Great Britons

Royal Mail is today issuing a set of ten 1st Class stamps celebrating some of Britain’s greatest individuals and their achievements. Entitled ‘Great Britons’, the stamp issue celebrates individuals across sport, journalism, music, politics and the arts whose anniversaries of birth or outstanding achievement fall in 2013.

The set of Great Britons stamps, issued 16 April 2013.

World renowned actress Vivien Leigh, famous for her leading roles in Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire, takes centre stage alongside actor Peter Cushing, who is perhaps best known for his roles as Baron Frankenstein and Doctor Van Helsing in horror films produced by Hammer Film Productions.

Vivien Leigh, 1913-1967 – Stage and film actress.

Peter Cushing, 1913-1994 – Film and television actor.

From the world of sport, Scottish footballer and manager William ‘Bill’ Shankly features. Regarded as one of football’s most successful and respected managers, Shankly was manager of Liverpool from 1959 to 1974, leading them to triumph as First Division champions in 1964, 1966 and 1973, FA Cup winners in 1965 and 1974 and UEFA Cup winners in 1974.

Bill Shankly, 1913-1981 – Football player and manager.

Notable figures from the world of politics are also featured with the first and only Welsh Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, and John Archer, the first mayor of African-Caribbean descent, to head a London Metropolitan Borough Council in the collection.

David Lloyd George, 1863-1945 – Prif Weinidog Prime Minister.

John Archer, 1863-1932 – Politician and civil rights campaigner.

One of the UK’s best loved classical composers Benjamin Britten is included in the ten, with celebrated portrait and fashion photographer Norman Parkinson bolstering the arts contingent.

Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976 – Composer and pianist.

Norman Parkinson, 1913-1990 – Portrait and fashion photographer.

Richard Dimbleby, the well known journalist, broadcaster and father of David and Jonathan Dimbleby, is included within the set of 1st Class stamps, as well as celebrated cookery writer Elizabeth David, who was credited with introducing post-war Britain to ‘exotic’ Mediterranean cooking, featuring ingredients such as avocado, pasta, olive oil and red peppers.

Richard Dimbleby, 1913-1965 – Journalist and broadcaster.

Elizabeth David, 1913-1992 – Writer on food and drink.

Completing the ten is eminent archaeologist and anthropologist, Mary Leakey, who was credited with forcing scientists to re-think their long held views on human evolution thanks to her significant discoveries.

Mary Leakey, 1913-1996 – Archaeologist and anthropologist.

Writer and journalist Nigel Fountain has written the accompanying presentation pack, which provides an overview of the lives of the Great Britons featured on the stamps.

The Great Britons stamps and stamp products are available at most Post Office branches, online at www.royalmail.com/stamps and from Royal Mail Tallents House (tel. 08457 641 641), 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB.

The birth centenary of Alan Turing

Tomorrow is the birth centenary of Alan Turing the mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist who was highly influential in the development of computers and artificial intelligence.

A stamp from the Britons of Distinction issue, 23 February 2012. 1st Class – Alan Turing.

Turing is perhaps most famous for his work during World War 2 at the code breaking centre in Bletchley Park. There he and others broke a number of German codes, including that of the Enigma machine.

At Bletchley Park Turing worked with a number of engineers seconded from the General Post Office’s engineering department, including Gordon Radley and Tommy Flowers. Radley and Flowers were both involved in the development of Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer, which broke the Nazi’s Lorenz codes and convinced General Eisenhower to go ahead with D-Day. While Alan Turing was not directly involved in the development of Colossus his work fed in to the thinking behind it.

After the war Gordon Radley returned to the Post Office where he was involved in the development of the first transatlantic submarine cable, the invention the hearing aid, and projects to mechanise post sorting which led to the development of the postcode. He eventually rose to become Director General (Secretary to the Post Office), the first engineer to do so.

Tommy Flowers also returned to the Post Office after his time as a code breaker, where he was involved in developing the pioneering electronic telephone exchange at Highgate Wood, and ERNIE, the random number generator used by Premium Bonds.

Alan Turing’s post-war work and legacy are even more significant. Until his death in 1954 Turing undertook pioneering work in computer development and programming, mathematical biology and morphogenesis. He also developed the “Turing Test” for artificial intelligence, which states that a machine can only be said to be intelligent if its behaviours are indistinguishable from that of a human being.

