Product Description
8 October 2009 Eminent Britons set of 10 x 1st class stamps , including Europa stamp
Now priced below curren postage value - buy or use!
Fred Perry, Tennis & Table Tennis champion
Henry Purcell, composer
Sir Matt Busby, footballer and football manager
William Gladstone, Prime Minister
Mary Wollstonecraft, feminist
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes stories, doctor, cricketer
Donald Campbell, land and water speed record holder
Judy Fryd, founder of MENCAP
Samuel Johnson, poet and lexicographer
Sir Martin Ryle, radiosatronomer, Nobel Prizewinner, Europa stamp
The stamps - all 1st class
Fred Perry - Born in Stockport in 1909 Fred Perry was World Table Tennis Champion in 1929 before moving on to become World Tennis No.1 in 1934, a position he held five times. he was the last Englishman to win the Wimbledon, US Open, French Open and Australian Open Men’s Singles. He won Wimbledon on three separate occasions.
Henry Purcell - Born 1659 Purcell was the greatest British composer of early classical music, incorporating French and Italian elements to create a uniquely British Baroque. His most famous work is Dido and Aeneas considered by some to be the first British opera.
Sir Matt Busby - Born in North Lanarkshire in 1909 Busby initially found fame playing for Manchester City and Liverpool before war service ended his playing career. He is better known for managing Manchester Utd from 1945 to 1969 guiding the team from the tragedy of the Munich Air Disaster of 1958 to European Cup triumph in 1968.
William Gladstone - Born in Liverpool in 1809 gladstone was Prime Minister of the UK on four separate occasions. Noted for his fierce rivalry with the Conservative Benjamin Disraeli, the Liberal Gladstone presided over many reforms to the electoral system. [Background picture: London's Cannon Street Station]
Mary Wollstonecraft - Born in 1759 Wollstonecraft was the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women, one of the earliest works to argue that women were not inferior to men, but only appeared so due to lack of educational opportunities. She is regarded as one of the founders of feminist philosophy. Her daughter was Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Born in 1859 Doyle qualified as a doctor but is better known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes about whom he wrote four novels and 56 short stories. Doyle was also a prolific author of ghost stories, historical novels and science fiction as well as a keen sportsman who played cricket for the MCC.
Donald Campbell - Broke the Water Speed Record in 1959 hitting 260 mph. Equally at home on land and water Campbell broke eight land and water speed records and is the only individual to hold both land and water speed records simultaneously. Campbell was awarded a posthumous CBE in 1967 1st Class.
Judy Fryd - Born in 1909. When faced with the problem of finding a place to educate her daughter who had learning difficulties Fryd wrote to Nursery World seeking advice. the response led to her forming the Association of Parents of Backward Children (now better known as MENCAP) a pressure group that has achieved a revolution in attitudes towards those with learning difficulties. She was appointed MBE in 1967 and CBE in 1996. [Background picture: Coventry School]
Samuel Johnson - Born in 1709, Johnson was a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. His greatest achievement was his Dictionary of the English Language, first published in 1755. It was the most commonly used English dictionary until the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928.
Sir Martin Ryle - In 1959 the Radio Astronomy Group at the University of Cambridge led by Professor Martin Ryle published the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources (3C) which led to the discovery of the first quasi-stellar object (quasar). It was a landmark map of stellar sources and Ryle’s work led to confirmation of the Big Bang Theory. Ryle was knighted in 1966 and awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in 1974.
