15 July 2014
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Royal Mail's World War One stamp showing Private Tickle
This month marks the start of a major six-year World War One stamp issue in which Royal Mail pays tribute to the thousands who fought in the Great War, and all of those affected by the conflict. Take a look at Royal Mail's World War One stamps here… ...
This month marks the start of a major six-year World War One stamp issue in which Royal Mail pays tribute to the thousands who fought in the Great War, and all of those affected by the conflict.
To mark the centenary, Royal Mail begins a major six-part stamp series which will comprise thirty stamps, issued over five years, finishing in 2018 to coincide with the centenary of the end of World War One.
Each of the five issues will have the same theme, which will be interpreted through different stamps each time: poppy, poetry, portraits, war art, memorials and artefacts.
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The first poppy stamp features a detailed illustration of a poppy by renowned botanical artist Fiona Strickland. The image, which was specially commissioned for the series, features a poppy in full bloom, with its fragile petals outstretched.
Stamp two in the set represents the poetry theme and features a well-known fragment from a poem ‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon: ‘At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them’.
The third stamp shows a portrait of Private William Cecil Tickle, whose story sums up the tragedy of this war and those which have followed – Tickle was an underage recruit who signed up to the 9th Battalion of the Essex Regiment and was sent to France. He was killed at the Battle of the Somme.
The war art stamp features the painting A Star Shell by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, a Royal Medical Army Corps worker who was invalided out of the Forces, and was given a commission as an official war artist. He didn’t shirk from portraying the realities of life on the battlefield and his paintings were often met with controversy.
We move to the subject of recruitment for stamp five, which features ‘The Response’, a war monument in Newcastle on Tyne which features the carved figures of soldiers marching to war, while one soldier breaks ranks to embrace his sweetheart, perhaps for the last time.
The final stamp, on the theme of wartime artefacts, features a gift box which was distributed under the Princess Mary’s Gift Fund Box scheme. Launched in the weeks running up to the first Christmas of the war, Princess Mary invited members of the public to make donations to help ‘send a Christmas present from the whole nation’ to every member of the British Forces on active service. Over £162,000 was raised, enabling over 420,000 gift boxes to be donated.
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Stamp details
Issue date: 28 July 2014
Design: Hat Trick Design
Printer: International Security Printers
Printing: Lithography
Size: 35mm x 35mm
Perforations: 14.5 x 14.5
Phosphor: All over for ‘For the Fallen’ and ‘A Star Shell’, all others, bars as appropriate
1st: Poppy by Fiona Strickland
1st: For the Fallen by Laurence Binyan
1st: Private William Cecil Tickle
£1.47: A Star Shell, C R W Nevinson
£1.47: The Response, Newcastle
£1.47: Princess Mary’s gift fund box
Read more about the Royal Mail World War One stamps in the September 2014 issue of Stamp & Coin Mart, available in print and as a digital edition.
To mark the centenary, Royal Mail begins a major six-part stamp series which will comprise thirty stamps, issued over five years, finishing in 2018 to coincide with the centenary of the end of World War One.
Each of the five issues will have the same theme, which will be interpreted through different stamps each time: poppy, poetry, portraits, war art, memorials and artefacts.
Stamp two in the set represents the poetry theme and features a well-known fragment from a poem ‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon: ‘At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them’.
The third stamp shows a portrait of Private William Cecil Tickle, whose story sums up the tragedy of this war and those which have followed – Tickle was an underage recruit who signed up to the 9th Battalion of the Essex Regiment and was sent to France. He was killed at the Battle of the Somme.
The war art stamp features the painting A Star Shell by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, a Royal Medical Army Corps worker who was invalided out of the Forces, and was given a commission as an official war artist. He didn’t shirk from portraying the realities of life on the battlefield and his paintings were often met with controversy.
We move to the subject of recruitment for stamp five, which features ‘The Response’, a war monument in Newcastle on Tyne which features the carved figures of soldiers marching to war, while one soldier breaks ranks to embrace his sweetheart, perhaps for the last time.
The final stamp, on the theme of wartime artefacts, features a gift box which was distributed under the Princess Mary’s Gift Fund Box scheme. Launched in the weeks running up to the first Christmas of the war, Princess Mary invited members of the public to make donations to help ‘send a Christmas present from the whole nation’ to every member of the British Forces on active service. Over £162,000 was raised, enabling over 420,000 gift boxes to be donated.
Stamp details
Issue date: 28 July 2014
Design: Hat Trick Design
Printer: International Security Printers
Printing: Lithography
Size: 35mm x 35mm
Perforations: 14.5 x 14.5
Phosphor: All over for ‘For the Fallen’ and ‘A Star Shell’, all others, bars as appropriate
1st: Poppy by Fiona Strickland
1st: For the Fallen by Laurence Binyan
1st: Private William Cecil Tickle
£1.47: A Star Shell, C R W Nevinson
£1.47: The Response, Newcastle
£1.47: Princess Mary’s gift fund box
Read more about the Royal Mail World War One stamps in the September 2014 issue of Stamp & Coin Mart, available in print and as a digital edition.
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