The BPMA is saddened to learn this morning of the passing of Tony Benn. Benn served as Postmaster General under Harold Wilson 1964-66 and was instrumental in establishing the National Postal Museum, which closed in 1998. He oversaw construction of the Post Office Tower, then the tallest building in the UK, introduced the Post Bus service which continues to this day and, perhaps most famously and most in line with his political beliefs, tried (unsuccessfully) to remove the Queen’s head from stamps. A full obituary follows below.

Despite the closure of the National Postal Museum in 1998, Tony Benn’s legacy will live on through ThePostal Museum. Set to open in 2016 in Central London, it will combine the Royal Mail Archive, BPMA collections and collections of the National Postal Museum for the first time, revealing extraordinary stories from Britain’s social and communications history from the reign of King Charles I to the present day.

Obituary Tony Benn (1925 – 2014)

Tony Benn was appointed Postmaster General by Harold Wilson in the new Labour government of October 1964. Either he brought a welcome breath of fresh air to a fusty, old fashioned institution, or a devastating hurricane of change – it depended on your viewpoint at the time.

Known then as Anthony Wedgwood Benn, he arrived with definite and determined ideas about many things but particularly about stamps, namely to try and remove the Queen’s head from them (as well as widening their scope). In partnership with the designer David Gentleman he enthusiastically proceeded to revolutionise British stamp design over the next two years, making national newspaper headlines in the process.

Famously described in his Diaries, he went to Buckingham Palace to show the Queen designs by David Gentleman for the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Britain – all without the Queen’s head on them. The designs were eventually issued as stamps but with the Queen’s portrait reinstated. She did agree, however, to later experimental designs being produced without any commitment to their being used. This resulted in a reduction of her head to a cameo and remarkable changes in the form, appearance and subject matter of stamps, changes which influenced stamp design for over 20 years.

His fertile enthusiasm resulted in the first British Christmas stamps designed by children. However, it is ironic that the actions of a republican Postmaster General, who intended to remove the Queen’s head from stamps, should ultimately lead, instead, to the greatest regal icon of the 20th century – the sculpture by Arnold Machin as seen on all definitive stamps to this day.

Other major changes in the organisation of the Post Office included the creation of Girobank. He was also instrumental in the founding of the National Postal Museum. When he became the first Minister of Technology in the cabinet in July 1966 he left behind an organisation revitalised and forward-looking.