The House of Windsor
The House of Windsor Issue Date - 2nd February 2012
This great Royal House began with the name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which was changed to Windsor by George V’s Royal Proclamation in 1917, in order to emphasise the Britishness of the Monarchy at the height of the First World War.
The House of Windsor has now reigned for over a century of great achievements and dramatic events. Despite the turbulence of two world wars and the constitutional crisis of the abdication, it has done so with enormous dignity.
Therefore we are proud to present this Special issue as Britain prepares to celebrate only the second ever Diamond Jubilee in history; the first being that of Queen Victoria, the great-great- Grandmother of Her Majesty The Queen.
Issue Details:
1st Class - Edward VII (1901 - 1910)
Edward VII was the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which was renamed the House of Windsor by his son, George V. During the widowhood of his mother, Queen Victoria, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite.
68p – George V (1910-1936)
George was the first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. From 1877 until 1891 he served in the Royal Navy. On his father's death in 1910, he succeeded as King-Emperor of the British Empire. He was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar.
76p – Edward VIII (1936)
Only months into Edward’s reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing marriage to the American socialite Wallis Simpson, who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing that the people would never accept a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands as queen. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status as head of the Church of England, which opposed the remarriage of divorced people if their former spouses were still alive. Edward knew that Stanley Baldwin’s government would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have dragged the King into a general election and ruined irreparably his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. Rather than give up Mrs. Simpson, Edward abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother Albert, who chose the regal name George VI. With a reign of 325 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British history. He was never crowned.
£1.00 - George VI (1936-1952)
As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward. He served in the Royal Navy during World War I, and after the war took on the usual round of public engagements. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret.
When George's elder brother abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson in 1936 George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor.
On the day of his accession, the parliament of the Irish Free State removed the monarch from its constitution. Further events during George's reign accelerated the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations. Three years after his accession, the Empire and Commonwealth, was at war with Nazi Germany.
£1.10 – Elizabeth II (1952 -)
Elizabeth IIis the constitutional monarch of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. As Head of the Commonwealth, she is the figurehead of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations; as the British monarch, she is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
The Kings and Queens, House of Windsor Stamps Technical Details:
| Feature | Type/Detail |
|---|---|
| Number of stamps | Five |
| Design | Atelier Works |
| Acknowledgements | Edward VII, 1902, and George V, c.1911, by Sir Luke Fildes, The Royal Collection © 2011 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; Edward VIII, c.1920, Reginald Grenville Eves © National Portrait Gallery, London; George VI, c.1949–52, Denis Quintin Fildes © reserved/The Royal Collection; Queen Elizabeth II (b.1926), 1954 (oil on canvas), Fishmongers’ Hall, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library, portrait by Pietro Annigoni, Camera Press London |
| Stamp Format | Portrait |
| Stamp Size | 27mm x 37mm |
| Printer | Cartor Security Printing, Meaucé, France |
| Print Process | Lithography |
| Number per Sheet | 25/50 |
| Perforations | 14 x 14 |
| Phosphor | Bars as Approriate |
| Gum | PVA |
1st Class – Scott Expedition - 1912 South Pole
Captain Robert Falcon Scott of the Royal Navy led an expedition to the South Pole, which he and his four-man team reached on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been beaten by a Norwegian expedition 33 days previously. On their way back to camp, through appalling blizzards, they were assailed by exhaustion, malnutrition and frostbite, and all sadly perished.
The stamp marks the centenary of Scott’s team reaching the South Pole in one of the most famous expeditions in British history.
68p - Second World War - 1939 - 1945 The Home Front
The Royal Family was tireless in its efforts to maintain domestic morale throughout the Second World War, especially during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz in 1940–41. When Buckingham Palace was hit by the Luftwaffe on 13 September 1940, with two bombs exploding only 30 yards from the King, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother remarked that now “she could look the East End in the face”. Fittingly the stamp shows that Queen Mother during a tour of bomb-damaged London.
76p Football Champions 1966 England win
On 30 July 1966, in front of 93,000 spectators, the England football team made history at Wembley Stadium, becoming world champions after beating West Germany 4-2. After 90minutes the score was 2-2, but two extra-time goals from striker Geoff Hurst gave England victory on home soil. Queen Elizabeth II presented the jubilant players with the winners’ trophy.
£1.00 Channel Tunnel- 1996 Nations Linked
The two ends of the Channel Tunnel met in December 1990 and it was officially opened on 6 May 1994. On that day in Calais, Queen Elizabeth II and the French President François Mitterrand attended the inauguration after The Queen’s arrival in France on a Eurostar train. Later, she and Mitterrand travelled on a Le Shuttle train to an identical ceremony at Folkestone, Kent.
The Channel Tunnel remains one of the outstanding engineering achievements of the 20th century, and this symbolic joining of nations is a fitting end to the Kings and Queen’s stamp series.
The House of Windsor Miniature Sheet Technical Details
| Feature | Type/Detail |
|---|---|
| Number of stamps | Four |
| Design | Atelier Works |
| Acknowledgements | British Antarctic Expedition, photographed by Henry Bowers in January 1912 – (from left to right) Captain Oates, Lieutenant Bowers (sitting), Captain Scott, Dr Wilson (sitting) and Petty Officer Evans © Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge; royal tour of bomb-damaged London, October 1940 © Getty Images/Hulton Archive; England football team, Wembley 1966 © Gerry Cranham/Offside; Channel Tunnel, November 1990 © qaphotos.com/Alamy |
| Stamp Format | Portrait |
|
Sheet Size Stamp Size |
123mm x 70mm 27mm x 37mm |
| Printer | Cartor Security Printing, Meaucé, France |
| Print Process | Lithography |
| Number per Sheet | 25/50 |
| Perforations | 14 x 14 |
| Phosphor | Bars as Approriate |
| Gum | PVA |
Stamp Set
The Mint Stamps feature some of the best known portraits of the featured Monarchs together with the dates of each one's reign.
First Day Covers
The First Day Cover Envelope was designed by Atelier Works. The envelope is printed by Dobson and Crowther Ltd. The filler card designed by Atelier Works and features potted biographies of each of the Windsor Kings and Queens by historian Andrew Roberts.
Presentation Pack
The lavishly illustrated presentation pack contains the five Kings and Queens stamps and the miniature sheet on a separate designed carrier. Within the pack, noted historian Andrew Roberts looks at the Windsor’s and some of the events and advances made during their reign in science, technology, medicine and communications. The pack was designed by Atelier Works and printed by Walsall Security Printers.
> Buy the Presentation Pack now
Miniature Sheet
The miniature sheet is made up of four new stamps (1st, 68p, 76p and £1.00) featuring events and individuals from the reign of the House of Hanover. Featured are: the Scott Antarctic Expedition, World War II, England’s World Cup victory of 1966 and the completion of the Channel Tunnel.
Cachet Cover
This is the sixth and last exclusive, limited edition Cachet Covers to accompany each issue in the Great British Monarchs series. Each cover will receive a cachet from the royal palace associated with the relevant Royal House.
Press Sheet
Only 2012 individually numbered press sheets will be available; each one consisting of 21 uncut miniature sheets.
Stamp cards
Ten postcards bearing enlarged images of each of the Kings and Queens, House of Windsor stampsand the miniature sheet go on sale about a week before the stamp issue date.
