Anglo-French Union
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This remarkable stamp trial, or essay, dates from 1940. It was produced as part of efforts to create a political union between France and the United Kingdom.
The stamp essay was inspired by the practical co-operation already taking place during the 'phoney war' of late 1939 and early 1940. The head of the French Government Information Bureau, Jean Giraudoux, gave a radio broadcast at the end of 1939 which reaffirmed that the wartime bonds of necessity should not be loosened when peace finally came. Giraudoux's speech specifically proposed a 'design for future postage stamp use, the two figures representing France and great britain, with their leopard and cock'.
This proposal caught the interest of Dr Ernest Barker, who wrote to the Times suggesting a simple design, with the head of the king balanced by an equivalent French symbol. Excited correspondence in the Times lent weight to the matter, and by the end of January 1940 the Postmaster General, Major Tryon, was in correspondence with the French Minister of Posts, M. Jules Julien.
Things moved relatively fast, despite the inevitable worries over the combining of two postage systems. By April, artist Edmund Dulac had produced a reworking of a design by Henry Cheffer. This design received some tweaks by the printers Harrisons', but was apparently accepted by the French President Lebrun on 8 June.
In the meantime, the phoney war was coming to an end. Winston Churchill was now Prime Minister, and on 16 June Marshall Petain formed his first French government. Parliamentary records from June 16 1940 give Churchill’s offer of Union:
‘The two Governments declare that France and Great Britain shall no longer be two nations but one Franco-British Union… Every citizen of France will enjoy immediately citizenship of Great Britain, every British subject will become a citizen of France...
The two Parliaments will be formally associated… The Union will concentrate its whole energy against the power of the enemy no matter where the battle may be. And thus we shall conquer.’
The very next day, Petain sued for an armistice with Germany, ending any plans for union with Britain. The production of the stamp was cancelled.