ADSHEAD, Mary - (1904 - 1995) 

Mary trained at the Slade School of Art from 1920 - 24. She became particularly well known for her murals and painted panels. Many of her paintings were exhibited and she designed for books, posters, scenery and postage stamps.

Mary designed the 1949 2½d UPU stamp and the pictorial 2s6d and 5s high values of 1951.

(Hon) BELLEW, George Rothe - Somerset Herald, (when he designed the high value stamps) later, Sir George Bellew, King of Arms of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Designed the 10/- 'Arms' dark-blue, 10/- 'Arms' ultramarine, £1 'Arms', 1/- UPU,

BLAMPIED, Edmund - (1886 - 1966).

Painter, etcher, lithographer and sculptor. Born in Ville Bree, St.Martin, Jersey.

Edmund lived in Jersey under the German occupation. He designed small denomination currency notes, and in 1942 he designed the six pictorial stamps for Jersey which were issued in 1943. He painted many scenes of Jersey rural life - the 1948 Channel Islands Liberation 2½d stamp was based on one of Edmund's drawings.

In 1958, he designed the 2½d carmine-red Jersey definitive, (portrait by Dorothy Wilding).

Following a parliamentary investigation into the efficiency of Imperial Airways and British Airways, it was announced on 11 November 1938 that the two airlines would merge to form BOAC (effective from 1 April 1940).

< 1940 BOAC logo

BOAC continued to operate limited services throughout the war. BOAC services up to the end of 1944:-

In 1946 the Civil Aviation Act lead to the demerger of two divisions of BOAC to form three separate corporations:-

BOAC - for Empire, North American and Far East routes

British European Airways (BEA) - for European and domestic routes

British South American Airways (BSAA) - for South American and Caribbean routes

Cancelled / Cancelled and punched

Cancelled stamps were used mainly by the Post Office for their own records, e.g. colour standards and trial prints. There are variations in the size and style of the overprint.

Coil - roll of stamps used in stamp vending machines.

Coil join - small tab used to join sections of rolls of stamps

Control Numbers - Printed in the margins of sheets. Used by the Post Office and printers for stock control purposes.

Council of Industrial Design (COID), created by the British government in December, 1944 as a strand of the strategies being developed for peacetime reconstruction. It constituted a Stamps Advisory Committee in 1947. The COID was renamed as the Design Council in 1972.

Directors General of the Post Office - during the reign of King George VI.

DULAC, Edmund - (1882 - 1953)

Edmund Dulac was born in Toulouse, France. He studied law at the same time as he attended classes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. When he won a prize for his art he gave up his law studies and attended the Ecole full time. He won further prizes and a short scholarship to the Académie Julien in Paris.

In 1904 he moved to London and began his extremely successful career as a designer and illustrator. His illustrations, mainly for children's books, are world famous alongside those of Arthur Rackham. He became a naturalised British subject in 1912.

His first design for postage stamps were the low value definitives for King George VI. For the ½d to 6d he designed the profile head, working with Eric Gill who designed the frame and font - for the 7d to 1s stamps, Edmund was the sole designer. He again worked with Eric Gill in 1940 on a design for an Anglo-French postage stamp.

[Some of the unaccepted definitive designs by Dulac are shown in the British Philatelic Bulletin, December 1970 - the originals are in the National Postal Museum].

Edmund's profile head was based on photographs taken by Bertram Park - it was used on all the King George VI stamp issues for the UK except for the Coronation and Royal Silver Wedding stamps. It was also adapted for use on postal stationery.

He went on to work with Harrison and Sons to produce other designs in photogravure. He designed the 1937 Coronation stamp; 2/6d brown, 2/6d yellow green and 5/- red high value 'arms' stamps, (recess printed by Waterlow and Sons); the 1s Olympic Games, the 2½d Festival. He also designed a large number of Free French colonial issues by Harrison and Sons during World War 2 and a Victory stamp for the new French Republic.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, he designed the 1/-, 1/3d and 1/6d definitive values, and the 1/3 Coronation stamp. Sadly he died shortly before the coronation stamp was issued.

EMPIRE AIRMAIL SCHEME - Initially raised by the government in 1933, this scheme was first announced on 20 December, 1934 - all letters from the UK to the rest of the Empire to be carried by air, ('All-Up') without surcharge, as far as practicable. The scheme aimed to allow all mail to be flown at the rate of 1½d, (per ounce) to anywhere in the Empire. Mail flown by Imperial Airways.

Stage 1 - 29 June 1937, to east and south Africa.

Stage 2 - 23 February 1938, to Near East, India region, Far East.

GAMES, Abram FSIA, RDI, OBE - (1914-1996) Designed the 3d Olympic Games (which gave him the nickname of 'Olympic Games') and the 4d Festival stamps.

Abram was featured in the BBC programme, Images of War, (1983).

There is a beautiful book showing his work - 'Abram Games, Graphic Designer : Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means' - by Naomi Games, Catherine Moriarty and June Rose - Lund Humphries - 2003

GILL Eric, RDI - (1882 - 1940)

Most famous for designing fonts, especially Gill Sans. Eric began training as an architect, but became deeply interested in calligraphy and arts and crafts.

He was deeply religious and converted to Catholicism in 1913. He established three religious communities while working as a sculptor, wood-engraver, and type designer.

Eric wrote about many aspects of modern life, especially the need for social reform.

His first invited submission to the Post Office of stamp designs was made in 1924 for the British Empire Exhibition. He was again invited to submit designs for the 1929 Postal Union Congress stamps. Later, he produced designs for the new King Edward VIII definitives and proposed coronation stamp.

For philatelists, Eric Gill became well known for his design of the frames for the ½d - 6d George VI definitives. For these he collaborated with Edmund Dulac, despite an earlier disagreement between them over the designs of the Edward VIII stamps.

In 1937 he wrote to A. Tydeman, Controller of the Post Office Supplies Department... "From my point of view the whole idea of a picture stamp is essentially unreasonable. The essential things in a postage stamp are the statement that the thing is a stamp (the words 'postage' etc), the denomination, and some sign that the thing has official origin, (the King's head, a crown, etc). It seems to me that to use a pictorial subject is just pandering to sentimentality and the appetite of collectors for anything curious."

[Extracts of the argument between Gill and Dulac from letters in The Times, can be found in the British Philatelic Bulletin, June 1970].

Eric again worked with Edmund Dulac in 1940 on a design for an Anglo-French postage stamp.

Eric was one of the first to be awarded RDI status.

The first Machin decimal stamps used Eric Gill's Perpetua font. Because of the very round shape of the zero, the font was later altered.

The 2004 Royal Society of Arts stamp issue celebrated  Eric Gill's work on the 57p stamp.