Yorkshire men and women together with the region’s iconic buildings are commemorated in a unique online picture gallery
Royal Mail has created a unique online gallery to celebrate 50 years of special stamps including those which highlight iconic Yorkshire towns, cities and buildings as well as honouring leading personalities and their achievements. More than 2,500 different designs have been released during the last half century and the entire collection is on a special website. Visitors to the site are able to browse the stamps issued since July 1965 when the then Postmaster General Tony Benn widened the scope of the programme. He worked with designer David Gentleman to modernise stamp design. Every new stamp design is approved by the Queen before it is finally issued.
Sir Winston Churchill was the first to be featured on a special stamp following his death in January 1965. It was the first UK stamp to feature a contemporary non-royal figure. Other than the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh is the most featured person on the special stamps followed by William Shakespeare. Some of the most popular special stamps commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar, The Beatles, Olympic and Paralympic gold medal winners and Doctor Who. The range of stamps reflects changes in technology innovation, society and culture and the UK’s towns and cities have also influenced stamp design. Among those most often featured is the city of York with York Minster as one of the most celebrated buildings. The Humber Bridge is also commemorated as an engineering feat.
Among the people featured are the Bronte sisters who wrote most of their best loved work while living as a family in Haworth. The former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson from Huddersfield is also commemorated along with Olympic Gold medallists Jessica Ennis-Hill from Sheffield and boxer Nicola Adams from Leeds. n
The gallery can be found on the website rmspecialstamps.com
