[press release] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
Valour and Victory: Stories of the Second World War:
Royal Mail Stamps Mark the 80^th Anniversary of VE Day

• Issue date: 1 May, 2025
• The main set of 10 stamps honour men and women who made extraordinary contributions during the Second World War
• Also celebrated in a mini-sheet of stamps is national icon Dame Vera Lynn, shown in four images from different aspects of her wartime career
• The stamps and a range of collectible products are available at www.royalmail.com/valour and by telephone on 03457 641641

Nations wage wars, but it is individuals who fight them. The 80^th anniversary of the end of the Second World War is an opportunity to acknowledge just some of the remarkable men and women who made extraordinary contributions during the war. These incredible people were working for the war effort both at home and behind enemy lines, and volunteering from across the Commonwealth.

It was the courage and dedication of these individuals, and so many more, that led to the eventual victory in 1945. Royal Mail is issuing a set of stamps to honour the courage and dedication of individuals whose actions saved lives, changed history and shaped Britain’s war effort.

The Second World War is often called ‘the people’s war’ and the people depicted on the stamps represent some of the diverse individuals who made up ‘the people’ in wartime.

Each of the 10 stamps in the main set features an image of the person being honoured, capturing their wartime role – be it pilot, nurse, Commando, SOE operative, codebreaker, engineer or firefighter.

Shown on the stamps are:

• George Arthur Roberts – a military veteran, activist and the first Black man to join the London Auxiliary Fire Service, in 1938, serving bravely throughout the Blitz.
• Mary Morris – her diaries describe how she nursed troops returning wet and wounded from Dunkirk and later travelled to Normandy to care for casualties after the D-Day landings.
• Tommy Macpherson – a Commando known for his audacious actions, including being dropped by submarine in North Africa, where he sabotaged enemy positions.
• Violette Szabó – joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service before volunteering for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and working undercover in occupied France.
• John Harrison – served in the Royal Navy on the destroyer HMS Belfast and was responsible for maintaining ‘A’ and ‘B’ gun turrets at the front of the ship.
• Bhanbhagta Gurung – fought in Operation Longcloth in Burma, now Myanmar, and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery under heavy fire.
• Thomas Peirson Frank – a civil engineer and surveyor whose rapid-response teams repaired over 100 breaches of the Thames wall during air raids, saving many lives.
• Mahinder Singh Pujji – a pilot and Squadron Leader with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Indian Air Force, awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his outstanding courage and leadership over Japanese-occupied territory.
• William Tutte – a brilliant mathematician and codebreaker, William (‘Bill’) Tutte’s work was key to decrypting the Lorenz cipher, the German code used for top-level communication and intelligence.
• Lilian Bader – after being forced to leave the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) canteen because of her ethnicity, Bader volunteered to join the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in 1944, and went on to train as an Instrument Repairer, becoming one of the first members of the WAAF to qualify in this role.

A further four stamps, presented in a miniature sheet, pay tribute to the late Dame Vera Lynn, her tireless efforts to support the troops and her advocacy for military veterans.

The stamps capture Dame Vera Lynn in different aspects of her wartime career, including her Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) performances, BBC wartime radio programme, and morale-boosting visits to British troops and civilians during the conflict.

Royal Mail worked with historian Professor Lucy Noakes on the stamp issue. Since 2017, she has been Rab Butler Professor of Modern History at the University of Essex and has served as the President of the Royal Historical Society since 2024.

To mark the launch of the stamps, they will be unveiled today (24 April) to an audience of family members of all the individuals who featured on the stamps, and other guests, at an event held at the Imperial War Museum North.

Royal Mail will be applying a special VE80 postmark on stamped mail in the week of the actual anniversary that takes place on Thursday 8 May. The business is also supporting VE Mail, a letter-writing initiative connecting schoolchildren with Second World War veterans. Marking the 80^th anniversary of VE Day, Together Coalition – an organisation aiming to build kinder, closer and more connected communities – has arranged for youngsters to receive personal letters from veterans who share their personal experiences of the war and their reflections on victory. The students then write returning letters expressing theirthoughts and gratitude of the sacrifices made 80 years ago. It’s a unique opportunity to connect generations and encourage children to engage with the past.

Emma Gilthorpe, CEO, Royal Mail said: “Behind every victory of a nation, there are countless unsung heroes whose courage and sacrifice shaped the future of the world. On VE Day, we remember not only the leaders and generals, but the silent warriors whose contributions echo through history. For the 80^th anniversary of VE Day, Royal Mail is proud to issue these stamps honouring the courage, sacrifice, and resilience of those who fought for freedom and peace.”

The stamps, and a range of collectible products, are available at www.royalmail.com/valour and by telephone on 03457 641 641. A Presentation Pack including all 14 stamps is priced at £24.70. The stamps go on general sale from 1 May.

Stamp-by-Stamp

George Arthur Roberts, BEM, MSM (1891–1970)
George Arthur Roberts was a military veteran, activist, and firefighter during the London Blitz. Born in Trinidad, Roberts had travelled to Britain and joined the British Army, fighting on the Western Front during the First World War. Settling in South London, he was a founding member of both the British Legion and the League of Coloured Peoples.
Too old for combat in the Second World War, he was the first Black man to join the London Auxiliary Fire Service, in 1938, serving bravely throughout the Blitz. Roberts was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for bravery and for his work setting up and leading discussion and education groups in the Fire Service.

Mary Morris (1921–1997)
Mary Morris nursed on the home front and in mainland Europe after D-Day in 1944. Born in County Galway, Ireland, she moved to London in 1939 to train at Guy’s Hospital. Morris’s diaries describe how she nursed troops returning wet and wounded from Dunkirk, badly burnt pilots (both British and German) of the Battle of Britain, and victims of the London Blitz. Joining the nursing branch of the British Army, she travelled to Normandy in 1944, caring for casualties of the landings and describing her ward as a “multi-national microcosm of a Europe at war.” Her diaries were published in 2014.

