Australia Post honours King George V with new stamps

The Centenary of King George V mini sheet first day cover.

Australia Post is marking the centenary of King George V stamps with the release of four domestic base-rate (70c) stamps. These new stamps are modified designs of the original 1914 stamps.

"This issue of George V-based designs marks an important era in Australian stamp production. The stamp issue also brings a new and exciting philatelic product to the range which we trust will spark interest amongst collectors," said Australia Post Philatelic Manager, Mr Michael Zsolt.

A century ago, Australia's stamp designs were political topics and there was much public discussion about their designs. Postmaster-General, Charles Frazer, had developed the Kangaroo and Map design as 'an effective advertisement' for Australia. However, the absence of the traditional British monarch was believed by conservatives to be an insulting slight to Britain. Consequently, in mid-1913 plans were made to scrap the kangaroo in favour of stamps featuring the Australian monarch, King George V.

The incoming Postmaster-General, Agar Wynne was quoted in the press as saying the George V design "would make a very good stamp, being emblematic of Australia, and also of our loyalty to the empire".

For nearly a quarter of a century the King George V design served for the basic letter postage stamp, and for many commonly used postal rates. During this period, a total of 11.8 billion King George V stamps were issued.

On 20 January 1936, King George V died and eventually new stamps featuring King George VI were developed.

The designer of the Centenary of King George V Stamps is John White of the Australia Post Design Studio.

In a first for Australia Post, this stamp issue includes a specimen pack in a new format. This collectable item uses a fold out design and houses four 10 x 70c sheetlets and one multicolour 10 x 70c sheetlet featuring a "specimen" overprint on four of the stamps.

Also available is a stamp coin - a legal tender coin in the shape of a stamp - with a limited edition of only 2,500. The stamp coin comes with a certificate of authenticity and is housed in a quality presentation box.

Other products associated with this stamp issue include a miniature sheet, first day cover, maxicards, prestige booklet, sheetlet pack, stamp pack, booklet of 10 x 70c self-adhesive stamps and a medallion cover.

The Centenary of King George V Stamps issue is available from 17th June 2014 at participating Australia Post retail outlets, via mail order on 1800 331 794 and online at auspost.com.au/stamps while stocks last.

The Centenary of King George V Stamp 70c sheetlets.

The Age remembered Princess Margaret Rose

Today The Age remembered the death of Princess Margaret, the Queen’s younger sister, who died 9th February 2002 aged 71. The Age did this not in a two column article, which is understandable in these difficult times in Victoria. Therefore this blog gives credit to a royal life that is underrated.
When Princess Margaret Rose was born on 21st August 1930 at Glamis Castle in Perthshire, she was fourth in line of succession to the throne.

Princess Margaret was the first royal baby in direct line to the throne to have been born in Scotland for 300 years. Her grandfather, King George V, was still very much alive, as was his eldest son, Margaret's Uncle David, destined to be King Edward VIII. Her father, King George VI was proud of his elder girl, but Margaret "brought delight into his life".

Though there were four years between them, the sisters were almost like twins - an exclusive and indissoluble team. But that rapidly began to change. At their father's coronation, Elizabeth had a train and Margaret did not.

Her first overseas engagement on behalf of her father, led her 1948 to the Netherlands, where she attended the proclamation of the new Dutch Queen Juliana. Male students from the local university were so smitten that they serenaded her from a boat on the canal beneath her hotel-room windows.

By 1948, her sister Elizabeth was not only a married woman but a mother, too. For the first time in her life, Margaret was like an only child, racketing around that great Palace at the end of the Mall, with no very obvious task and with no companion of roughly her own age. It seemed, she followed Time magazine's suggestion and became "the party animal she remained for most of her life".

She regularly danced the night away with the so-called Princess Margaret Set. She loved to sing at the piano in nightclubs, surrounded by laughing friends. During the day, she did her work, and generally did it well. Like others of her generation, she had a strongly developed sense of duty, though her official duties were not always glamorous or exciting.

Photographs from the time show an almost impossibly glamorous figure. Hats, bouquets, handbags are all apparently permanent fixtures, as is a wide seductive smile. Around her, elderly gentlemen, mayors and the like, dance attendance. All wear an expression of adulation and the Princess gives every indication of much enjoying centre-stage.

Aneurin Bevan, the Labour Minister for Health, noticed that every time she visited a hospital, recruitment of nurses - a particular problem for his new National Health Service - soared. He pressed her office with more invitations.

Then, just as she was spreading her wings, her life changed abruptly. The shy and stammering King George VI had not been in good health for some time, but his death on 6th February 1952, aged 56, was wholly unexpected.

