Towards the end of the Great War, there was a big push to get children to but savings stamps to raise money to fund the war effort. Children were given a small card and went to the post office to purchase 6d stamps to fill up the card. Once they had 15/6 on the card, they could exchange it for a savings certificate that would earn interest and pay them back £1 after five years. To encourage children to take part in the scheme, when they purchased a 6d stamp for the card, they were also given a pictorial stamp, which they could put into a scrap book and build up a little collection. The first series of these stamps was issued in 1918 and consisted of three sets of sixty stamps covering VC winners, the Royal Navy and medals. A second set was issued in 1919, again three sets of 60 stamps, this time covering more VCs, Women’s Work and Aeroplanes. Last year I was lucky enough to pick up a scrap book filled with these stamps, clearly a major investment from the young boy or girl who had bought the savings stamps:

Stamps from the different series are included in the book and the artwork on them is superb. We have medals:

Women’s work:

VC Winners:

The Naval War:

And the Air War:

The artwork for the stamps is absolutely superb and it is suspected that the brother of Henry Payne, famous for his military postcards, was responsible for many of these images. Further information on the savings scheme and a full set of images of the stamps, savings cards and information for the vendor can be found on this excellent thread.

Interestingly, these war savings stamps were not the only stamps in the scrap book, these gorgeous and very colourful stamps were also in the book, although I unfortunately have no information on them:

They depict famous men of the British Empire and its allies and again are fantastic, miniature, works of illustration in full colour and with very elaborate designs:

If anyone can help identify the source of these stamps, please comment below.