Tweet This
- Standing on gym blocks, Prince George gives a cheeky smile for the photo that will appear in a new royal family stamp sheet to be made available for purchase at post offices on Thursday and released by the Royal Mail to mark the queen’s visit to their office on Wednesday to celebrate another birthday: the 500th anniversary of the postal service.
- The photos with Baby George were taken last summer in the White Drawing Room in Buckingham Palace by London photographer Ranald Mackechnie, who had to keep the secret even from his wife.
It was a secret photo shoot for a stamp to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s upcoming 90th birthday. The photographer was a bit nervous because “nutty” prince George was to be in the frame - and nobody knew if he would behave.
But to everybody’s surprise, the little prince not only behaved beautifully but grinned for the camera like any other adult royal and became the star of the show which, along with the queen, included his father, Prince William, and his grandfather, Prince Charles, direct heirs to the throne.
The two princes, both fit to be kings Photo: Buckingham Palace
The “Prince George” stamps figure in a set of six commemorative stamps illustrating the queen’s private and public life over the past 90 years. It includes one of her as a child with her father, another with her children Princess Anne and Prince Charles in 1952, and one with her husband, Prince Philip, in 1957.
Related to her official role, another shows her with Nelson Mandela in 1996.
“When I found what the project was I could scarcely believe my ears,” he told the Daily Mirror. “It's an honor and it’s great to get the opportunity to photograph the four generations of the family.”
His bigger challenge, he said, was to get the royals’ heads at precise distance from each other so that each could be used separately. Hence the need to put Prince George on the blocks.
You can peel each of the heads from the picture and stick them on your envelope.
“He was absolutely charming, as you can see from the picture," the photographer explained. "You only have a short window of opportunity with small children, but Prince George was on good form and everyone seemed to enjoy seeing him enjoy the day.”
For his first stamp, Prince George is wearing blue corduroy shorts, a white, blue-bordered long-sleeved shirt, and knee socks.
In a column about the new stamp, royal correspondent Tom Sykes decided to have some fun with the little prince’s socks:
“Socks fanatics will be interested to know that Prince George's knee socks are from Amaia Kids," he wrote. "He is also, my sources tell me, wearing the brand’s Griotte Bloomer in navy corduroy.
The bloomers are usually available in a variety of colors, including royal blue, yellow and beige, but will all be sold out in a few hours’ time, no doubt. But we reckon you should still be able to get your hands on the socks, as they are presumably not huge global sellers.”
