Our founder, Tony Buckingham, recognised worldwide as a leading authority on first day and commemorative covers and winner of the prestigious Rowland Hill Award for his contribution to philately. Together with his wife Cath, Tony founded Benham (the UK’s largest cover publisher) until he sold the company in 1997. He edited Collect FDC for nearly 20 years and served on the Philatelic Trade Society Council. He was a regular contributor to Stamp Magazine, Gibbons Stamp Monthly and other leading collectables publications.

Sadly, in May 2016, Tony passed away. He died of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a cruel disease which sapped his strength and energy towards his last days. He is deeply missed by his family, friends and colleagues.

Tony was a most inspirational man who touched the lives of many people. Through his efforts and creativity, he was able to donate £1million to various charities throughout his life. But the one he didn't support was the one he most needed at the end, the British Lung Foundation. 

Brian deals with the older British First Day Covers at Buckingham Covers. He started in stamps in the summer of 1985 and has been with us since 2002, so he's been in the trade for 30 years. Brian deals with the selling of the older issues via our various magazines, specialist lists, eBay and your wants lists. He also deals with the buying and valuation side and is always available for any advice you require on an area of cover collecting. You may be thinking about starting to collect or there may be a cover you may be after or have even found. We can't show our entire stock but if there is something you are particularly after Brian may know where there is one! He is happily married with two children that won't leave home and lives in Folkestone. His interests away from covers include 'The' Arsenal, badly playing the guitar, his allotment (don't mention the slugs!) and Music (he's happiest spending his summer sitting in a field listening to a Zimbabwean guitar band!).

Sarah is one of our Customer Service team, who looks after you. She processes your orders through the post and online, answers your phone calls and emails and is responsible for the Flexi-pay orders. She joined Buckingham Covers after 8 years at Benham, during which time she spent 5 years in Customer Care and 18 months in Production. Interests are varied - as diverse as pub quizzes, steam trains, amateur dramatics, choral (and occasional karaoke) singing and family history. Sarah also enjoys the usual pursuits of reading (she's recently re-discovered the works of Terry Pratchett), films (big James Bond fan) and music. She's also a BIG fan of Dr. Who!

Gemma joined Buckingham covers in February 2017 and is responsible for ensuring all orders are packed and sent out and responsible for running our eBay shop. She is also part of the customer service team, and processes your orders through the post and website, answers your phone calls and emails and puts your orders together. Gemma was born in Cornwall and moved to Folkestone when she was 7. She lives with her partner James. Her interests outside of work when she's not doing household duties are meeting up with friends, shopping, spending time with her family, nights out and spending time with her partner James.   

Craig joined Buckingham Covers in September 2013 and is part of our customer service team. He processes your orders through the post and website, answers your phone calls and emails and puts your orders together. He is involved with our air stock and the sale mag, and enjoys researching the history behind our covers when writing about them for our monthly magazines. Craig graduated from the University of Reading in 2013 where he studied History. Outside of work he plays football (although the team has been involved in more relegation fights than promotion challenges!) and also has a keen interest in cricket. Craig has been involved in the Scout movement since he was 6 and is currently a Scout Leader in Canterbury.

Vickie joined us in April 2015 and is part of the customer service team. She processes your orders through the post and website, answers your phone calls and emails and puts your orders together. Vickie moved to Folkestone 3 years ago and originates from London.  Initially Vickie was responsible for ensuring all of our orders were packed and sent out.  Alongside having sole responsibility of running our eBay shop.  More recently Vickie is now lending a helping hand to our Customer Services Team and you may have already spoken to her.  She has her hands in many different pots, and enjoys being busy.  Interests outside of work include spending time with her family and socialising (normally involving drinking Vodka!) and of course shopping.

Jake is our e-Commerce Developer and recently joined us in May 2013. This is his first full-time job since graduating in Sports Journalism at Leeds Trinity University after having spells at BBC and Skysports before returning back to home-town Folkestone. Jake also runs our Twitter account and is looking to increase our following so make sure to follow us and keep up to date with online offers everyday. Outside of work he enjoys watching and playing sport to a somewhat ordinary level! He lives with partner Carol and new addition (cat) Lexi.

Sue has been working here since June 2005 having spent many years in customer service. Sue has spent the past 11 years in Customer Service, but has now moved to the new role of adding all of our covers onto the website (new and old) and keeping everything up to date. Outside of work, Sue enjoys seeing her friends, shopping, swimming, reading, baking cakes, travelling, growing vegetables and spending time with her family.

Siobhán joined us in 2010. After spending almost 4 years working in Customer Service and dealing covers, she left in 2014 to have her son Caleb and is now back in her new role of marketing, updating the website and taking care of our new customers. Siobhán is a local girl having spent almost all of her life in Folkestone apart from a year away in Brighton for University but then still managed to make it back to Kent where she completed her last two years and finished with a degree in Criminology and Social Policy (should help with her spotting forgeries!). Siobhán loves animals and has a fur baby that goes by the name of Juno. Outside of work Siobhán takes care of her young son and loves spending time with her friends, watching films, reading, and most importantly shopping! She loves singing and has only done a few gigs but would love to pursue it further.

