Glossary N-Z

METCALFE, Percy, CVO, RDI - (1895-1970)

Percy designed the 2½d Olympic Games, 3d UPU and the 10/- 'Festival' and £1 'Festival' stamps. He also designed coins, medals and seals. The George Cross was designed by Percy, he was also responsible for the crowned head of King George VI used on the George Medal and the 1939-45 War Medal. He is associated with the great seal of England.

Official Mail : 'Official Paid' / 'On His Majesty's Service'

'The printed inscription "On His Majesty's Service" on an envelope or form does not imply exemption from postage. If, however, it bears the "Official Paid" design it is so exempt.' Answer given by the Postmaster General to the House of Commons 1 February 1937. [Hansard vol 319 cc1278-9]

Perforations

Sheet perforations

Type A Single side perf	Type B Perf through bottom; no side perf - nd cylinders	Type C Perf through bottom; 1 side perf - d cylinders

Type D Perf through bottom and left; 1 top perf	Type E Side imperforate,1 extension hole along bottom.	Type F Side perforated, 1 extension hole along bottom	Type G Alternate extension holes in side margin

Booklet Perforations


Type H Margin imperforate	Type I One hole in margin	Type J Margin perforated	Type K Bottom of margin only perforated	Type L Margin imperforate, with 1 hole at left of margin
Type M - as K but with single hole in bottom of margin at left

Post Boxes

Standard Letter Boxes during the reign of King George VI

Click on thumbnail for larger picture. (I would like a better copy if anyone has one)

Pillar Letter Box Type 'A'

Pillar Letter Box Type 'B'

As 2 'with stamp selling machine'

(N.B. A stamp selling machine may be fitted to any pillar box type 'A' or 'B'

Height	5ft 4 ins
Diameter	1ft 7½ ins
Weight	10 cwt (approx)

Height	5ft 4 ins
Diameter	1ft 3½ ins.
Weight	7½ cwt (approx)

As 2 -

The stamp selling machine and case are separate items.

Pillar Letter Box Type 'C' double

Wall Letter Box Type 'A' - One door

Wall Letter Box Type 'B' - One door

Height	5ft 3 ins
Width	2ft 10½ ins
Depth	1ft 10½ ins
Weight	17½ cwt (approx)

	Overall	Body of box
Height	3ft 11 ins	3ft 10 ins
Width	1ft 8 ins	1ft 7 ins
Depth	1ft 7 ins	1ft 6ins
Weight	5½ cwt (approx)

	Overall	Body of box
Height	2ft 9 ins	2ft 8½ ins
Width	1ft 7½ ins	1ft 4½ ins
Depth	1ft 3½ ins	1ft 0½ ins
Weight	2½ cwt (approx)

Wall Letter Box Type 'C' (obsolescent) One door

Ludlow Letter Box No 3

Ludlow Letter Box No 4

Prepared for notice plate and time tablet

	Overall	Body of box
Height	2ft 4 ins	2ft 3½ ins
Width	10½ ins	9½ ins
Depth	1ft 0½ ins	11½ ins
Weight	1½ cwt (approx)

Height	3ft 2 ins
Width	1ft 2 ins
Depth	1ft 6 ins
Weight	63½ lbs (approx)

Height	2ft 3 ins
Width	1ft 2 ins
Depth	1ft 2 ins
Weight	56 lbs (approx)

+ 11 Wall Letter Box Type 'A'

Back / Front. Door front and back

+ 13 Wall Letter Box Type 'B'

Back / Front. Door front and back

+ 15 Wall Letter Box Type 'C'

Back / Front. Door front and back (obsolescent)

	Overall	Body of box
Height	3ft 11 ins	3ft 8½ ins
Width	1ft 8 ins	1ft 7 ins
Depth	1ft 7 ins	1ft 6 ins
Weight	5½ cwt (approx)

	Overall	Body of box
Height	2ft 9 ins	2ft 6½ ins
Width	1ft 4½ ins	1ft 0½ ins
Depth	1ft 1½ ins	1ft 0½ ins
Weight	2½ cwt (approx)

	Overall	Body of box
Height	2ft 4 ins	2ft 2 ins
Width	10½ ins	9½ ins
Depth	1ft 0½ ins	11½ ins
Weight	1½ cwt (approx)

Lamp Letter Box (1937 pattern)

(obsolescent)

Lamp Letter Box (1940 pattern)

+ 19 Ludlow Letter Box No 3 / 4

As 8 and 9 with plain front

Height	1ft 8 ins
Width	8½ ins
Depth	1ft 0 ins
Weight	84lbs (approx)

Height	2ft 0 ins
Width	10 ins
Depth	1ft 1½ ins
Weight	43 lbs approx

As types 8 and 9 above

Swinton, Scottish Borders. [I think this is type no. 19]	6. Wall Letter Box Type 'B' - Yorkshire	2. Pillar Letter Box Type 'B' - near Sellafield



	4. Pillar Letter Box Type C - double


8. Outside Dunster Post Office

Postmaster General

Ministerial position, in charge of posts and later telegraphs within the United Kingdom. The title was abolished in 1969, replaced with 'Minister of Posts and Telecommunications'.

