In 2014 the Royal Mail announced a five-year programme (2014-2018) to commemorate the First World War. The set will feature 30 stamps with a set of 6 stamps being released each year. The new 2016 set is due to be released on 21 June 2016.
The 2016 will feature the following:
- Battlefield Poppy (Giles Revell)– In his Battlefield Poppy, a single poppy stands against a chaotic and barren background.
- “To my Brother” Vera Brittain – In June 1918, Vera Brittain wrote ‘To My Brother’, a poem commemorating Edward’s bravery on the Somme two years previously. Four days later, Edward was killed.
- Munitions Worker, Lottie Meade – This studio portrait shows Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Meade. Reflecting her work as a munitions worker, Meade is posing in her overalls, her hair covered by a headscarf.
- Travoys Arriving with wounded at a dressing station at smol, macedonia, Sept 16 (Stanley Spencer) – This painting was inspired by an incident he witnessed in September 1916.
- Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – The village of Thiepval was a key strategic point on the Somme battlefield.
- Capt. AC Green’s Battle of Jutland Commemorative Medal – After Jutland, unofficial medals were struck to commemorate the battle.
The 2014 set featured the following:
- Poppy– Original artwork by Fiona Strickland, the Scottish born and Edinburgh based leading botanical artist.
- War Poetry– Lines from the poem, ‘For the Fallen’ by Lawrence Binyon.
- War Art– ‘A Star Shell’’ by CRW Nevinson. The artwork is on display at Tate Britain.
- Portrait– Private William Tickle, who enlisted on 7 September 1914, and served in the 9th Battallion, Essex Regiment. He was accepted despite being under age (15 on enlisting). He served until he was killed at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
- Memorial – ‘The Response’, a bronze memorial by Welsh artist Sir William Goscombe John, represents the raising of several companies of the Northumberland Fusiliers and depicts the men joining up in 1914. The memorial is located in a public park in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
- Artefact– Princess Mary Gift Box. In October 1914, the Christmas Gift Fund was launched by Princess Mary, the 17-year-old daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. The purpose was to provide everyone wearing the King’s uniform and serving overseas on Christmas Day 1914 with a ‘gift from the nation’. The result was the production of an embossed brass box, which contained a Christmas card and a picture of the Princess along with gifts. Servicemen at the front or at sea who were smokers received a pipe, an ounce of tobacco, cigarettes and a tinder lighter. Non-smokers received a packet of sweets and a writing case with pencil, paper and envelopes.
The 2015 set featured the following:
- Poppies, Howard Hodgkin – Poppies, an abstract work by London-born artist Howard Hodgkin, was inspired by poppies from Normandy in France and was executed as a carborundum print. Hodgkin won the Turner Prize in 1985 and was knighted in 1992.
- “All the hills and vales along”, Charles Hamilton Sorley – lines from the poem ‘All the Hills and Vales Along’ by Charles Hamilton Sorley.
- Rifleman Kulbir Thapa – Kulbir was the first Nepalese Gurkha to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
- The Kensingtons at Laventie, Eric Kennington – Painter and sculptor Eric Kennington joined the London Regiment in 1914, but was wounded and discharged in 1915. During his recovery, he painted The Kensingtons at Laventie.
- Cape Kelles, Gallipoli, Turkey – British photographer Ernest Brooks captures a British soldier at a comrade’s grave at Cape Helles in a sunset silhouette.
- London Irish Rifles’ Football from Loos – On 25 September 1915, the first day of the Battle of Loos, this football was booted out of British trenches by Private Frank Edwards. Kicked across no man’s land by Edwards’ comrades in 1st Battalion, London Irish Rifles, it became entangled in German barbed wire as British soldiers overran the enemy position.