75th Anniversary of Evacuation, Gibraltar

Country - Gibraltar

Stamp issue date - 10 September, 2014

Printing process - Micro printing

Denomination - GBP 2.00
What's special - Most words printed on a postage stamp.



Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar and the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau in close cooperation with Maverick Advertising & Design Ltd have issued a set of 5 stamps commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Evacuation of the civilian population of Gibraltar.
The £2 stamp has set a new philatelic record for ‘Most words on a postage stamp’ with a total of 2,183 legible words! Thanks to an innovative micro printing technique and working with one of the leading international security printers has made it possible for Gibraltar stamps to once again place our country and on this occasion one of our most important historic anniversaries on the worldwide map.
The 2183 words have been fitted inside a 40 x 32mm stamp and explain in detail the history of the evacuation of the civilian population of Gibraltar during World War II.  The stamps have been designed by local artist Mr Stephen Perera and feature historic photographs from the local archives. The world record breaking £2.00 stamp features the Gibraltar Evacuees Memorial Sculpture situated at Waterport Road.
For over 300 years Gibraltar has been a British overseas territory of military importance. During the Second World War there was a fear that if Nazi Germany and its allies took Gibraltar and the strait, there would have been catastrophic consequences.

Churchill himself described ‘Operation Torch’, the attack on French North Africa, as the ‘Hinge of Fate’. And to accommodate the influx of military personnel required to reinforce the Rock, it was decided that 16,000 civilians who were not deemed essential to its defence, should be evacuated.

May 2014 marks the beginning of the 75th anniversary of this mass-migration. Within a matter of weeks over 70% of the total population of Gibraltar was evacuated to French Morocco. Gibraltar’s women, children, elderly and infirm, were torn apart from husbands, fathers, and sons in a time of intense danger. They accepted that hardship with immense courage and as an act of duty and loyalty to Britain.

My stamp was sourced from Gibraltar Post.

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