Postmasters General during the reign of King George VI were:

	Geoffrey Tryon 1935-1940
	William Morrison 1940-1942
	Harry Crookshank 1942-1945
	William Francis Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel 1945-1947
	Wilfred Paling 1947-1950
	Ness Edwards 1950-1951
	Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr 1951-1955

Assistant Postmasters General -

	Walter Womersly from 7 December 1935
	Charles Waterhouse from 25 October 1939
	R V Grimston from 3 March 1940
	Allan Chapman from 3 March 1941
	W A Burke from 10 August 1945
	C R Hobson from 14 October 1947
	L D Gammans from 5 November 1951

Railway Air Services - domestic airline formed in March 1934 by four railway companies and Imperial Airways. Operations controlled by the government during the war.

Nationalised and merged with British European Airways in 1947.

1937 route map for RAS >

SCOTT, Stanley D. - designed the 6d Olympic Games stamp while working for Waterlow and Sons Ltd, (since 1935) he later joined Harrison and Sons. Six years war service with the Field Survey, Royal Engineers, including four years overseas with the 8th Army. I know that he designed at least one other stamp (for Bahrain) - does anyone have further information?

SPECIMEN

Stamps cancelled with SPECIMEN were mainly produced to supply examples to the UPU until 10 March 1948 - after this, mint stamps without overprints were supplied, (exception £1 brown arms). There are variations in the size and style of the overprint.

*These overprints are extremely easy to forge - they should be regarded as fake unless evidence of genuineness is available.

STONE, Reynolds - (1909-1979), designer, typographer, painter and engraver. Designed the 3d Victory; later the 1958 3d Empire and Commonwealth Games and Welsh regional stamps, the 1960 3d General Letter Office and Europa stamps. Much of his work was done in the field of printing and publishing, as a designer of typefaces and book jackets. In 1949 he redesigned the famous clock logo of The Times. In 1951 he was invited to carve the Second World War memorial in the Grand Entrance of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1965 he carved the memorial to Sir Winston Churchill in Westminster Abbey. One of his later works was the gravestone of composer Benjamin Britten. Painter, engraver and letter cutter Reynolds Stone has designed the Queen's head on stamps and five and ten pound notes for the Bank of England. He engraved the Royal Arms for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953 and the official coat of arms for Her Majesty's Stationery Office in 1955 - still seen today on the British passport. His design work included corporate clients such as Shell, book publishers Oxford University Press and Penguin, and even the design of a new font, called Minerva.

STOREY, J.E. - designer at the Royal Mint, worked on the stamp for postal stationery.

Test label - used to test stamp vending machines, e.g. 'poached egg' label.

Travelling Post Office - special railway carriages where mail is sorted en route. There were 77 TPO services just before the Second World War - they were suspended during the war from 1940 to 1945. 43 TPO services were restarted after the war.

Universal Colour Scheme - agreed colours for stamps set by the Universal Postal Union based in Berne. First agreed in 1891.

Between 1840’s and 1870’s bilateral postal treaties were negotiated by a number of countries who thereby agreed to handle each other's mail. In 1874, Heinrich von Stephan, the Postmaster General of Prussia, proposed a General Postal Union. It started in October 1874. The Headquarters were located in Berne. 5 years later the name was changed to UPU.

Until 1940 the UK used the Universal Colour scheme for the principal postage rates : green, (printed matter and inland postcard rates; red, (letter rate and foreign postcard rate) and blue, (foreign letter rate). Increases in postal rates during the war made it necessary to change the colours of definitive and imprinted stationery stamps in 1951.

WILDING, Dorothy : (1893 - 1976)

Dorothy set up a successful photographic studio in London that soon attracted the rich and famous. Prince George, (later Duke of Kent) sat for her in 1929 - this was her first of a great many royal portraits.

She was asked by the new Queen Elizabeth to make a portrait in January, 1937. At Buckingham Palace she met King George VI who was dressed in his Admiral of the Fleet uniform. Dorothy suggested that a portrait of the King and Queen together should be taken. This picture was adapted by Edmund Dulac for the 1½d Coronation stamp. Following this she was appointed as the first woman to be an Official Royal Photographer for the Coronation.

Dorothy's photographs were adapted for the Royal Silver Wedding set of 1948.

Her most famous work was the portrait of Elizabeth II used for the new Queen's definitive set - now known by philatelists as the Wilding issue. Her work was also used on many other stamps for the British Commonwealth.

Her autobiography In Pursuit of Perfection was published in 1958.

Dorothy Wilding

'Q.E. II Wilding'

Contact : Malcolm Sanders : kg6gb@hotmail.com