A stamp from The Inventors’ Tale issue, 12 January 1999. 63p – Computer inside Human Head (Alan Turing’s work on computers).

For this and his many achievements Alan Turing is often labelled a “genius”. A stamp from 1999, part of The Inventor’s Tale issue, is testament to this: it features E Paolozzi’s artwork Computers, portraying a computer inside a human head. It is one of many of Paolozzi’s artworks inspired by Alan Turing.

A stamp released earlier this year (pictured above) as part of the Britons of Distinction issue commemorates Turing’s work as a mathematician, computer scientist and code breaker. The stamp shows Turing’s “Bombe” code breaking machine at Bletchley Park.

2012 is Alan Turing Year, celebrating the life and work of Alan Turing.

Charles Dickens stamps

Mr Bumble, Mr Pickwick and Mr Micawber are all instantly recognisable creations of Charles Dickens, one of Britain’s greatest novelists. To commemorate the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth Royal Mail is celebrating his life and work of with ten new stamps issued today.

The stamps feature iconic characters from some of Dickens’ most famous novels, including Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist, Mr Micawber from David Copperfield and Captain Cuttle from Dombey and Son. Six of the stamps feature original illustrations adapted from Character Sketches from Charles Dickens, by Joseph Clayton Clarke (otherwise known as Kyd) and originally published around 1890.

2nd Class – Mr Bumble – Oliver Twist; 1st Class – Mr Pickwick – The Pickwick Papers; 77p – The Marchioness – The Old Curiosity Shop; 87p – Mrs Gamp – Martin Chuzzlewitt; £1.28 – Captain Cuttle – Dombey and Son; £1.90 – Mr Micawber – David Copperfield.

Royal Mail is also issuing a miniature sheet of four stamps of illustrations by Hablot Knight Brown (known as Phiz), who illustrated ten books by Dickens.

1st Class – Nicholas Nickleby; 1st Class – Bleak House; 1st Class – Little Dorrit; 1st Class – A Tale of Two Cities.

The presentation pack that accompanies the issue is written by Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, who takes a look at her great, great, great grandfather’s life and works.

Charles Dickens or his work has appeared on three previous stamp issues: Literary Anniversaries (1970), Christmas (150th Anniversary of A Christmas Carol, 1993) and Musicals (Oliver! 2011).

Four stamps from the Literary Anniversaries issue, 3 June 1970. 5d – Mr Pickwick and Sam Weller – Pickwick Papers; 5d – Mr and Mrs Micawber – David Copperfield; 5d – David Copperfield and Betsy Trotwood – David Copperfield; 5d – Oliver asking for more – Oliver Twist.

150th Anniversary of Publication of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens issue, 9 November 2011. 19p – Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim; 25p – Mr and Mrs Fezziwig; 30p – Scrooge; 35p – The Prize Turkey; 41p – Mr Scrooge’s Nephew.

A stamp from the Stage Musicals issue, 22 February 2011. 1st Class – Oliver!

Two first day of issue handstamps are available with the new Charles Dickens stamps. One features Dickens’ initials and Dickens’ sometime pseudonym “Boz”, the other features a book design.

Charles Dickens first day of issue handstamps.

The Charles Dickens stamps and stamp products are available at all Post Office branches, online and from Royal Mail Tallents House (tel. 08457 641 641), 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB.

Two Charles Dickens Coaching Prints from our collection can be viewed on Flickr.

New Diamond Jubilee stamps

Royal Mail is marking the culmination of Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations with eight new stamps featuring significant events over the past 60 years. The Diamond Jubilee stamps are issued today in time for the extended Jubilee Bank Holidays on 4 and 5 June.

Issued in four se-tenant ‘pairs’, the stamps use archive photographs showing The Queen performing her official duties both at home in the UK and on the world stage. These include such diverse tasks as the first televised Christmas broadcast in 1957, to Her Majesty’s inspection of the 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh, as head of the UK’s Armed Forces, half a century later in 2007.

The Diamond Jubilee stamps are: 1st Class – Golden Jubilee 2002, Trooping the Colour 1967. 77p – The Royal Welsh 2007, First Christmas TV Broadcast 1957. 87p – Silver Jubilee Walkabout 1977, Garter Ceremony 1997. £1.28 – United Nations Address 1957, Commonwealth Games 1982.