Tommy Macpherson CBE, MC, TD, DL, CROIX DE GUERRE, LÉGION D’HONNEUR (1920–2014)
Colonel Sir Ronald Thomas (‘Tommy’) Stewart Macpherson was a Commando known for his audacious actions. These included being dropped by submarine in North Africa, where he sabotaged enemy positions before being caught. After several escape attempts from Italian camps, Macpherson was imprisoned in Austria, Germany and Poland. Escaping to Britain, he was parachuted into central France in 1944 to join with the Resistance as part of Operation Jedburgh.

Destroying bridges, railways, and roads vital to the German occupation, Macpherson eventually accepted the surrender of thousands of Axis troops. At one point, 300,000 francs (more than one million pounds in today’s money) was offered for his capture. He was later sent behind enemy lines in Italy and was on standby to fly to Japan when the end of the war came.

Violette Szabó GC, CROIX DE GUERRE WITH STAR, MÉDAILLE DE LA RÉSISTANCE (1921–1945)
Born in Paris to British–French parents, Szabó grew up in both Picardy, France, and London. She joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service before volunteering for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1942. Szabó undertook two missions to France for the SOE and was captured after a fierce gun battle in 1944. After interrogation in Paris, Szabó was transferred to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, where she was executed alongside her comrades Denise Bloch and Lilian Rolfe in February 1945. She was 23 years old and left behind a young daughter. Szabó was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the Croix de Guerre with Star, and the Médaille de la Résistance.

John Harrison (1914–2020)
John Harrison served in the Royal Navy on the destroyer HMS Belfast as an Ordnance Officer responsible for maintaining ‘A’ and ‘B’ gun turrets at the front of the ship. Conditions at sea were often hard, and he was saved from being washed overboard in the Arctic Ocean only when his hand froze onto the metal handle of the turret door. When HMS Belfast was badly damaged by a magnetic mine in November 1939, John Harrison suffered two broken vertebrae in the explosion. The ship was out of action for three years, but he transferred to HMS Atherstonebefore undertaking shore duties.

Bhanbhagta Gurung (1921–2008)
Havildar (Sergeant) Bhanbhagta Gurung was awarded the Victoria Cross while serving as a Rifleman in the 2nd Gurkha Rifles in Burma, now Myanmar, in 1945. Born in the Gorkha District of Nepal, Bhanbhagta Gurung joined the Gurkha Rifles in 1940.

He fought in Operation Longcloth, the first Chindit mission in Burma in 1943, and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery under heavy fire during attempts to clear Japanese soldiers from their position on high ground near Tamandu, Burma, in March 1945.

After the war, he returned to Nepal to care for his family. In 2000, the Gurkha training block at Catterick Camp in Yorkshire was named after him.

Thomas Peirson Frank (1881–1951)
Sir Thomas Peirson Frank was a civil engineer and surveyor, serving as London County Council Coordinating Officer for Road Repairs and Public Utility Services from 1939 to 1945, and was known as ‘the man who saved London from drowning’.

As war approached, Peirson Frank worked in secret to identify the most vulnerable areas of the city, establishing flood defences and the rapid-response Thames Flood Prevention Emergency Repairs Unit. During the Blitz, flooding was a risk to low-lying areas of London – including the Underground, where so many sought shelter from the bombs. Peirson Frank’s rapid-response teams repaired over 100 breaches of the Thames wall during air raids and saved many lives.

Mahinder Singh Pujji, DFC (1918–2010)
Born in Simla (present-day Shimla, India), Singh Pujji was a pilot and Squadron Leader with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Indian Air Force, who fought in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Training as a pilot in the 1930s, he volunteered for service with the RAF, arriving in Britain in 1940. Flying both Hurricanes and Spitfires, Singh Pujji was involved in many dogfights with Luftwaffe pilots and was forced down twice. In 1945, Singh Pujji was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his outstanding courage and leadership over Japanese-occupied territory. He eventually settled in London and worked as an air-traffic controller at Heathrow Airport.

William Tutte, OC, FRS, FRSC (1917–2002)
A brilliant mathematician and codebreaker, William (‘Bill’) Tutte’s work was key to decrypting the Lorenz cipher, the German code used for top-level communication and intelligence. The son of a housekeeper and a gardener from Newmarket, Tutte won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge before joining the Research Section at Bletchley Park, the centre of British codebreaking.

Tutte’s groundbreaking work on the structure of the Lorenz machine enabled the team at Bletchley Park to crack the Lorenz cipher, a system even more complex than Enigma, providing information vital for D-Day planning and invasion. After the war, Tutte emigrated to Canada, becoming a Professor at the University of Waterloo.

Lilian Bader (1918–2015)
Leading Aircraftwoman Lilian Bader was born in Liverpool and raised in a Middlesbrough convent after being orphaned at the age of nine. When war broke out, she worked at a Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) canteen but was forced to leave because of her ethnicity. Undaunted, she volunteered to join the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in 1944, and went on to train as an Instrument Repairer, passing her course ‘First Class’ and becoming one of the first members of the WAAF to qualify in this role.

She excelled at her job and was soon promoted to Acting Corporal. Bader went on to take a degree at London University and became a teacher.

Philatelic products:These include the limited-edition uncirculated coin cover shown above (£19.99); a silver proof coin cover (£75.00), a gold proof coin cover (£1,475.00), a prestige booklet (£28.65), a collectors sheet (£18.20), a gold stamp set (£149.99), and EuroPhilEx Limited Editions of the full set of stamps (£18.20) and the miniature sheet (£6.80).