Stamp Story No. 86 ST. HELENA'S FIRST STAMP

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29916, 1 September 1962, Page 8

Stamp Story No. 86 ST. HELENA 'S FIRST STAMP

No one can say that the island administration of SL Helena, in the South Atlantic. wasn’t economy-conscious a century a_o! The island’s first stamp, issued in 1856, was a 6d value designed to pay postage on letters to Britain by the South African mail steamers, the first regular service which started in the following year.

The amount of correspondence from such a small island was not substantialbut it is certainly curious to find that as an economy measure this stamp continued tn do duty for well over 30 years

For the first seven years the single 6d value was sufficient; but even when fresh demonmations were required, new supplies of the 6d stamp were run off in different colour, and the new values simply overprinted across the original one! One of these long-lived, overprinted issues is illustrated here—an interesting link with a small island which, despite is remoteness has a place in world history Discovered originally by a Portueuese explorer in 1502. the island had a brief Dutch settlement before it was taken over in 1659 by the East India Company, who found it a useful port of call for ships travelling to India via the Cape.

For al) its natural beauty, however, the island’s main claim to fame is as a prison In 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon was exiled on St Helena, where he d’ed six yea"* later. Lonewood House. four miles from the island canital of Jamestown, was the Emperor’s home during his stav This single-storev building. shown on St Helena’s current 10s stamp, is. in fact, the property of the French Government—being the gift

of Queen Victoria in 1858 In 1834, the island was transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown, the centenary of this event being celebrated by a series of ten stamps. Between 1900 and 1902 the British authorities erected prison camps on St Helena for Boers taken prisoner during the South African War.

The current Is stamp show’s the castle, originally a fort built by the East India Company when they first arrived to keep unwelcome intruders away But St Helena's eventful days seem to be over, the building is now used as government offices—'Central Press Features. Ltd. All Rights Reserved).