Gina started with Buckingham Covers in July 2000, having previously worked for Benham. She works in Production and along with Dawn also looks after all our wholesale accounts, manages our stock and offers back in stock items. Gina has 2.4 children (James and Kirsty) and a husband, Gary. They have celebrated many anniversaries! (We have told her you get less for murder) When not doing household duties, she likes walking, dance classes meeting with friends for nights in or out but, most of all, SHOPPING! ...

Dawn has been with Buckingham Covers since 2000, she was a Buckingham Covers outworker, sticking stamps on covers etc, for a few years and joined the team in the office in 2007. Dawn now works with Gina in production where they sometimes have a hair raising time juggling issues etc. Previously she worked for an insurance broker for 20 years and decided she needed a change. She lives on the Romney Marsh with her husband Mark and has two sons and a fabulous grandson.  In her spare time Dawn likes to do her gardening, repairing all the damage done by her maniac dog, Monty.

Cath Buckingham is one of the world’s leading cover designers and winner of 8 Royal Mail awards for cover design and 3 Fasson Awards for design and printing. Cath designs all Buckingham Covers, including the envelope, the postmarks and all our Cinderella stamps. Cath does all her own picture research, working with top artists to source the best illustrations for each cover. Outside work, Cath enjoys horse-riding, going to the gym and making delicious cakes (the first two counteract the last!). She has two noisy cats, sings in a choir and loves spending time with her family (Tony, Ellie and Tom).

Nikki Skinley is our Design Team Manager. She has been working for Buckingham Covers since 2002 and plays a key role in the everyday managing of the design team, putting together our magazines, especially Cover Lover and our Sale mags. She also designs many of our advertisements and readers' offers. Nikki enjoys designing covers and smiler sheets. Previously, she worked for a publishing company in Maidstone called Pantek Arts. Nikki lives in Walderslade with husband, Ben, who were married in 2009. She has a daughter called Jazmin who is in Primary school and is very much enjoying it and doing well. The newest addition to the family is there puppy Ruby. She loves fishing, cycling, crafty things and spending time with her family and friends and enjoying life.

Clair studied a Fine Art Degree at Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury graduating in 1999, moving straight into the design and print industry where she has remained. Clair has been involved in reprographics for some major magazines before becoming a designer/picture editor for Saga Holidays and then a researcher for a picture library based in Maidstone. Clair joined Buckingham Covers in October 2006. Her roles for the company include working on all our publications, reader offers and adverts. Clair has also designed covers, postmarks and sheets, including coin covers and last years' Queen Elizabeth Liner sheet. She is a keen painter and photographer, recently gaining an A* in GCSE Photography at college. Clair enjoys keeping fit by regularly attending the gym and playing squash. She also loves baking, supporting Spurs and going to see her favourite bands! Clair lives in River, near Dover with husband Andy, two cats Lily and Oscar and the latest addition to the family, baby Grace.

Jo studied Photography & Design at the Kent Institute of Art & Design in Canterbury, graduating in 1996. She has worked in magazine publishing, photography and graphic design before joining the Buckingham Covers design team in 2011.  Outside of work Jo also enjoys music, both listening and performing. She plays violin and sings, occasionally in public!

Katherine studied Fine Art at the University for the Creative Arts, specialising in photography. Katherine joined Buckingham Covers in 2012 and helps to produce our magazines, as well as designing covers, leaflets and adverts. Katherine enjoys playing and listening to music and is part of her local concert band.

Peter grew up in the South East and, despite various forays into other parts of the country, notably University where, unfortunately, he found rowing to be more fun than study, then working for Dunlop as a trainee engineer, he found the allure of the Wealden woodlands too attractive and returned here after a 6 month trip abroad. He ‘does’ the IT and is currently the man to blame if something goes wrong on the computer side of things. Among other companies, he has worked for BAA where, hopefully, some of his software correctly informs passengers the times of their flights, and CMG, where he worked on projects for British Gas and the MoD. When he’s not replacing old bugs in the computer system with new and different ones, he enjoys playing golf and walking through those woods with his wife Janet, their three boys (now at an age when they don’t really want to come with him) and fellow ramblers.

Farai is our late 2014 addition to the Buckingham covers Family. He is a Computer Engineering graduate and having worked in sales, mobile repair and healthcare is now back to IT and he ‘should‘ be able to put his degree to full use (technically). Farai is a keen sportsman both watching and partaking, he is a member of his local Rugby team in Ashford and when he is away from the field of play he likes to play Xbox, do recreational art and listen to and make music with his friends.

Janet is Queen of our Books and keeps everyone in order (and we mean everyone). She has had the good (or bad) fortune to be involved with Tony Buckingham for much of her life. He taught her at primary school for 2 years (where Tony says she was a fantastic runner, netball player and star of the school play). She joined Benham after leaving school and stayed there for 19 years before rejoining Tony again in 2000 here at Buckingham Covers. Janet lives locally with her husband, Martin and has three boys, Jack, Charlie and Harry. She would love to have hobbies of her own but for now enjoys supporting her children with their football and other activities and looking after her Grandaughter Poppy. Gina is her twin sister!