These stamps demonstrate The Queen’s devotion to duty since her accession to the throne on 6 February 1952. Much of this is recounted in a 24-page prestige stamp book written by Daily Mail journalist Robert Hardman that is also being issued to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee.

This is the third and final Royal Mail stamp issue in 2012 to mark The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The first was The House of Windsor issue (2 February), which featured a 1954 portrait of The Queen. The second, the Diamond Jubilee Miniature Sheet, was issued on 6 February, the same day The Queen came to the throne in 1952.

Two first day of issue postmarks are available for this issue, including one featuring a depiction of a royal coach.

Diamond Jubilee pictorial handstamps

A display of philatelic material celebrating the Diamond Jubilee, including an exclusive insight into the making of the stamps released to mark the occasion, can be viewed free of charge at the Royal Mail Archive, London.

Jubilee Stamps Designer Kate Stephens and Royal Mail Design Manager (Stamps & Collectibles) Catharine Brandy will discuss Designing the Diamond Jubilee Stamps at the Phoenix Centre, London on 27 September. Tickets are £3/£2.50 concession, please book online.

The stamps and stamp products are available at all Post Office branches, online and from Royal Mail Tallents House (tel. 08457 641 641), 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB.

Roald Dahl stamps

The writer Roald Dahl is regarded as one of the world’s most imaginative, successful and loved storytellers. His stories are currently published in 49 languages worldwide, and continue to inspire the world’s most creative collaborators, resulting in new movie adaptations, classical music, opera, plays and musicals.

Today Royal Mail has issued ten stamps paying tribute to the work of Roald Dahl. The 30th anniversary of The BFG, or Big Friendly Giant, one of Dahl’s most popular characters, is marked by a special sheet of four stamps all of which feature scenes from the story.

The BFG miniature sheet

The other six stamps feature illustrations from the Dahl books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Twits, and The Witches.

Roald Dahl presentation pack

The illustrations which appear on the stamps are by Quentin Blake, whose drawings appeared in all of Roald Dahl’s children’s classics. Blake’s illustrations also appear on the postmarks, covers and sheets associated with this issue.

Roald Dahl first day of issue postmarks

The Enormous Crocodile stamp, 2006

A Roald Dahl character illustrated by Quentin Blake has previously appeared on a Royal Mail stamp as part of the 2006 issue Animal Tales. On this stamp the Enormous Crocodile can be seen eyeing-off the cameo portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

Stamps and stamp products are available at all Post Office branches, on the Royal Mail website, the Royal Mail eBay shop and from Royal Mail Tallents House (tel. 08457 641 641), 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB.

Wallace and Gromit Christmas stamps

Today Royal Mail has issued its 2010 Christmas stamps, featuring the well-loved characters Wallace and Gromit.

This year's Christmas stamps featuring Wallace and Gromit

Wallace and Gromit were created by animator Nick Park in the 1980s. Since then the pair have starred in a number of films, advertisements and television programmes made by Aardman Animations. Royal Mail’s design team worked closely with Nick Park and Aardman Animations to devise brand new scenes featuring the pair.

The approach to the stamps was similar to how Aardman create a film, with Nick Park drawing scenes and visual jokes involving the characters, before refining the designs so that they would work in a definitive stamp format. Each stamp was then constructed with models, props and background sets – all created especially for the issue.

Wallace and Gromit generic sheet

As with previous Christmas issues, the stamps are available in standard definitive size, except for the 1st and 2nd Large stamps, where the 1st and 2nd images are repeated but with more detail revealed on the wider format stamps.

A miniature sheet and generic sheet have also been produced, and two special First Day of Issue postmarks are available. As has become traditional with Christmas stamp issues, one of the postmarks is from Bethlehem, Llandeilo, Wales.

Special Wallace and Gromit first day of issue postmarks

All Wallace and Gromit Christmas stamps products are available from the Royal Mail website.

New records available via our online catalogue

Don’t be a programme pirate (POST 110/4328)

Following an upload to our online catalogue earlier today, we’ve increased the amount of records searchable via our online catalogue to 89,240 – an increase of over 1500 descriptions of objects, documents, photographs and philatelic material.

