The Royal Mail is releasing stamps commemorating 10 great Britons born 100 years ago.The Remarkable Lives stamps pay tribute to great achievers in the arts, economy, sport, science and military service.
Abram Games
Considered one of the greatest poster artists of the 20th century, Games was perhaps best known for his “Join the ATS” propaganda poster of 1941. As the Official War Artist during the Second World War, he produced around 100 recruitment posters, while after the war, his bold style would be used by everyone from Shell to British Airways and the United Nations.
Sir Alec Guinness
Best known by readers of a certain generation as Obi-wan Kenobi from Star Wars, Alec Guinness was an actor in the grand Shakespearian tradition, whose career in film and theatre spanned 60 years. Associated with the Ealing comedies of the 1950s, Guinness’s shining moment came in 1957 when he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge On The River Kwai.
Barbara Ward
Barbara Ward was an economist and writer who founded the International Institute for Environment and Development in 1971. She believed strongly in the needs of developing countries and petitioned governments to share their wealth with the poor.
Dylan Thomas
Although he wrote exclusively in the English language, Dylan Thomas is considered the greatest Welsh poet of all time. His most famous works include Under Milk Wood, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Fern Hill and A Child’s Christmas in Wales.
Joan Littlewood
Best known for her stage adaptation of the satirical radio play Oh, What a Lovely War, Joan Littlewood was a prominent theatre director; a ‘subversive genius’ whose pioneering left-wing Theatre Workshop was set up to shake up the traditional thespian establishment.
Joe Mercer
Former Everton and Arsenal football player who captained ‘the Gunners’ to two league titles while, at the same time, running a grocery business in the north-west of England. Later became a successful manager who took over the England job from World Cup winner Sir Alf Ramsey.
Kenneth More
One of the nation’s most popular stars of stage and screen, he is best-known for his work as a happy-go-lucky gentleman in the 1950s, starring in such classics as The 39 Steps and Reach For the Sky.
Max Perutz
The Austrian-born biologist won the 1962 Nobel prize for Chemistry jointly with John Kendrew for their study of haemoglobin and globular proteins. Perutz later established the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.
Roy Plomley
The broadcaster created the iconic BBC radio series Desert Island Discs, presenting the show from 1942 to 1985. According to the legend, Plomley had a revelation one cold November night in 1941, with one question playing on his mind: “If you were wrecked on a desert island, which records would you like to have with you?”
Noorunissa Inayat Khan
Russian-born British-Indian secret agent whose work for the French Resistance in the Second World War earned her the nickname the ‘Spy Princess’. Executed by the Nazis in 1944, Inayat Khan was awarded the George Cross, the highest civilian decoration in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.
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