron.

John has an outstanding record of service to international philately especially in Asia, where in 1974, with Dr Ichida, he became a co-founder of FIAP (the Federation of Inter-Asian Philately) and today enjoys Honorary Membership of this large and quickly developing Organisation.

His collecting interest has mainly been Traditional philately, having formed many distinguished collections of both National and International acclaim.  He gained his first award, a Silver medal at Anpex '50, but he is best known for his Western Australia which gained Large Gold in 1975 at Madrid and his Fiji gained Large Gold at Philadelphia a year later.  Additionally he formed fine collections of Victoria, Queensland, Nauru, Hong Kong and more recently, equally fine collections of Zanzibar and Zululand.

John was appointed to National Juries in Adelaide 1956, Sydney 1959 and 1970, Adelaide 1972 and Jury Chairman Sydney 1980.  At International level, he served on juries at Washington 1966, Singapore 1971, New Zealand 1972, 1977 and 1980, Singapore 1987 and in recent years has been appointed Consultant to FIAP Regional Exhibitions including Bangkok 1989 and Kuala Lumpur 1992.

John has also been invited to exhibit in the Court of Honour or provide a Special Display at Exhibitions in Cape Town, Singapore, Malaysia, Wellington and the Collectors Club of New York, where, at the latter he was awarded the Medal for the Best Display and Paper submitted for 1973.

In the field of philatelic literature, John has left a strong legacy of philatelic works printed and published within his company, the Hawthorn Press.  Over a 40 year period, all authors were always encouraged, which has resulted in a series of 29 monographs on a wide range of subjects relating to the philately of Australasia.  These are acclaimed as a seldom seen series for any aspect of philately and, today, most are considered the authoritative work on their subject.

To this list must be added an extensive range of major Handbooks and Textbooks of Australasia, the Australian Commonwealth Specialists Catalogue and for more than 30 years, the continuous run of Philately from Australia.

In 1973 John assisted in the staging of a "School of Philately" at the Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria and conducted similar weekend schools at both Launceston in 1974 and Hobart in 1975.

It is not commonly known that John was commissioner to many overseas Exhibitions during the 1960s to 1980 (this is the period prior to Australia being recognised by FIP).

In 1965 he was appointed a member of the Australian Commonwealth Stamp Advisory Committee and retired from that post in 1982.

Apart from Honorary or Life Memberships granted to him John has been nationally and internationally awarded many of philately's highest honours including the JRW Purves Medal 1970, the David Hill medal 1974, both by the Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria, plus the Philatelic Society of NSW Award of Merit 1968 and the Royal Sydney Club J H Smyth Memorial Award in 1984.  No doubt the most significant of these honours came in 1975 when he was invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists.

The late JRW Purves held John Gartner in such high esteem that in 1963, he dedicated the important philatelic work The Barred Numerals of Victoria to him.

National recognition for distinguished service to philately is an appropriate reward for a man with such an accomplished background, and he is accorded the honour of inaugural Fellow of the Australian Philatelic Order.

[ Source:  APF News, July 1995 ]

Postscript

John Gartner passed away on 2 February 1998.  A further tribute was published in the February 1998 edition of APF News.