These new descriptions include additional records of POST 110: Printed Publicity Material. Many of these new records describe posters placed in post offices advertising the latest stamp issues and posters for telephone kiosks advertising a variety of services, including Post Office Savings Bank.

As I grow, My savings will grow. Save regularly with the Savings Bank (POST 110/4329)

One telephone kiosk poster in particular tells users ‘Don’t be a programme pirate”, while another (POST 110/4329), showing a young child’s face, declares “As I grow, My savings will grow. Save regularly with the Savings Bank”. Post 110 also includes a sizeable collection of education posters from the 1980s which were aimed for classroom use.

Over 300 descriptions of King George V Registration Sheets have also been added. These comprise of low value Photogravures and Overprints. Many of the overprints were for use in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, now modern-day Botswana.

Harrison and Sons in 1934 pioneered the use of the photogravure printing process in Britain. It introduced high-speed production and reduced the overall cost. The original designs were based on photographs meaning a new issue could reach the printing cylinder stage much quicker than preparing printing plates by the typographic process.

KGV ½d green photogravure, booklet panes of six, imperforate 1935 Jul 26 (POST 150/KGV/B/1557)

Search the BPMA catalogue at http://catalogue.postalheritage.org.uk

Top 10 Stamps Blogs

The Philatelic Database has named the BPMA blog as one of its Top 10 Stamp Blogs. The Philatelic Database is the leading online resource for philatelists, stamp collectors and postal historians. It features articles by eminent philatelists and specialists in their fields. The site is a veritable cornucopia of philatelic knowledge where you will also find maps, videos, crosswords, dictionaries and directories.

After only two and half months blogging we’re thrilled to appear on this list alongside several blogs we enjoy, like Keijo Kortelainen’s Stamp Collecting Blog and Don Schilling’s Stamp Collecting Round-Up, as well as a number we haven’t heard of but will start reading.

This blog is written by BPMA staff and guest contributors and we’ve got plenty of exciting articles coming up. Over the next week or so we’ll have more on the proposed New Centre for the BPMA in Swindon, an update on The Wilkinson Collection, another article on GPO posters, and in celebration of the release next week of stamps celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Kew Gardens we’ll take a look at a previous stamp issue featuring Kew Gardens and show some artwork by renowned British stamp designer David Gentleman which has never been seen before. Stay tuned!

200 Years of Australia Post

by Alison Bean, Website Officer

Over the weekend philatelists and postal heritage buffs in Australia celebrated Australia Post’s bicentenary. As you might expect of a former British colony, Australia’s postal service was much influenced by Britain’s. Browsing Australia Post’s fascinating 200th Anniversary website I discovered many interesting parallels and connections between the two postal services.

The postal service began in Australia with the appointment of Isaac Nichols – a former convict who had been transported to New South Wales for stealing – as the first Postmaster of Sydney on 25th April 1809. Mail distribution prior to Nichols’ appointment was “haphazard” according to Australia Post’s website. It also says of this period:

“Life was often bleak and lonely for the first settlers as they waited for news from home. It could be many months before a ship was sighted offshore and this was enough to generate near pandemonium on the wharves.”

And so it wasn’t until two months after his appointment that Nichols performed his first duty, which was to board the brig Experiment as it docked in Sydney Harbour and take delivery of the mail. He then took the mail back to his home in George Street, Sydney, and placed an advertisement in the Sydney Gazette to alert recipients that mail awaited them.

The practise of not home delivering the mail was common at the time. In Britain prior to the introduction of free home delivery, letters would often be delivered to a convenient local place, such as a coffee shop. Although the first “letter carriers” (postmen) were appointed in Sydney in 1828 it appears that home delivery was not free in New South Wales at this time, as recipients paid for letters rather than senders. In Britain free home delivery was not granted to every household until 1897 (this was a concession to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria) although by 1859 93% of letters were not subject to a delivery charge.

Another important milestone for the Australian postal service was the introduction of the first public post boxes in Sydney in 1831. These were receipt boxes placed in front of letter receiving houses for the collection of (unpaid) letters. Receipt boxes were introduced in the UK in 1814 and underwent many stylistic changes throughout their existence, such as changes to the angle of the aperture (letter slot) from vertical to horizontal. The boxes introduced in Sydney in 1831 are likely to have been the same as their British counterparts.

