This stamp design represents a small action of resistance against the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands by its most famous twentieth century artist.

The Channel Islands were occupied from May 1940, and soon ran out of British stamps. Local designs were commissioned and printed in occupied Paris. In 1943 Jersey issued stamps designed by Edmund Blampied, whose act of rebellion was to secretly incorporate the British Royal Cipher (GR) into the design.

Blampied was born in St Martin, Jersey, on March 30 1886. In his youth he showed enough promise to be offered financial help by a prominent townsman to go to Lambeth School of Art. In January 1905 he joined the Daily Chronicle as an artist.

By 1912 he had left the Chronicle and set up in his own studio, illustrating novels and short stories, and he exhibited in London to critical acclaim.

He returned to Jersey in 1938. During the Occupation, when artist supplies became scarce he continued to work with a variety of makeshift materials including engraving with a needle on a tobacco tin. As well as stamps, Blampied designed small denomination currency notes for the states of Jersey during the Occupation.

Blampied remained in Jersey after Liberation, and continued to work and exhibit until his death in 1966.

Illustration

Island of Jersey