1949 - 1952 Cancelled Royal Visits.

1953 Royal Visit.

The 2001 Royal Visits Issue.

        Originally I set out to create a post on this attractive strip of photographs of Queen Elizabeth II taken on each of six visits to New Zealand. The issue appeared in 2001 and was named Royal Visits. As I began researching the visits depicted on these stamps it soon became clear that these were not the only times the Queen had visited New Zealand and they were not the only stamps featuring royal visits either.
        It was then that I made, what was for me an amazing discovery. There were actually two cancelled royal visits as well and stamps had been prepared for both of these as well.  I became sidetracked by this so this post is now about these two cancelled visits rather than the issue I intended to feature. We will look at this colourful issue in more detail at some later date.

1949 Royal Tour (Cancelled).

2d - Waitangi Treaty House;  3d - HMS Vanguard;  5d - Royal Family;  6d - Royal Crown and Sceptre.

       The 1949 Royal Visit was cancelled due to the ill health of King George VI. The stamps prepared to mark this event were then supposed to have been destroyed. I found these four photographs in a stamp catalogue but they have reproduced rather poorly. Normally I would never use an image of this quality on this blog but I consider this to be of particular importance to the history of postage stamps in New Zealand. Note that they all include the words Royal Visit 1949 in their design. It is thought that these might have been proofs sent to the designer, James Berry for his approval.

It is believed Waterlow & Sons of London printed 39million stamps for this issue in four values (2d, 3d, 5d & 6d.) All of which were supposed to have been destroyed when the tour was cancelled.

2d - Waitangi Treaty House.

2d - The first design shows the Waitangi Treaty House, where the famous Treaty of Waitangi was first signed. In the two inserts on the top corners, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth can be seen. Notice this Queen does not have a Roman numeral after her name since she was not a ruling monarch. 

This design was used again in the cancelled 1952 Royal Tour issue. 

3d - HMS Vanguard.

 3d - The second design shows the HMS Vanguard, a Royal Navy Battleship which had been fitted out for the king's visit to South Africa the previous year. The battleship was at that time a very modern state of the art warship, bigger and faster than most other current ships of her kind, having been laid down during World War II but only completed and commissioned after the fighting had finished. As it turned out, HMS Vanguard was to be the last of the major battleships to launched anywhere in the world.

       

Proposed artwork by James Berry.

 The stamp design is believed to have come from an earlier design proposed for the 1948 Royal Tour. This is a finished white art paper stamp proposal for the 1948 Royal Visit. It is a 3d stamp entitled Royal Visit 1948 in suggested colours of brown and dark blue. It depicts insets of Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth above HMS Vanguard, with surrounds of New Zealand fern leaves and British oak leaves.

While these stamps were meant to have been destroyed it has been discovered that at least seven survived. Two of these are in a damaged condition with corners missing, others have creasing or are badly soiled. I have shown two of the better examples here while all seven can be viewed on our page 1949 3d HMS Vanguard. 

Two Surviving Examples.

 

5d - Royal Family.

        5d -  The next design shows the Royal Family although one of the family appears to be missing. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth are depicted with their younger daughter Princess Margaret. Both of their daughters appeared with them in the 1946 Peace Issue seen below. Now on this stamp, their older daughter, Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) is missing because, between 1946 and the time of this trip in 1949, Princess Elizabeth married and has had a child. Since it was never intended she would be included in this tour she was left off the 5d stamp. 

6d - Royal Crown and Sceptre.

        6d - The final design is the Royal Crown and Sceptre, the emblems of a ruling British monarch. This design was later used in 1953 on one of the stamps of the 1953 Coronation issue, as can be seen in the stamp below.   

 

1952 Royal Tour (Cancelled)

        Due to King George's continued poor health, it was coming apparent that he would not be able to undertake another tour. It was felt important that a royal tour was made so his daughter Princess Elizabeth was sent instead. She was accompanied by her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. 

        Their itinerary was to travel to Kenya and then on to Australia and New Zealand but while they were in Kenya they received word that King George VI had died and Elizabeth was now queen. The rest of the tour was cancelled as they rushed back to England. 



2d. - The Waitangi Treaty House. 

This stamp appears to be the same as the 1949 design except the date has been dropped. I am unsure if that first design was in two colours, though, it appears as if it might have been single.

3d. - The RMS Gothic. 

          SS Gothic was a cargo liner launched in 1947. She was the fourth and final of the Corinthic-class liners ordered by the Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Co. in 1946. In 1952, SS Gothic was sent to Cammell Laird shipyards to be refitted to become the Royal yacht for a tour of Australia and New Zealand. Although the tour was cancelled due to the death of King George VI, considerable work had already been completed and she returned in 1953 to complete the refit, including a white-painted hull. Renamed the RMS Gothic, she was then used for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation world tour in 1953 -54.

1952 Royal Visit 3d RMS Gothic of which only 14 are known to exist.

This imperf example shows a coverage of blue over the corner selvedge.



5d. - King George VI, Queen Elizabeth

& Princess Margaret.

Notice that this is a different portrait to the 1949 design. Also, notice that this stamp has nothing to show that it does, in fact, mark a Royal Visit whereas the other three values do contain the words "Royal Visit" in their design. It would be interesting to know why.

1/3 -  Princess Elizabeth &

Duke of Edinburgh.

I want you to look closely at the 1952 design above and then look at the 1953 design below. It looks to me like they have cropped the heads of the Princess and Duke then used them in the design below. If anyone can throw any light on this, I would welcome their comments and insights. 

 

1953 Royal Tour.

         After her coronation, Queen Elizabeth II embarked on a royal coronation tour during which she spent Christmas 1953 in New Zealand. This visit would become the most extensive tour of any she has made to this country and it was marked by an issue of postage stamps. Since there was the Coronation Issue and a definitive issue featuring the queen, it was decided to reduce the Royal Visit to only two values. 

 

3d - Queen Elizabeth II 

4d - Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Other Stamps Depicting The 1953 Royal Visit. 

                      

2012 Diamond Jubilee.                                                         2001 Royal Visits. 

1953 Christmas Message, Auckland.                                 State Opening of Parliament, 1954.

Some of the images in this post were used with permission from the illustrated catalogue of StampsNZ

You can visit their website and On-line Catalogue at, http://stampsnz.com/