Benny joins British Shell Collectors' Club

 NEW UPDATE. Friday 26th April 2024.

Dear Simon Taylor,

Benny, welcome to the Club!

Thank you very much for your kind message I have just read and certainly look forward to meeting you and other members of your British Shell Collectors Club.

I feel very proud to be accepted as a member and certainly look forward to making new friends.

As for the boxes I have ordered, I will pay in Cash tomorrow.

My next door neighbour Neil Clegg and myself will be attending the Shell Convention. My wife who is also a member will miss out this time but certainly welcomes you and other members to our home whenever you all visit Surrey.

"We can share our Shelling experiences exchanging shells etc.

Home address: 'Sunset Crest' - 5 Parklands Way - Worcester Park - Surrey KT4 7HT

Telephone: 020 8330 2542 & Mobile: 07951 086781

Benny De Souza



Benito De Souza - Musician/Entertainer
Email: benny@benitodesouza.com

www.benitodesouza.com

www.karibuparadisezanzibar.com

www.bennyandbettysdream.com

www.bettyssugarcraft.com

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Message from Simon Taylor

Hello Benny, welcome to the Club!

I look forward to meeting you on Saturday and very much hope you enjoy the day. There will be several dealers present to interest you, plus lots of other collectors to talk to. We have refreshments available all day too, prepared to order and very inexpensive.

Ten each of all of the various size boxes makes a total of £18.65 by my calculation. The simplest thing to do is to pay cash on Saturday of that is okay with you.

Also looking forward to you populating your website; East Africa has a very handsome seashell fauna.

Kind regards
Simon Taylor

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Dear Family Members,

I have joined the British Shell Collectors' Club and attending the

British Shell Convention to be held on

Saturday 27th April 2024.

As I will be meeting and making New Friends connected to Shelling, I have taken some photographs of some of my shells for quick viewing by new members.

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Dearest Yvette, Jerome, Annabella & Rhoda

From: Benito De Souza

Benny Displays Mum's Shell Collection now Benny's

As you all know,  our mummy was one of the greatest shell collectors in Zanzibar where her collection was admired by most of the British (English) folks who lived in Zanzibar and others who visited Zanzibar from abroad. Mum often held tea parties with other shell collectors coming over to see the new shells I collected during my lucky dives. 

I could write a book on mum's shell collecting if only I was a writer. Mum's adventures and expeditions and dedication where exceptional where on certain times of the year I would go diving for the very rare cowries only found in deep waters and cowries living inside the Globulous coral (coral that looked like huge cauliflower spreading 20-30ft across and larger), where I would have to dive with a hand held hook in my right hand to gently break through the coral, and with the other hand using a glove, I would pick up the rare treasures.

The days for diving for rare shells would be on days when tides very low, we call below datum, allowing me to dive with my mask, snorkel and fins holding my breath and hunting for the sea treasures in depths of between 20 - 40ft. I was very lucky to build mum's collection with the treasures I am now displaying in mum's name Laurie De Souza in her good memory and we can all be proud of mum's great achievement.

It is so wonderful our 'De Souza' family are together. My dream is for us all to meet up soon before I say 'If tomorrow never comes'. I am now 85 and have enjoyed and still enjoying a dream life with all my family members, relatives and special friends. 

I have only yesterday set up some of the shells in one glass cabinet but would need another 5 to 8 cabinets to exhibit the full collection. Thank you Jerome for handing me mum's full shell collection she saved for me, and in the names of the Big 5 (Yvette, Benito, Jerome, Annabella & Rhoda), as Yvette called us, I share this collection with you all. When I am gone, members of my family will continue to exhibit my shells.

I have just now taken a few pictures which I add below but will take good close shots in time. As I only have one glass cabinet, I have crammed the shells which is not professional and looks untidy. Am now ordering another 6 glass cabinets.

Next week my Zanzibar Shells, Global Stamp collection and my Gold/Silver coins will move to my new office at the back of the log cabin hopefully fully configured with top priority to my Sea Shells where I will release my new website titled www.zanzibar-seashells.com followed by my book titled Zanzibar-Benito's Sea Shells & Diving.

Not fully decided on the name but would like to add some of my underwater movies/photos also explaining how the rare cowries were found.

I will explain how my mum first started collecting shells going back to my Grandfather who was also a shell collector and was awarded a Gold Medal for his shell collector.

Our family were very lucky to be able to spend all our school holidays living at my grandfathers beach home in Uroa where when the tide went down, mum and I would go shelling and over unlimited years we built a mega collection. I will explain where various shells were found.

Mum's collection comprised of all types of shells and corals, with priority to cowries and cone shells where mum had a unique collection. For your notification, the very rare cowries I collected whilst diving like hunting for pearls or gold are unique, and to this date I have not seen any published in the Cowry/Shell books books. 

For quick viewing, see photographs below, and in time I will take photos of the very rare shells which I think only a few Shell Collectors across the Globe would have as those treasures like rare stamps cannot be found on any local shore beaches where many shells are found turning over coral and sea rocks at low tides.

Hope you will always remember mum/myself for her great shell collecting and my collection will always bring back memories  visiting various beaches around Zanzibar collecting shells. (I have a couple of adventure stories to tell with mum and myself in my little boat 'Tutti Frutti' going out Shell Collecting). 

Benny's diving/spearfishing days ...  http://www.bennyandbettysdream.com/diving.htm

Love to all,

Benny

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NEW UPDATE.

Quick Overview of some of my collection for Club Members to view.

Saturday 27th April 2024.




























































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Today Wednesday 7th February I put some of my 

Shell collection in one cabinet.

More to follow.    











Below - Posted in my website www.bennyandbettysdream.com few years ago.

BENITO'S SEASHELL COLLECTION

Below are some photographs taken from my mum's home at the time she was a keen expert shell collector and certain days at very low tides I would have to dive and break globulous coral finding the rare cowries.

Unfortunately my cowrie collection is not included below as they are being exhibited in Switzerland and on return I will add them for general viewing where I will explain more about those precious shells.

I will in time also include names of various shells with a few interesting short stories of my mother's and my experience in shell collecting just like collecting stamps which I also enjoyed and have a fairly good collection which will be handed over to one of my grandchildren interested in stamp collecting.

If anyone has any questions regarding shell collecting, please feel free to contact me and I will assist where I can.

In our island of Zanzibar we were very fortunate to be surrounded by coral reefs across the whole island where at some villages when the tides went down, one could walk in the shallow waters and find various shells.


























SHELL COLLECTING:
Do check out my Shell collecting web page and view part of my shell collection. Again the secret of collecting rare valuable shells is revealed. Another hobby I enjoyed mainly assisting my mum who was a great shell collector.  







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