Royal Mail will commemorate the 200th anniversary of one of the most famous and decisive battles in European history, the Battle of Waterloo, by issuing six stamps and a miniature sheet on June 18.
The culmination of two decades of conflict collectively known as the Napoleonic Wars, the single-day battle in what is now Belgium on June 18, 1815, saw the final defeat of the French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, at the hands of an Allied army largely composed of British forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington and Prussian forces under Gebhard von Blücher
The landscape-format counter sheet stamps, designed by Silk Pearce, illustrate some of the key exchanges in the battle in chronological order, based on paintings by 19th-century artists.
The portrait-format miniature sheet stamps, designed by Webb & Webb using modern illustrations by Chris Collingwood, depict rank-and-file infantrymen from the key nationalities who took part, emphasising the international nature of the conflict.
The 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, a foundation stone of the rule of law in England and around the world, is being marked by a special stamp issue on June 2.
Rather than concentrating solely on the treaty itself, the set of six stamps, subtitled ‘Magna Carta 1215: Foundation of Liberty’ also features five other key civil liberties and human rights documents which have been inspired by it.
Each design features a quote from the document in question alongside a simple woodcut image.
The second issue in Royal Mail’s five-year First World War commemorative series, issued on May 14, focuses on the year 1915, with more poignant images hailing the stoic bravery of fighting men.
It follows the template set in the first issue, by exploring each year of the conflict though six key themes: poppies, poetry, portraits, art, memorials and artefacts.
Designed by Hat-Trick, the stamps are printed in litho by International Security Printers.
Royal Mail is celebrating Britain’s invention of the adhesive postage stamp with a 175th Anniversary of the Penny Black miniature sheet to be issued on May 6, the precise anniversary of its issue.
It features stamp-on-stamp designs reproducing the 1840 Penny Black and its baby sister the Twopenny Blue, with superimposed 1st class values, each appearing twice in a chequer formation.
The 1d is shown with corner letters SC and the 2d with corner letters QB.
The issue date of April 1 was carefully chosen for the Comedy Greats set, which celebrates 10 of Britain’s best loved funny acts of the past 60 years, including many whose work is considered a landmark in the history of entertainment.
Royal Mail says that part of the inspiration behind the issue is that a quirky sense of humour is a trait synonymous with British people.
There are also several linked anniversaries, including the centenary of the birth of Norman Wisdom and the 50th anniversary of the first broadcast of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s television show Not Only…But Also.
In the Bridges issue, to be released on March 5, Royal Mail celebrates the evolution of Britain’s river crossings from small-scale functional structures to dramatic architectural landmarks.
The 10 featured bridges were constructed over a period of five centuries from a range of different materials, from stone and timber to iron and steel, and in contrasting engineering styles, from clapper and stone arch to suspension and cantilever.
Based on photographs taken from similar angles, the stamps were designed by GBH, and printed in lithography by International Security Printers.
Royal Mail’s Inventive Britain set, to be issued on February 19, celebrates the country’s long and proud history of developing world-changing innovations.
It features eight key British inventions of the past century or so in a range of disciplines, from materials technology to medicine.
Available as four se-tenant pairs, the stamps were designed by GBH, which created original visual interpretations of the inventions for six of the stamps, while the other two are based on existing and computer-generated imagery.
On January 20, Royal Mail will issue a Smilers 2015 miniature sheet, introducing eight new 1st class stamps expressly intended for use in personalised Smilers sheets.
The range of designs that customers can choose from is refreshed from time to time, and this is the first new set since a miniature sheet in 2010; previous sets were issued in booklets in 2005 and 2006.
The idea is to offer greater choice and flexibility when it comes to celebrating big events, from weddings and births to birthdays and other achievements, and sending ‘thank you’ messages.
The first Royal Mail stamp issue of 2015 is the 10-stamp Alice in Wonderland set, released on January 6 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s tale.
The book, properly titled Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, has its origins in a ‘golden afternoon’ in a rowing boat on the River Thames in Oxford in July 1862, when Charles Lutwidge Dodgson told the 10-year-old Alice Liddell and her sisters an outlandish fantasy tale about a young girl who fell down a rabbit hole and found a world inhabited by strange anthropomorphic characters and in which very little made sense.
Under the pen-name Lewis Carroll, he published it three years later as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and it has become a classic of the nonsense literature genre, republished in myriad editions and adapted for theatre, cinema and television.
This year’s Royal Mail’s Christmas stamps, released on November 4, feature outdoor scenes of a secular family Christmas by illustrator Andrew Bannecker.
Charming and colourful images depict British family Christmas traditions, from carol singing and ice skating to posting cards and buying trees, all taking place in light snowfall.
As usual they come in a set of seven, available in self-adhesive counter sheets and a gummed miniature sheet, with the 2nd Large and 1st Large designs being expanded versions of the standard 2nd class and 1st class designs.
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