A renowned international philatelist who died in London last year has left his entire stamp collection to two Israeli charities.

Sotheby’s is to auction the collection, worth around £500,000, bequeathed by David Barton to the Weizmann Institute and Shaare Zedek Medical Centre.

Mr Barton, who died aged 67 in March, was a scientist at Westminster University and a member of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John’s Wood. He left his entire estate, of which the stamp collection is the centrepiece, to the two charities. The auction is on March 6.

Angela Margolis, the former executive director of Shaare Zedek UK, said: “When he was nine, David’s father gave him a stamp collection which he had started, and he became passionately interested.”

The collection, which spans stamps from across the globe, is particularly strong on the US, but also includes a British penny black in mint condition.

Richard Ashton, Sotheby’s philatelic consultant, said: “I first met David Barton 46 years ago and even then he was a stamp collector in the truest sense. He was also an exceptionally humane individual and it is apt that he gifted the proceeds from his collection to charity.”