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2012 Stamp Issues

5th Jan 2012 - Olympics and Paralympics Stamp Booklet

Tues 10th Jan 2012 - Roald Dahl

20th January 2012, year of the Dragon, Smilers Sheet.

Thurs 2nd Feb 2012- The House of Windsor

6th February - Diamond Jubilee

Thurs 23rd Feb 2012 - Britons of Distinction

Thurs 8th March 2012 - Classic Locomotives of Scotland

Tuesday 20th March 2012 - Comics

Tuesday 10th April 2012 - UK A-Z Part 2

Tues 15th May 2012 - Great British Fashion

Thurs 31st May 2012 - The Diamond Jubilee

Tues 19th June 2012 - Charles Dickens

Tues 27th July 2012 - Olympic Games Welcome

Wed 29th August 2012 - Paralympic Games Welcome

Thurs 27th Sept 2012 - Olympic & Paralympic Games Memories

Tues 16th Oct 2012 - Dinosaurs

Tues 30th Oct 2012 - Space Science

Tues 6th Nov 2012 - Christmas

 

Britons of Distinction

Issue Date - 23rd February 2012

 

Britons of Distinction celebrates another selection of distinguished individuals from the realms of science and technology, architecture, politics and the arts, who are all celebrating anniversaries in 2012.

These Britons were born with very different gifts, but they shared a determination to follow them. Rubbing shoulders with the architects and musicians are the social reformer, the ironmonger from a small Devon town who changed the history of engineering, the craftswoman, the brilliant mathematician, the secret agent and the Cambridge don who created some of the most terrifying ghost stories ever written.

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 issues of that stamp year and came about when Royal Mail discovered a number of important, but unrelated, anniversaries.

Initial research for 2012 soon demonstrated that, once again, there were many significant anniversaries allowing Royal Mail to assemble a distinguished list of those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries of specific achievements in 2012.

 

Issue Products


Britons Stamp Set

Stamp Set

Featuring portraits of five of our distinguished subjects and depictions of the other five’s greatest achievements. Sir Basil Spence created Coventry Cathedral amongst other fine buildings. Born to German parents in Yorkshire, Frederick Delius composed some of the most quintessentially English pieces in the pastoral canon. Daughter of the artist William Morris, Mary Morris was a leading light in the revival of English embroidery. Odette Hallowes was the first woman to win the George Cross. Thomas Newcomen, a Devon ironmonger and engineer, invented the atmospheric steam engine that helped to power the Industrial Revolution. Kathleen Ferrier was the greatest contralto of her era. Augustus Pugin was a great champion and exponent of Gothic architecture with the glorious interiors of Palace of Westminster among his many achievements. Montague Rhodes James, author of some of the most chilling ghost stories in British fiction. Alan Turing, a mathematician and computer scientist, whose work creating the Bombe code braking machine, was instrumental in saving millions of lives in WWII. Quaker, pacifist and social reformer, Joan Mary Fry was a tireless campaigner for the oppressed.

1st Class - Sir Basil Spence – architect of Coventry Cathedral

1st Class - Sir Basil Spence – architect of Coventry Cathedral

Knighted for services to architecture, particularly his designs for the new Coventry Cathedral, opened in 1962, after the original was bombed. The image shows Coventry Cathedral.

1st Class – Frederick Delius - opera, choral and orchestral composer

1st Class – Frederick Delius - opera, choral and orchestral composer

Yorkshire-born composer of choral and orchestral works, most renowned for music evoking a timeless English pastoral idylll.

Mary May Morris

1st Class – Mary ‘May’ Morris – designer and textile artist

Textile artist and designer celebrated for her embroidery; daughter of the artist and thinker William Morris. The image shows Orange Tree, designed and embroidered by May Morris.

 

Odette Hallowes

1st Class – Odette Hallowes – SOE agent in occupied France

 

French-born British secret agent in wartime France who survived solitary confinement in German concentration camps.

 

1st Class – Thomas Newcomen – inventor of the atmospheric steam engine

1st Class – Thomas Newcomen – inventor of the atmospheric steam engine

 

Devon ironmonger, engineer and inventor of the atmospheric steam engine, which helped power the Industrial Revolution.  His first working engine was installed at a coal mine near Dudley Castle in Staffordshire in 1712.

Kathleen Ferrier

1st Class – Kathleen Ferrier – contralto performer of opera and song

Lancashire-born contralto whose international opera and song career was prematurely ended by her death from cancer.

 

1st Class – Augustus Pugin – Gothic revival architect and designer

1st Class – Augustus Pugin – Gothic revival architect and designer

Architect, designer and advocate of the Gothic style whose commissions included the interiors of the Palace of Westminster. The stamp shows Pugin’s interior of the Palace of Westminster.

 

1st Class – Montague Rhodes James – scholar and author of ghost stories

1st Class – Montague Rhodes James – scholar and author of ghost stories

Cambridge academic and author of chilling ghost stories, originally written as entertainments for his friends.

Alan Turing

1st Class – Alan Turing – mathematician and code breaker

Mathematician and computer scientist, whose work with the code-breakers at Bletchley Park helped to speed up the end of the Second World War. The stamp shows Turing’s Bombe code breaking machine at Bletchley Park.

1st Class – Joan Mary Fry – Quaker relief worker and social reformer

1st Class – Joan Mary Fry – Quaker relief worker and social reformer

Quaker campaigner for pacifism and social reform who organised food relief in Germany after the First World War and then in Wales.

 

Technical Details

Feature

Type/Detail

Number of stamps Ten
Design Purpose
Illustration/photography Sir Basil Spence – photo of Coventry Cathedral © Edwin Smith/RIBA Library Photographs Collection; Frederick Delius © Delius Trust; Mary ‘May’ Morris – Orange Tree embroidery © William Morris Society, photo by Peter Wood; Odette Hallowes © Imperial War Museum; Thomas Newcomen – photo from the collections of Glasgow Museums © Culture and Sport Glasgow (Trading) CIC; Kathleen Ferrier – photo by Angus McBean © Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University; Augustus Pugin – photo of House of Lords © Science & Society Picture Library; Montague Rhodes James © National Portrait Gallery, London; Alan Turing – reconstructed Bombe machine used by permission of Bletchley Park, photo by Peter Wood; Joan Mary Fry © Religious Society of Friends in Britain.
Stamp Format Square
Stamp Size 35mm x 35mm
Printer Cartor Security Printing
Print Process Lithography
Number per Sheet 25/50
Perforations 14.5 x 14.5
Phosphor All over
Gum PVA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
       
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