Stamp & Coin Mart - April 2016_

http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk APRIL 2016 39

BRITISH HUMANITARIANS

a Study in Social Questions’. At the

end of the First World War, she helped

set up a press group named Fight the

Famine Council, which was the founder

organisation of the Save the Children

charity. Over the years, the charity

has helped children around the world,

including refugee children in Greece

and starving families in Russia.

Another humanitarian who achieved

the goal of establishing an organisation

to help families in need was Joseph

Rowntree (1836-1925) who features on

the fifth stamp. Rowntree was a York

confectioner who used his business

success to found three trusts which

promoted social reform. Rowntree’s

family were initially employed in the

grocery trade and as a young man,

Rowntree travelled to Ireland on a

business trip with this father, where he

was shocked to see the impoverished

victims of the potato famine.

When he took over the family

business as an adult, Rowntree

established a chocolate factory in York

where he prided himself on providing

good working conditions for his

employees, with free education, a library,

medical care and a pension.

The final stamp features Josephine

Butler (1828-1906) a social reformer

and women’s rights campaigner. Butler

was born in Northumberland, and after

For your chance to win one of ten British

Humanitarians presentation packs courtesy of Royal

Mail, simply answer the following question on our

website: http://stamp.cm/win-stamps

Which of the six featured Humanitarians was

awarded a Nobel Peace Prize?

You can also enter by post, using code SCM/Apr16/BHum.

Winner will be picked at random from correct entries.

Closing date: 7 April, 2016. Editor’s decision is final.

the death of her young daughter, became

inspired to help people less fortunate

than herself. She associated herself

with numerous causes which were

considered unfashionable or undesirable

in Victorian Britain, such as the welfare

of prostitutes and the repeal of the

Contagious Diseases Act.

Her work is remembered by a

Liverpool John Moores University

building, which is named after her, and

through Josephine Butler College at the

University of Durham.

Product portfolio

As usual, Royal Mail has issued a

portfolio of associated products to

accompany the mint stamps. The

First Day Cover, designed by Hat-

Trick Design, features the issue title

in a typewritten font, with an Oxford

English Dictionary definition of the

word ‘humanitarian’ on the reverse.

Obituaries specialist Nigel Fountain

has written the information card,

which has a brief biography of each

of the six humanitarians.

Nigel Fountain has also written the

information for the Presentation Pack

(again created by Hat-Trick Design)

which features summaries of the careers

of the humanitarians, a log of their key

achievements and a scrapbook-style

presentation of ephemera relating to

their lives and work.

There are three postmarks for use

with British Humanitarians: a Tallents

House postmark designed in the style

of a passport, as a tribute to Nicholas

Winton’s wartime rescue operation; an

alternative postmark which features a

quotation by Nicholas Winton and is

postmarked Winton, Northallerton;

and a non-pictorial postmark for the

same location.

malnutrition. He was awarded the

Nobel Peace Prize in 1949 and donated

the prize money to world peace

organisations. He is remembered in

Glasgow, the city where he first became

concerned about poor nutrition, by

the University of Glasgow’s Boyd Orr

building, and the Boyd Orr Centre for

Population and Ecosystem Health.

Another humanitarian whose work

benefited children was Eglantyne Jebb

(1876-1928) founder of the organisation

which became known as Save the

Children. Jebb was born in Ellesmere,

Shropshire, and was nicknamed the

‘white flame’ because of her passion for

helping children in distress.

At the turn of the nineteenth century,

Jebb moved to Cambridge to care for

her sick mother and it was here that she

became aware of the plight of deprived

children, which became the subject of

a report she wrote named ‘Cambridge,

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