http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk JANUARY 2016 43produce fresh essays of alternative
design and make trips to London on
5 and 11 March. At the meeting on
the 12th a committee was formed to
put into effect whatever purposes the
Memorial Fund might be dedicated.
The initial stamp proposal was later
subjected to the consideration of the
committee and the decision taken
not to adopt it. How promptly this
decision was arrived at is not known
but Harrisons’ did no further work on
the memorial stamp after 20 March.
In September 1936 Sir Charles
Higham, a leading figure in the
advertising world, briefly revived
the concept, his idea being for a
Memorial Fund stamp with a sale
price of 1/-, to be placed on sale
at post offices. The GPO took this
opportunity to remind the organisers
of the Memorial Fund that a
fundamentally similar proposal had
already been put forward and
turned down. The renewed
suggestion had not met with any
particular public enthusiasm.
In principle the GPO had been
firmly against the idea of charity
stamps since at least 1914, and would
remain so, one of the main objections
being that it was invidious to favour
one good cause over any other; further,
if pressure was not resisted in one
case it could not be resisted in any
case, with all the consequences that
this would mean for GPO staff in the
form of extra stocking, requisitioning,
checking and accounting.
That the memorial stamp issue
was considered as far as it was in
1936 can only have been because it
was the new King’s own wish at a
time of national mourning. A brief
listing in later years of the requested
charity issues which had at various
times been turned down by the
GPO included proposals on behalf
of the Red Cross, aid to refugees,tuberculosis and cancer research,
and flood relief; on the death of
George VI in 1952, the same idea of
a Memorial Fund stamp was raised,
and once more rejected by the GPO.Other consequences
of the King’s death
Although no official memorial
stamp appeared, an example exists
of a postcard sent to Australia on 28
January from Glasgow, bearing a 1d
and 1½d stamp on each of which an
artist, J. Walker, had handpainted a
black border. Lawfully these stamps
were defaced and invalid but the card
was nonetheless accepted for posting.
The death of King George V had
other philatelic consequences in that
work ceased on the proposed newissue of 7d and 8d definitives. These
had been planned since the parcel
postage increase of 1 July, 1935, and
designs had already been submitted
by such distinguished artists as
Barnett Freedman, Robert Gibbings,
Graham Sutherland and Agnes Miller
Parker. In addition the photogravure
version of the 6d definitive was still
in the production stage with technical
problems over inking, and the King’s
death actually afforded a breathing
space in which these were eventually
resolved. Stamps in all three values
finally appeared in the George VI
series in January and February 1939.
Photogravure definitives in the 5d,
10d and 1/- values bearing the head
of George V were newly issued in
the month following his death, as
originally scheduled.
Memorial stamps were finally
published by the GPO in the form
of the Commemoration issue for Sir
Winston Churchill launched six months
after his death in 1965. The experiment
of a charity stamp was finally tried only
in 1975, with the ‘health and handicap’
4½p + 1½p surcharge, and was not
accounted a success.KING GEORGE V MEMORIAL STAMP
29 January, 1936.
Blocks of four of the
1½d value, produced
by Harrison & Sons Ltd,
with the ‘Vandyk’ head
in grey-lilac on black, the
lower of the ‘second-
etch’ black essays being
perforated, printed on
uncoated paper in two
different depths of etchMarch 1936. Three trials
of the 1½d value, based
on colour variations,
produced by Harrison &
Sons Ltd.p40 KGV.indd 43 23/11/2015 14:32