Vanguard HMS (1946)

[shipstamps]

To commemorate the Allied Pacific Campaign of the Second World War, the British Solomon Islands issued a 35 c stamp showing a battleship, H.M.S. Vanguard, firing a broadside, although H.M.S. Vanguard, was not completed until April 1946. The stamp design is based on a photograph of the warship at firing practice, the 15 in. guns being those first mounted in H.M.S. Courageous and Glorious in 1917, and later removed from those ships to be added to reserve of weapons of that calibre maintained for the Hood, Queen Elizabeth and Royal Sovereign.
H.M.S. Vanguard was ordered in March 1941, from John Brown and Co. Ltd., Clydebank, and was the last British battleship to be built. Laid down on October 2, 1941, she was also the last battleship in commission, being placed in reserve at the end of 1955. She was then considered obsolete. She served as a Royal Yacht during the South African tour in 1947, and was to have done so again had the late King been able to proceed there in 1952. The Vanguard underwent a long refit at Devonport in 1954-55. Her standard displacement was 44,500 tons with a full load displacement of 51,420 tons. Dimensions were: length 814 ft., beam 108 ft., draft 36 ft. Main armament was eight 15 in. guns, and secondary armament 16 5.25 in. Antiaircraft armament consisted of 58 40 mm. guns, and she had 13-14 in. side armour protection. Complement (peace) was 1,600 and (war) 2,000 men. Propelling machinery comprised Parsons single-reduction geared turbines driving four shafts and developing 130,000 s.h.p. There were eight 3-drum type boilers. Speed was 29.5 knots and the vessel was launched on November 30, 1946.
SG164 Sea Breezes 8/68

[aukepalmhof]

She was broken up by Shipbreaking Industries Ltd., Faslane where she arrived on 09 August 1960.

In 1949 a proposed Royal tour to Australia and New Zealand was cancelled owing to the poor health of King George VI. The royal party was to travel on HMS Vanguard as they had previously done in 1947 on their tour to South Africa.

A set of 4 stamps was prepared for the New Zealand Post Office by Waterlow & Sons of London. When news that the tour was cancelled the stamps were ordered to be destroyed. Apparently some were caught in the door of the furnace and were salvaged; the rest were consigned to the flames. The 3d HMS Vanguard is mentioned in a note by Stanley Gibbons after SG 697. The issue is very expensive.
There is also issued in 1953 a Cinderella stamp in New Zealand.

Source: Internet

[D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen]

Somaliland 2011, 2500 a. StG.?