Commemorative stamps, which are postage stamps issued to honor or commemorate a place, event or person, have been released by Great Britain since 1924. Several sets were released during the decade of the 1980s.
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History
Postage stamps were first used in Great Britain on 6 May 1840, with the introduction of the world's first Adhesive Postage Stamp the Penny Black. Up until 1924 all British stamps depicted only the portrait of the reigning Monarch, with the exception of the 'High Value' stamps, the so-called "Sea Horses" design, issued in 1913, which were twice the size of normal stamps with added pictorial design.
In 1924 the first 'Commemorative' stamp was issued for the British Empire Exhibition, there were then occasional issues over the next thirty years, when the frequency of new issues became more regular. From the mid-sixties, in most years six to nine sets of commemorative stamps have been issued every year. PHQ Cards, postcard sized reproductions of commemorative stamps, have also been issued to accompany every new set of stamps since the mid-seventies.