Unsung Heroes: Women of WWII - 5 May 2022

I'm not really sure about the timing of this stamp issue.  The subject is worthy enough, and indeed the Royal Mail write-up makes several references to the Women of World War II memorial in central London. That was erected in 2005, sixty years after the end of the war.  An unambitious miniature sheet was issued that year, but (apart from the Battle of Trafalgar) there was no other conflict commemoration. 

So why now, 77 years after the end of the war?   For sure, with most of the women concerned having contributed when in their 20's they are all reaching an age where there are fewer left to see such a commemoration (certainly fewer than when the memorial was unveiled), but Royal Mail makes no attempt to explain why now. 

The Royal Mail write-up:

A stamp issue paying tribute to the contribution made by women to the war effort during WWII.

Until 1941, women’s work was voluntary, but the increased demands of a global war meant that female conscription was increasingly seen as necessary by the government. By the middle of 1943, most women in wartime employment, both full and part-time, were working in industry, agriculture and the women’s services. The women’s auxiliary services were established at the outset of the war: the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1938, and the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) in 1939.

To begin with, roles in the ATS were limited to cooks, cleaners, orderlies, store women and drivers, but as the war went on these were expanded to include other duties, notably work on the anti-aircraft sites. More roles were open to women in the WAAF and the WRNS, while the ‘Spitfire women’ of the civilian Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) delivered planes to airfields around the country.

Among the volunteers were many women from the British colonies and Dominions, who served in the auxiliary and medical services. Other women worked as nurses, air raid wardens and tube and bus drivers, while over one million women volunteered with the Women’s Voluntary Services. At the war’s end, many of these roles disappeared, but women’s contribution to the war effort is commemorated by the Women of World War II memorial in central London.

Women overcame prejudice about their gender, and sometimes about the colour of their skin and their social class, to contribute to the war effort. While much of women’s war work was temporary, ‘just for the duration’ of the war, the changes brought about by their work helped to drive some of the post-war social changes that eventually saw equal opportunities and equal pay legislation. Today, the Women of World War II memorial, erected in Whitehall in 2005, reminds passers-by of the vital work, and contribution to the war effort, undertaken by nearly seven million women in Britain during the war.

The stamp issue

The issue consists of a set of 10 x 1st class stamps, a miniature sheet, and a prestige stamp book. 

The stamps

Set of 10 x 1st class stamps showing Women in Wartime, issued 5 May 2022

Details - 1st class x 10:

Row 1:   Protecting Civilians / Air Raid Precautions; Nursing on the Front Line / Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service; Repairing Army Vehicles/ Auxiliary Territorial Service; Arming The Fleet/ Women’s Royal Naval Service;
Row 2:   Powering The War Effort/ Factory Worker; Deciphering Enemy Messages/ Codebreakers; Supplying Military Production/ Women’s Voluntary Services; Lighting The Way To Victory/ Auxiliary Territorial Service; Maintaining RAF Aircraft/ Women’s Auxiliary Airforce; Meeting Britain’s Demand/ Women’s Land Army.

Miniature Sheet

The miniature sheet honours the ‘Spitfire Women’, an incredibly brave and ground-breaking group of women whose job it was, in the Air Transport Auxiliary, to "ferry” the planes to the front line airfields once they were ready for combat.

Miniature sheet of 4 stamps depicting the 'Spitfire Women'.

Details:

1st Class - Pilot Meet in their Ferry Pool Briefing Room;
1st Class - Pilot climbing into the cockpit of a Supermarine Spitfire;
£1.85 - Pilot Completing her post-flight paperwork in a Lockheed Hudson;
£1.85 - Pilots of the No. 5 Ferry Pool disembarking from an Avro Anson.
Background: Airfield photograph of the first eight women to join the ATA in 1940.

Technical details
The stamps and miniature sheet were designed by Supple Studios, printed in lithography by ISP (Cartor).  The 35mm square are in two sheets of 50.  Perforations are 14½, and there are two phosphor bands.  The 192mm x 74mm miniature sheet contains 41mm x 30mm stamps perforated 14½x14.  © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2022

Credits and acknolwedgements.

Air Raid Precautions photo © Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service photo © IWM B 5842, Auxiliary Territorial Service (Repairing Army vehicles) photo © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images, Women’s Royal Naval Service photo © IWM A19470, Factory worker photo © Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Codebreakers photo used with kind permission of Director GCHQ, Women’s Voluntary Services photo © Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Auxiliary Territorial Service (Lighting the way to victory) photo © Popperfoto/Getty Images, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force photo © Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Women’s Land Army photo © Sayers/Popperfoto/Getty Images,

Miniature sheet: Background image – First eight women to join the ATA, 1940 photo © Saidman/Popperfoto via Getty Images. Pilots meet in their ferry pool briefing room photo © Leonard McCombe/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Pilot climbing into the cockpit of a Supermarine Spitfire and Pilot completing her post-flight paperwork in a Lockheed Hudson photos © Maidenhead Heritage Trust. Pilots of the No. 5 Ferry Pool disembarking from an Avro Anson photo © Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty.

Prestige Stamp Book

The Prestige Stamp Book is a 24-page booklet written by Professor Lucy Noakes, Rab Butler Chair in Modern History, Department of History at the University of Essex. The book starts with the outbreak of war, looks at the discussions around female conscription and then goes on to explore specific areas such as women in the military, women in industry, women from across the Empire, the Ferry Pilots, the front line, SOE and Home Front. The book is filled with photographs of the women, many in action in their wartime roles and contains all 14 Unsung Heroes stamps perforated as ‘panes’ within the book plus an extra pane of definitive stamps which is unique to the stamp issue.

In the information provided to us before the issue, Royal Mail made much of the fact that "this is the first PSB to include barcoded definitive stamps and also the first gummed Barcode Stamps as those issued to date have been printed in self-adhesive only."

Except that it isn't.  The definitive pane actually turns out to be self-adhesive, with stamps coded MAIL, not MPIL, which makes them the same as the stamps printed in sheets.

UPDATE: a new picture of an actual definitive pane is shown below.  The backing paper is the same as for counter sheets in the same orientation; there are no roulettes between the stamps of course.

Because of the new size of the definitive stamps, the book is a slightly larger size to accommodate this barcoded pane – it will be 4mm larger in height - 96mm increased to 100mm.  (A larger leaf for the PSB album will be needed and will be available to buy at issue.)

Prestige Stamp Book cover and some open pages (above).

Panes 1-4 (below)

Click on the images to see enlargements.

Pane 1: 4 x 1st class stamps; Pane 2: 'Spitfire Women'; Pane 3: Machin definitives with datamatrix codes, 2 x 50p, 3 x £1.  Pane 4: 6 x 1st class stamps.

UPDATE - images of real definitive pane:

Scan of actual definitive pane from Women of World War II Prestige Stamp Book.
The Datamatrix codes are different on each stamp.

 

50p stamp from Unsung Heroes Women of World War II Prestige Stamp Book definitive pane, showing iridescent printing with year code M22L and source code MAIL (the same as on counter sheets).

Other products

First day covers x3, presentation pack, uncut press sheet of 14 miniature sheet. / Framed set, and framed miniature sheet.

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