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A digital photograph shot at Buckingham Palace in November 2001 by Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin, Lord Lichfield, has become the first major change of the Queen’s head design on UK overseas territories stamps in 20 years.
The idea to change the head was the brainchild of the Head of the Crown Agents Stamp Bureau, Nigel Fordham, who thought a new Queen’s head might be a good way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1953 Coronation.
Fordham explained: ‘In order to bring the introduction of the a new Queen’s head to the attention of the general public it was decided to issue a single stamp design with a different background colour for each particular overseas territory. We selected a superb portrait of The Queen taken by Lord Lichfield in The Queen’s Corridor at Buckingham Palace on November 26, 2001’.
The portrait has been taken from a double portrait session featuring The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Talking exclusively to STAMP MAGAZINE about the portrait Lord Lichfield explained: ‘I never had in mind the idea of a stamp but I did have the idea of a kind of Wedgwood, those double profiles, and because I was able to shoot digitally I was able to produce the result on site and almost for instant approval’.
Lichfield added: ‘We were only given five minutes for the shoot and I had to do a double head shot and a double full-length so I shot them both in profile separately and stitched them together on the computer while they watched’.
Nod of approval
When we spoke to him Lord Lichfield admitted that, as yet, he hadn’t spoken to The Queen ‘face-to-face’ about the portrait on the new stamp issue, but he said he believed that: ‘It must have the nod of approval’.
A total of 10 overseas territories issued the new Queen’s head stamps on June 2, 2003 – the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation. They are Ascension island (£3 value); Bermuda ($25 express postage); the British Antarctic Territory (£2); British Indian Ocean Territory (£2.50); the British Virgin Islands ($5); the Cayman islands ($4); the Falkland Islands (£2); St. Helena (£2.50); South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands (£2); and Tristan da Cunha (with a £2.80 value).
The Lichfield image was one of a number that had been commissioned by a variety of famous photographers, also including Rankin, John Swannell, Prince Andrew and rock star Bryan Adams, back in 2001 in preparation for the 2002 celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
Crown Agents spokesman Allen Price told STAMP MAGAZINE: ‘We chose the picture and asked The Queen if she was happy for us to use it. She agreed. The Queen’s head we used to use before was the Machin head used as a silhouette’.
The involvement of Lord Lichfield wasn’t his first foray into stamps – he shot the pictures for the 1973 Princess Anne Royal Wedding stamps from Great Britain and his great, great, great grandfather was Britain’s first ever Postmaster General.