32 JANUARY 2016http://www.stampandcoin.co.ukFifty years on from Britain’s first Robert Burns stamps, Alastair Gunn examines some intriguing
covers produced both during the campaign to have Burns honoured on a British stamp and once
the 1966 stamps were finally issuedGB Stamps
An auld acquaintance
R
obert Burns was one
of the world’s great
poets. He is, in effect,
the national poet of
Scotland and he is also
a worldwide icon for supporters of
liberalism and socialism because of
the themes in his poetry. Born on 25
January, 1759 he died on 21 July, 1796,
having written a wealth of poems, many
of which are still recited today both in
Scotland and much further afield.
While the British postal authorities
refused to mark his 200th birth
anniversary, as detailed on page 31,
Alloway Post Office in Ayr, Burns’
home town, was given dispensation
to open on Sunday 25 January, 1959
to cancel commemorative covers.
Apparently a normal day’s mail at
Alloway at the time was about 100
letters, but for Burns’ 1959 birthday
around 27,000 envelopes arrived to
be cancelled. Alloway had but one
datestamp and eight postmen worked
in relays using it and continued to do
so on the following day.
The Alloway activity wasn’t the first
philatelic honour for Rabbie; the USSR
had issued Burns commemorative
stamps in 1956 and Romania produced
a Burns stamp in 1959.
Despite Lord Chesham’s claim in
April 1958 that ‘special stamps are not
issued to commemorate people’, Royal
Mail did, in effect, commemorate a
person six years later, in April 1964,
when England’s literary icon William
Shakespeare was celebrated across five
stamps. The set was titled ‘Shakespeare’s
Festival’ so they are not quite
commemorating the person, but some
of his plays. But four of the stamps
have Shakespeare portraits and it was
the 400th anniversary of his birth. This
double standard was noted in Scotland
and it encouraged many pro-Burns
labels (and general Scottish Nationalist
labels) to be used on covers.
Finally stamps were issued for Burns
on 25 January, 1966 to celebrate theThere were seven special handstamps for the Burns 1966 issue and these were used at Ayr, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dumfries, Kilmarnock,
Greenock and Mauchline. However, excluding Greenock and Mauchline, the philatelic bureau versions of the handstands are smaller
than those used in the towns which makes for an interesting challenge to collectors of these fi rst day covers. The handstamps come in
two basic, similar forms varying with the Burns quotation used, the town and town symbolA 1959 cover with a pre-printed Burns bicentenary Cinderella on the cover. Note the asterisk position in the Alloway 25 January, 1959
circular date stamp, those in this off-centre position were cancelled on Monday 26 January, those with the asterisk in the middle were
cancelled on 25 Januaryp32 Burns covers.indd 32 23/11/2015 14:30