Frank Bellamy competition poster

Mike Higgs (who sent me the recent  Old Bones picture) has done it again! You can imagine that I have all sorts of alerts out there on the Internet for Bellamy things. But this escaped my eagle eye, so thanks again Mike.

Special Auction Services sold a poster recently that -incredibly- we knew nothing about! The description reads:

Frank Bellamy - Southern Railway Poster Artwork, 'South for Sunshine' painted by Frank A Bellamy, for an RAAS competition, circa 1935, original artwork in poster paint on hardboard, Kettering home address to reverse, 42'' x 27''; as a competition entry, it is believed that this design was not used by the SR; Bellamy later became a legendary commercial illustrator, notably with Dan Dare for the Eagle comic in the 1950s [sic] and for Century 21 titles in the 1960s, G some minor stains and scuffing Estimate: 150-250 

It went for a hammer price of £200

It's interesting in many ways. If it is 1935 it's one of the earliest existing Bellamy pieces that I have come across. I would love to know what RAAS stands for.Also the style is unusual, but because it is an early example of his work this is likely to be the case. This certainly shows confidence in a self taught 18 year old!


UPDATE:
In the comments I received some further thoughts:
Tony Smith suggests "Royal Academy of Arts and Science" and John from the Netherlands says "Could the competition have a link to the RAS, instead of RAAS?"