Paris Letter Box 1850, an inspiration for early Australian letter boxes.

The first pillar boxes arrived in New South Wales in the late 1850s, a few years after UK trials had taken place in the Channel Islands. The Postmaster General of New South Wales announced that he would replace the existing receipt boxes with cast-iron letter receivers in Sydney and an invitation to tender was placed in the Government Gazette on 2nd November 1855. The boxes that followed were the famous Bubbs Boxes, which were modelled on those already in use in Belgium and Paris (which had also provided the inspiration for the first British roadside pillars). One of the stamps in Australia Post’s 200th Anniversary stamp issue shows an early Bubbs Box. A slightly different model manufactured in 1870 can be found in the collection of the National Museum of Australia and an image of this and others from the NMA’s collection can be seen on Wikipedia. Flickr shows an image of a similar box manufactured for the Western Australian postal service, bearing the Western Australian emblem of a black swan.

Australia Post’s website also notes that letter sheets pre-stamped with an albino embossing were introduced in New South Wales in 1838, pre-dating the Penny Black by almost two years. There is some debate about whether these letter sheets should be regarded as stamps or postal stationary. Those who feel they are postal stationary note that special letter sheets showing an eagle with the Cross of Savoy were sold in Sardinia in 1819. Either way, the letter sheets were inspired by British postal reformer Rowland Hill. James Raymond, the New South Wales Postmaster at this time, had been in communication with Hill and was much influenced by Hill’s 1837 pamphlet Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, which recommended the introduction of prepayment for postage using pre-printed envelopes and stamps. But Raymond’s pioneering letter sheets did not prove popular and moves were made to introduce postage stamps. The first postage stamps were released in New South Wales on 1st January 1850. Victoria followed on 3rd January 1950 and other Australian colonies introduced stamps between 1853 and 1860.

Britain's first charity stamp, issued in 1975 in support of health and handicap charities.

Another philatelic first claimed by Australia was the release of the world’s first charity stamps in 1897 in New South Wales. The stamps were to honour Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee with proceeds going to a Consumptive’s Home (images of these stamps can be seen on the Stamps of Distinction blog and Linns.com). It is important to note that Greece had released charity stamps in 1831, although the New South Wales Consumptive Home stamps were the first to include a charity surcharge. Britain’s first charity stamp was issued in 1975 to support health and handicap charities.

I am indebted to BPMA Curator Julian Stray for providing much of the information in this post. The following online resources were also extremely useful.
BPMA: Key Dates in the British Postal Service
BPMA: online catalogue
Australia Post: Our History
Australia Post: 200 Years
Wikipedia: Postage stamps and postal history of New South Wales
Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps

Proposed stamp issues for Jersey during Nazi occupation

by Adam Reynolds, Project Archivist (Stamp Artwork)

Proposed penny stamp for Jersey during Nazi occupation

In undertaking my work for the Stamp Artwork Project, I came across two items of interest in connection to the German occupation of the Channel Islands during the Second World War. On 27th July 1940, just weeks into the occupation, the German commandant, Hauptmann Gussek, instructed that all British postage stamps be overprinted in black with a swastika design and the inscription ”Jersey 1940”.

On the same day, penny stamps to be overprinted with the swastika were approved by Gussek, and a sheet of 30 stamps was submitted on 2nd August.

Proposed swastika overprint design for Jersey stamps

The stamps were never issued, and of the four sheets printed only two have survived. In the recollection of the Bailiff of Jersey, Sir Alexander Coutanche, the German Commandant could not sanction the use of the stamps “because they contained a reproduction of the Imperial Crown”.

Following protests from Coutanche, the decision to overprint stamps with the swastika was abandoned, reputedly so as not to antagonise the local population.

For further information on this in BPMA archive, the following files may be of interest;

Post 102/10: Channel Islands stamp issues during the German occupation

Post 33/5790: Channel Islands: stamp issue during occupation

Post 33/5586: Channel Islands: occupation and liberation, restoration of postal services, Parts 1 – 2

Post 56/32: Report regarding Post Office services during and immediately following the German Army’s occupation of the Channel Islands