Joint Issues: Man Posted to... (Sark, Guernsey and Alderney)

Some very unusual joint issues are to be released by Guernsey Post on 1st September. They tell a story - or two stories - and what very unusual stories they are! The Guernsey-Sark issue tells the story of a man who was posted from Guernsey to Sark, while the Guernsey-Alderney issue tells a slightly different story of a man posted from Guernsey to Alderney. This seems totally bizarre but this did actually happen! The postal service actually delivered people? Why? Was it that Guernsey just wanted to get rid of people to neighbouring islands? No. I'll let the people at Guernsey Stamps explain. The story of Harry Turner (Guernsey - Sark) "The stamps recount the remarkable journey of the first man to use the postal system to get to his destination. In 1905, Mr Harry Turner made local postal history by arranging to be conveyed as a postal item from Guernsey to Sark. At that time, the General Post Office permitted, under special circumstances, the conveyance of individuals by Royal Mail, provided they were accompanied by a Post Office telegraph messenger.

"With official approval granted, Mr Turner embarked on the Sark boat alongside his postal escort. Upon arrival in Sark, the pair enjoyed a carriage drive and luncheon at the Dixcart Hotel before returning to Guernsey later the same day. This unusual journey, completed at a cost of 5 shillings and 10 pence, remains a remarkable and little-known episode in the history of postal services in the Channel Islands."

The story of Major Palmer (Guernsey - Alderney)

"The stamps recount the remarkable journey of Major 'Peabod' Palmer, the last man to be posted using the postal service. In February 1940, several months prior to the German occupation of the Channel Islands, civilian travel between Guernsey and Alderney had become severely restricted, with most transport requisitioned for military use. Major Palmer found himself stranded in Guernsey for two weeks, unable to secure passage on the Courier ferry service to Alderney.

"Determined to return to his family, Major Palmer consulted the Post Office Guide and concluded that there was no explicit prohibition against being sent by post. Acting on this interpretation, he presented himself at Guernsey Post Office and formally requested to travel as a parcel. Although reluctantly accepted, arrangements were made for him to be escorted by a postal worker to the harbour.

"Initially, the ferry captain objected on the grounds that Major Palmer was neither cargo nor mail. However, when only two of the twelve booked passengers presented themselves, the captain permitted him to travel, though he was consigned to the hold. Upon arrival in Alderney, Major Palmer was duly taken to the postal sorting office before being formally 'delivered' to his home by a local postman."

The stamps "blend humour, ingenuity and local heritage... offer[ing] a unique insight into the flexibility of postal services in earlier times and the determination of islanders to overcome the challenges of travel."

You can say that again! Who knew people could be sent by post?

Design Quality: I think the cartoon style works quite well for these stamps because these are such strange stories that you almost wouldn't believe they really happened. The pictures immediately bring out the funny side, especially Harry Turner being carried around like an enormous parcel and Major Palmer looking slightly fed up as he waits to be "posted" home. There are also some nice details in the backgrounds, like the Post Office, postboxes, ships, signs and the postmen's uniforms, which help to tell the stories across the four stamps. My only question is whether making everything so cheerful and cartoon-like hides the more serious side of Major Palmer's story. He wasn't doing it just for fun – he had been stranded in Guernsey for two weeks and was trying to get back to his family at a very difficult time. Still, I don't mind cartoons on stamps at all, and these are perfectly good designs that tell the stories clearly. 6/10 Theme and Subject Choice: This is definitely one of the more unusual stamp subjects I have come across. There can't be many stamps celebrating people who were actually posted as parcels, and these might even be the first! What makes the idea work is that it isn't just something silly invented to make amusing stamps. Harry Turner and Major Palmer were real people and these journeys actually happened, so the stamps are telling us about a curious little part of Channel Islands postal history. I also like the fact that the two stories are connected but quite different. Harry Turner seems to have done it largely because he discovered that he could, whereas Major Palmer used the postal rules to solve a real problem and get himself home. They are exactly the sort of strange historical stories that are perfect for stamps because otherwise most people would probably never hear about them. 8/10

Historical and Cultural Relevance: These are great historical stories and, importantly, they really happened. However, I don't think we can pretend that people being posted around the Channel Islands was a normal part of everyday life! These were clearly very unusual events even at the time, so they don't necessarily tell us a huge amount about how ordinary people travelled or used the postal service. What they do show us is how two people, for completely different reasons, found ways of using the postal system to have themselves "delivered". Harry Turner did it in 1905 with official permission and seems to have made an enjoyable day of it. Major Palmer's journey in 1940 was more serious because wartime restrictions had left him stranded away from his family. So while these are isolated and rather strange episodes, they still tell us something fascinating about postal rules, island travel and people finding clever ways around problems. 7/10 Innovation and Creativity: The cartoon style is quite creative because it suits the ridiculous idea of somebody becoming a human parcel. It also allows the artist to exaggerate things slightly, such as the enormous parcel in Harry Turner's story, and makes the four stamps feel almost like panels from a comic strip. I especially like how each pair has a beginning and an ending, so we see the person being "posted" on one stamp and then "delivered" on the other. That is a clever way of using two stamps to tell one story. However, cartoon illustrations aren't especially unusual in stamp design, so I wouldn't call the actual artistic style particularly innovative. It is more a case of choosing exactly the right style for the subject and using it effectively. 7/10 Collectability: I think these could be surprisingly collectable simply because they are so unusual. There are thousands of stamps featuring birds, flowers, famous people and buildings, but how many collections contain stamps about humans being sent through the post? They should obviously interest collectors of postal history because the stories are actually about the postal system itself. They might also appeal to people who collect Channel Islands stamps, local history or stamps with funny and quirky subjects. I think the fact that there are two complete stories told across four stamps helps as well, because they make a nice little set rather than being four unrelated pictures. I also think being a joint issue makes them a bit more collectable - people will want to buy them all. Even somebody who doesn't normally collect this type of stamp might want them just because the story behind them is so good. 8/10 Personal Appeal: I really like these! Sometimes it is good to be able to laugh at history, especially when the stories themselves are genuinely funny. Obviously I wouldn't laugh at poor Major Palmer being stranded in Guernsey for two weeks, particularly with everything that was happening in 1940, but the lengths he went to just to get home show how determined he was. Reading the Post Office rules, deciding there was apparently nothing stopping him from posting himself, and then actually persuading everyone to go along with it is brilliant. I hope he was able to laugh about the whole adventure afterwards, because I imagine everyone involved must have told the story for years.

Harry Turner's journey is even more wonderfully ridiculous because he seems to have done it simply because the rules allowed him to. He got posted to Sark, went for a carriage drive, had lunch at a hotel and then came home again! I don't think the stamps themselves have an outstanding design, which is why I haven't scored them especially highly for design quality, but they bring two outstanding stories to life. They also remind us that postal history isn't always about serious things like famous stamps and important letters. Sometimes it is about the strange ways people have found to use the postal service – including actually posting themselves. 10/10 Overall Score: 46/60

The people at Guernsey Stamps have come up with one of the most unusual and entertaining stamp issues I’ve seen, proving that postal history can be funny, surprising and completely unexpected. It's totally bizarre and totally brilliant.