Mayday Rescue at Sea -SOS

These stamps were issued to celebrate the work of British agencies and organisations that save lives at sea.

SOS is the commonly used description for the International Morse code distress signal (· · · - - - · · ·). This distress signal was first adopted by the German government in 1905, and became the worldwide standard when it was included in the second International Radiotelegraphic Convention, and became effective on July 1, 1908.

To mark the centenary of the SOS signal the horizontal perforations have the SOS dot-dash pattern instead of normal uniform perforations.

Royal Mail marks this centenary with a set of 6 stamps highlighting the actions of the crews of Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Maritime and Coast Guard Agency (MCA) who regularly risk their own lives attempting to save those of others.

Stamps :
1st  - Barra Island, Outer Hebrides
46p - Appledore, Devon
48p - Portland, Dorset
54p - St Ives, Cornwall
69p - Selsey, West Sussex
78p - Tenby, Pembrokeshire

Recently acquired the above FDC ...

Inputs from : Norvic Philatelics

1948 NEW ZEALAND " LANDING OF FIRST SETTLERS IN OTAGO "

1948 NEW ZEALAND " LANDING OF FIRST SETTLERS IN OTAGO " SHOWING IMAGE OF SHIP ON COVER

In 1948, the settlement of the Otago Province and the founding of the city of Dunedin on 23 March 1848 were commemorated by four stamps depicting the arrival of the immigrant ships, the town of Cromwell, the First Dunedin Church and the University of Otago. The stamps are classic James Berry designs, being full of fine detail. The 1d is famous for its colour shifts of the blue centre, examples of which can been seen below.

Otago celebrates the arrival of the immigrant ship John Wickliffe as the founding day of the province.

The ship and its 97 passengers sailed from Gravesend, England, on 24 November 1847. Three days later, the Philip Laing left Greenock, Scotland, with a further 247 people. Both ships were carrying Scottish settlers bound for New Zealand.

Plans for a New Zealand settlement for Scotland had begun in 1842. Scottish architect and politician George Rennie, concerned at English dominance over the first New Zealand Company settlements, hoped to establish ‘a new Edinburgh’ in the southern hemisphere. Dunedin – the Gaelic form of Edinburgh – became feasible once the New Zealand Company purchased the large Otago block from Ngāi Tahu in 1844.

Divisions within the Church of Scotland transformed Rennie’s original plan. Unhappy with patronage and state control, 400 clergy and about one-third of lay people quit the established church. Some of these dissenters, including Thomas Burns, William Cargill, and John McGlashan, saw Otago as a home for a new ‘Free Church’. Two-thirds of the original Otago settlers were Free Church Presbyterians. 

National Postal strike - Exeter Emergency Delivery Service -20 Jan 1971

Above is a beautiful First Day cover of the National Postal strike - Exeter Emergency Delivery Service -20 Jan 1971

The first national postal strike created the unique situation in British postal history where private postal services were allowed to operate under licence.

The first full national strike in the history of the British Post Office took place from Wednesday 20th January to Sunday 7th March 1971. It took place against a background of increasing inflation and worsening industrial relations over the preceding decade, both in the Post Office and in the country in general. On 15th January a pay offer from the Post Office Board was rejected by the executive of the Union of Post Office Workers. An "all-out" strike was called to start at midnight on 19th/20th January.

Although local mail deliveries were possible in some areas, either where the postmen did not go on strike or as some gradually returned to work, the bulk of the country's postal services came to a complete halt. 

The Government announced that the Post Office's monopoly on carrying letters would be suspended for the duration of the strike. Several hundred private posts were set up throughout the country; some of these were of course "philatelic", but many operated with efficiency and transported significant quantities of mail, although normally at a much higher price than the normal first class rate. A number of these posts linked up in an "Association of Mail Services" which provided for transmission of letters from post to post across the country, and also to overseas destinations. Considerable use was also made of the existing alternatives, and of course the Armed Forces had their own postal arrangements.

The strike dragged on for seven weeks as the Union and the Post Office were unable to agree. Eventually, faced with rapidly worsening finances, the Union Executive proposed a public enquiry as a peace plan to Employment Secretary Robert Carr. A ballot resulted in a majority for ending the strike, and postmen were told to return to work at 9am, Monday 8th March.

These stamps are printed Exeter Emergency Delivery Service

Reference taken from : http://www.gbps.org.uk/