Contributions of a wartime secret agent, composer, and code breaker recognised on ten new stamps
Individuals’ separated by centuries – but linked by a single year
Royal Mail is celebrating the lives and work of ten prominent Britons with a new set of stamps launched on 23 February 2012.
The Britons of Distinction stamps celebrate ten distinguished individuals from the realms of science and technology, architecture, politics and the arts who have all made a major contribution to British society.
Rubbing shoulders with the architects Sir Basil Spence and Augustus Pugin is the composer Frederick Delius, Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician and Enigma code breaker, Odette Hallowes the wartime secret agent. Joan Mary Fry, the social reformer, is also featured alongside Thomas Newcomen, the ironmonger from a small Devon town who changed the history of engineering, the textile designer, artist Mary ‘May’ Morris, opera star Kathleen Ferrier, and author and scholar Montague Rhodes James.
The ten 1st Class stamps feature a mixture of portraits and images of these individuals and their achievements. All those featured celebrate significant anniversaries in 2012. For example Sir Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral celebrates its 50th anniversary, appearing on the sheet next to a portrait of the composer Frederick Delius who was born 150 years ago.
The last time Royal Mail brought together ten different individuals and their achievements was with Eminent Britons in 2009. This was one of the most popular stamp issues of the year and came about when Royal Mail discovered a number of important, but unrelated, anniversaries.
Philip Parker, Royal Mail Stamps spokesperson, said: “Britons of Distinction celebrates important yet diverse individuals, sometimes separated by centuries, but brought together by genius.
“I think the stamps create a great sense of history, and capture both the achievement and endeavour of these exceptional people.”
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