Alma Lee

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Hedwige Alma Grunberg (30 April 1914 – 2 July 2000) was a Swiss-born British philatelist who specialized in Swiss stamps and topical collecting. She became a British citizen in 1976 and married fellow collector Ronald A. Lee in 1979, after which she was known as H. Alma Lee or Alma Lee.

Her Swiss collection won large gold medals at Naba 1984, Stockholmia 1986, Hafnia 1987, and Finlandia 1988. It was showcased in the Court of Honour at PhilexFrance 1989 and New Zealand 1990. She signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1991, the first woman to sign since 1976, and became the only non-resident member of the Consilium Philateliae Helveticae (Council of Swiss Philately). The Royal Philatelic Society London honors Alma and her husband Ron with the Lee Medal.

Lee served as president of the London Swiss Philatelic Society from 1982 to 1991 and was heavily involved with the Royal Philatelic Society London, being elected in 1967, made a fellow in 1969, and named an honorary fellow in 1999. She donated 80 volumes of her Swiss collection to the RPSL, a gift described as among the society’s finest, with particular strength in Standing Helvetica stamps.

She also studied Zemstvo stamps of Russia, presenting a paper on them in 1991 based on her late husband’s collection (Ron Lee died in 1990). Alma Lee died on 2 July 2000; her funeral was at Golders Green Crematorium in north London. Her Swiss collection was auctioned by Peter Rapp in eight installments in 2001, after a portion had been kept by the RPSL.

In 2002 the Royal Philatelic Society London established the Lee Medal in memory of Alma and Ron for notable displays; the first recipient was Joseph Hackmey for “Chile – the Colon (Columbus) Heads.”