The story of the postage stamps and postal history of the United Kingdom (universally referred to by philatelists as "Great Britain") begins in the 12th century with King Henry I, who appointed messengers to carry letters for the government. At this time, private individuals had to make their own arrangements.
| Table of contents |
Henry III provided uniforms for the messengers, and Edward I instituted posting houses where the messengers could change horses. The reign of Edward II saw the first postal marking; handwritten notations saying "Haste, post haste".
Henry VIII created the Royal Mail in 1516, appointing Brian Tuke as "Master of the Postes", while Elizabeth I appointed Thomas Randolph as "Chief Postmaster". Under Thomas Witherings, chief postmaster under Charles I of England, the Royal Mail was made available to the public (1635), with a regular system of post roads, houses, and staff. The recipient paid the postage.
In 1661, Charles II made Henry Bishop the first Postmaster General (PMG). In answer to customer complaints about delayed letters, Bishop introduced the Bishop mark, a small circle with month and day inside, applied at London. In subsequent years, the postal system expanded from six roads to a network covering the country, and post offices were set up in both large and small towns, each of which had its own postmark.
The Great Post Office Reform of 1839 and 1840 was championed by Rowland Hill as a way to reverse the steady financial losses of the Post Office. Hill convinced Parliament to adopt a flat 4d per 1/2 oz. rate regardless of distance, which went into effect 5 December 1839. This was immediately successful, and on 10 January 1840 the Penny Postage started, charging only 1d for prepaid letters and 2d if collected from the recipient. Fixed rates meant that it was practical to avoid handling money to send a letter by using an "adhesive label", and accordingly, on May 6, the Penny Black became the world's first postage stamp in use.
The stamp was originally only for use within the United Kingdom and as such was in effect initially a local stamp. For this reason the name of the country was not included within the design, a situation which continued until the special commemorative issue for the Festival of Britain in 1951, when for the first time the name of the country appeared on a stamp from Great Britain.
It soon became obvious that black was a not a good choice for stamp color, the cancellations being hard to see, and from 1841 on the stamps were printed in a brick-red color. The Penny Reds continued in use for decades.
The Victorian age saw an explosion of experimentation. The inefficiency of using scissors to cut stamps from the sheet inspired trials with rouletting (the Archer Roulette), and then with perforation, which became standard practice in 1854. In 1847, the 1-shilling became the first of the British embossed postage stamps, (of an octagonal shape), to be issued, followed by 10-pence stamps the following year, and 6-pence values in 1854.
Surface-printed stamps first appeared in the form of a 4-pence stamp in 1855, printed by De La Rue, and subsequently became the standard type. 1/2p and 1 1/2p engraved stamps issued in 1870 were the last engraved types of Victoria; the next would not appear until 1913. Surface-printed stamps of the 1860s and 1870s all used the same profile of Victoria, but used a variety of frames, watermarks, and corner lettering.
A 5-shilling stamp first appeared in 1867, followed by 10-shilling and 1-pound values in 1878, and culminating in a 5-pound stamp in 1882.
Meanwhile, the age of the Penny Reds had come to an end with new 1-penny stamps in 1880 and 1881.
1883 and 1884 saw experimentation with stamps using fugitive inks. These were rather plain designs, low values in lilac and high values in green, because those were the only colors available. They succeeded in their purpose - relatively few of the stamps survived usage, their colors fading away when soaked from the envelope - but they were not liked by the public.
The last major issue of Victoria was the Jubilee issue of 1887, a set of twelve designs ranging from 1/2p to 1sh, most printed in two colors or on colored paper.
When Edward VII succeeded to the throne, new stamps became necessary. The approach was very conservative however; most of the Jubilee frames were reused, and the image of the King was still a single profile. Edward's reign being short, there were no major changes of design, but the use of chalk-surfaced paper was introduced. (This type of paper can be detected by rubbing the surface with silver, which leaves a black mark.
By contrast, the stamps of King George V were innovative from the very first. The first issue made was of the half and penny values, which were in the same colours as used for the previous reign. Although the main design feature remained the same, (a central oval for the portrait, an ornamental frame, value tablet at the base and a crown at the top), a three quarter portrait was used for the first time.