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| Britain’s
great explorers honoured These are the designs of the six Extreme Endeavours GB stamps which are out on April 29, 2003 to mark the achievements of some of Britain’s greatest ever adventurers. Designed in the same panoramic format as the 2002 GB Commonwealth Games issue the stamps show female aviator Amy Johnson (2nd class), the Everest team (1st class), traveller and writer Freya Stark (E), polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton (42p), yachtsman Sir Francis Chichester (47p), and Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott (68p). Points to note on the designs of the stamps are the fact that Sir Edmund Hillary, who is still alive, appears on the Everest team stamp whilst the Norwegian flag appears on the Captain Scott stamp because Amundsen reached the pole before Scott’s team. Hillary is a rare example of a living person on a British stamp. Previous convention was not to put any living person on a British stamp, unless they were a member of the British Royal Family. This ruling has recently been superseded by a rule that living people can be on stamp provided they are not the ‘hero image’ and that an achievement, rather than a person, is being celebrated. The previous living person on a GB stamp was Roger Taylor, the drummer from the rock group Queen, who appeared in the background of a Freddie Mercury issue from 1999’s The Entertainers’ Tale set. Exceptional individuals Royal Mail’s Gavin Macrae explained: ‘Britain boasts a phenomenal number of great explorers and adventurers both past and present. With this issue we wanted to encapsulate the extreme conditions many of these exceptional individuals had to endure as they pursued glory and knowledge around the globe’. Printed by De La Rue the issue will be backed up by a presentation pack (no. 346), a first day cover envelope, and six stamps cards each bearing one of the issues on the front. The presentation pack includes an interview between Ranulph Fiennes and Rebecca Stephens (the first woman to climb ‘The Magnificent Seven’, the world’s seven highest mountains). Two special ‘compass’ first day of issue pictorial postmarks will accompany the stamps – a Plymouth mark will be available to those who hand in or post covers at main Post Office branches, whilst a Tallents House mark is available from the British Philatelic Bureau or through Special Handstamp Centres. For more details on the latest GB issues go to www.royalmail.com |
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