The Earl of Snowdon’s engagement to Princess Margaret in February 1960 was a surprise, as some considered she was still on the "rebound" from her ill-fated relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend. The couple married in May 1960 and, in the "swinging sixties", they mixed with actors, artists and pop stars. They were divorced in 1978.


Before their divorce Princess Margret and Lord Snowdon visited Australia in 1972. They arrived in Perth on 7th October 1972 and spent more than a week in Western Australia with trips to Kalgoorlie, Kamalda and Albany among other cities.

Princess Margret returned alone to Australia in 1975 to attend the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps 25th Anniversary. Eight days after she finished her tour the Whitlam government was dismissed by the Governor-General. She had met Sir John Kerr and Lady Kerr and the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Mrs. Whitlam on 22nd October 1975.


The older she became, the more the Princess seemed to attract disapproving comment. The Princess performed most of her official visits on her own. Whereas her sister was often accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Margaret cut an increasingly lonely-looking figure. Her once glamorous solitude had come to seem sad.

Early in 1985, she had a serious lung operation and was photographed looking drawn and wan. The Queen's children, meanwhile, were taking on more and more of her duties. When Prince Edward came of age, he took his place on the list of members of the Royal Family eligible to be Counsellors of State (those with powers to act on behalf of the Queen) - and Margaret was simply removed. Yet she had carried out this role for decades, and enjoyed it.

The rules could have been amended to let her continue, but the idea seems not to have been contemplated. Not for the first time, the Princess was underemployed and under-appreciated.

She who had once been the cynosure of the Royal Family - the cleverest, the most artistic and effervescent - was slipping inexorably towards the wings.

She eventually died in her sleep on February 9th, 2002, with her son and daughter at her bedside. The funeral was held at St George's Chapel, Windsor , where her father lay buried, and where her 101-year-old mother would join them both in a matter of weeks. More on Princess Margaret's life.

A Royal Visitor in Melbourne

Friday, 16th January 2009
His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester arrived to stay at Government House.

Friday, 16th January 2009
The Duke of Gloucester this afternoon attended a Lecture at the Royal Society of Victoria, 9 Victoria Street, Melbourne, Australia, followed by a Reception to commemorate the Centenary of Ernest Shackleton’s Expedition’s location of the South Magnetic Pole.

The Governor, Professor David de Kretser, AC, later hosted a dinner at Government House in honour of His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester.

Saturday, 17th January 2009
The Duke of Gloucester today crossed the South Magnetic Pole, Antarctica, to commemorate the Centenary of the first location of the South Magnetic Pole by the Northern Party of Ernest Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-1909.

The Royal Society of Victoria had offered the flyover of the South Magnetic Pole, Antarctica, 100 years after it was first positioned by a party of Australians, Edgeworth David and Douglas Mawson and Scotsman Alistair Mackay, members of Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909.

The 12 hour return flight (departing Sydney at 6.00am and Melbourne at 8.40am; returning Melbourne then Sydney), included an inflight scientific programme, with papers being presented by international polar scientists and historians. Historic memorabilia associated with the quest for the Pole since Captain James Ross first estimated its 1841 position in Victoria Land, will be on display. A special historic brochure, commemorative stamps and a specially minted commemorative coin will be available.

The Royal Society of Victoria was pleased to note the presence on the flight of His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, and many other dignitaries, prominent polar scientist (who were offer an in-flight education programme) and a large number of senior school children enthused in the pursuit of Science.

The Age reported on the events on 14th January 2009: Year 12 student Jessica will be in good company on Saturday, though she admits to being a bit nervous about the day's historic event. As the 17-year-old boards a chartered Qantas flight to Antarctica in the early hours of the morning, she will count the Duke of Gloucester and Victorian Governor David de Kretser among her fellow passengers.


Monday, 19th January 2009
The Duke of Gloucester will attend a meeting on 'Disaster Management Response and Co-ordination' at the Royal Society of Victoria, 9 Victoria Street, Melbourne.

Tuesday, 20th January 2009
The Duke of Gloucester will visit the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Jolimont, Melbourne.

The Duke of Gloucester Co-President, Cancer Research UK, will visit the Cancer Research Centre, Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne.

The Duke of Gloucester will attend a Dinner hosted by the Melbourne Cricket Club at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne.

Wednesday, 21st January 2009
The Duke of Gloucester will attend a Breakfast Meeting with The Royal Society of Victoria's Young Science Ambassadors at the Melbourne Aquarium, Melbourne.

