Jersey stamps remember WWI

On June 28, 1914, by assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip with the squeeze of a trigger sparked would become to be known as “The Great War” and “The War to End All Wars.”

World War I , July 28, 1914 to Nov. 11, 1919, consumed most of the globe and cost countless lives.

Although not directly affected (as opposed to World War II when Jersey was occupied by German forces), the Bailiwick of Jersey did its part and then some for the Allied Forces.

Jersey lost 6,292 men during the war. Its soldiers were awarded 212 medals for gallantry overseas, while Jersey also maintained a Royal Militia for home defense as well.

The Royal and French navies were frequent visitors to Jersey’s docks, and in March of 1915,a prisoner of war camp was built there on the west coast, in Blanches Banques.

In 2014, Jersey Post began a series of WWI commemorative sets. On Aug. 4, 2015, Jersey issued its second set in remembrance: The Great War, Part 2, Change and Progression. This issue's six stamps, each measuring 30 millimeters by 48mm, were designed by Chris Ede and printed using offset lithography. A souvenir sheet and a miniature sheet are also available.

The six stamp designs represent: mechanization (tank), 47 pence; communication (portable field radio box), 57p; camouflage and deception (ship), 64p; uniforms, 73p; observation (balloon and biplane, 85p; and tactics of war (map, helmet and barbed wire), 95p.

The souvenir sheet with a £1 stamp depicts Flt. Lt. Stanley Mossop and his Wight seaplane. The lieutenant earned his Distinguished Service Cross by being the first aviator to sink a submarine from the air, a feat he accomplished on Sept. 22, 1917, off of the coast of France while flying for the 243rd Squadron (Cherbourg) of the Royal Air Force. The sub destroyed was the German Unterseeboot UB32.