All appointments in the Royal Diary

Prince Richard, the son of an Australian Governor-General
Prince Richard, The Duke of Gloucester (on the photo on his daughter Lady Rose Windsor's wedding) is the son of Prince Henry, the third son of King George V and Queen Mary. Prince Richard, the present Duke, was born in August 1944, his elder brother, Prince William of Gloucester, in December 1941. He died in a plane accident in 1972, and Prince Richard followed his father as Duke of Gloucester. Prince Henry survived his elder son by two years, dying after a series of strokes, and several sad years in which it was difficult to communicate with him. Prince Richard, married Birgitte van Deurs in 1972.

In 1945, Prince Henry, who had been Chief Liaison Officer to the British Field Force in France, became Australia's first royal Governor General. The family moved to Australia and Princess Alice concerned herself with the Australian women's services.

On his first visit to Australia in 1934, Prince Henry said at Bombala:”I would much rather be regarded as one of the family come to visit his cousins across the world, than merely as a visiting stranger without lot or part with the country.” In 1945, a few months over ten years since his successful Australian tour, the Duke arrived in Sydney by air to become the first royal Governor-General. Memories of his successful tour were still retained in the minds of many – so it was with genuine affection that the Duke and his family were welcomed back among us, and this time for two years.

While they were here, they worked hard at their position and demonstrated their capacity and willingness to understand the essential character, life and interests of Australians.

Their life in Australia had been full. They had learned a lot from us an we from them. The Duke’s generous nature was epitomised by one of his parting gestures, which was to present the nation with his own aeroplane, the Endeavour. (“The Royal Presence in Australia, 1867 – 1986" by Philip W. Pike, Adelaide Royalty Publishing 1986, page 60)


The Duke and the Duchess of Gloucester at the Adelaide War Memorial

The Daily Telegraph wrote last year: [The Australian Prime Minister John] Curtin arranged for Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, to take over from Gowrie. The appointment was a surprising one for a Labor PM to make, but Curtin chose Gloucester, brother of King George VI, to try to gain some support from Britain in the Pacific in World War II. … Although Gloucester's appointment was politically motivated, it was not as controversial as that of former Labor premier of NSW William McKell in 1947.

On 10th January 1947 the Sydneysiders bid the outgoing Governor-General, The Duke of Gloucester and the Duchess of Gloucester, a colouful farewell.

"Many people say the Queen is German, but as a percentage, how German actually is she?"

Strange questions are asked on the internet. The headline above was one of them. A simplistic answer could name all her ancestors and separate them into different nationalities. But this would be nonsense, because the Royal Families of Europe are all related to each other. None of them "belongs" to a particular nation, but all serve the nations they were put in with dedication and passion.

How many generation do you have to live in a country to be recognized as a "native"? Nationalism is a comparatively new concept that came with the French Revolution and has been poisoning international relations ever since.

Kings of the House of Hanover ascended the British throne in 1714, the last direct descendent of the Hanoverian Kings was Queen Victoria who married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Nobody would deny that Queen Victoria was as British as you can get - an era was named after her. The British Empire was mainly created during her reign and reached its greatest extent under her grandson, King George V. Who would deny the services rendered to the British people by these Monarchs? And even the undoubtedly German Prince Albert wholeheartedly dedicated his life to his new country. He became the advocate of Britain's industrialisation, most notably through his dynamic support and work for the 1851 International Exposition, the benefits of which continue to be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal Albert Hall.

The British Royal Family - and especially Her Majesty - are considered as the living symbols of "Britishness" abroad, strangely enough this is put in doubt by some British nationalists who call them "German". I never noticed that speaking in "Best Queen's English" meant speaking it with a German accent.

Should the nationalists' concept apply to everyone, no migrants or their descendents since the early 18th century would ever stand a chance to be called British, neither the Conservative politicians Michael Portillo and Michael Howard, who are second generation migrants, nor any migrant from the Indian subcontinent, the Caribbeans or Africa. And the only “true” Australians would be the Aboriginal people. All settlers who came after 1788 could never gain the status of “legitimate” citizens if the concept that the die-hard British nationalists try to impose on our Royal Family was applied to the vast majority of the Australians.

Monarchs have served their respective countries very well. The Russian Tsaritsa Catherine the Great was neither born in Russia nor was she a Romanov, yet she was a moderniser of the Russian Empire and her image has been experiencing a renaissance in recent years. That is equally true for "imported" Monarchs in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece or Norway, to name only the best known examples.

The same concept applies for the Queen of Australia, who also holds the office of Queen of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Papua-New Guinea, and other countries. As a Monarch she is neither a citizen of the UK nor of any other of her realms. A Monarch not only is above party lines, but also above borders and frontiers. THAT is globalisation at its best. I want to see more of a world wide co-operation like this one that benefits the peoples of the Commonwealth.