Eminent Britons set

The set marks the birth centenaries of tennis champion Fred Perry, footballer & manager Sir Matt Busby and the founder of the charity Mencap, Judy Fryd, the bicentenary of the birth of politician William Gladstone, and the tercentenary of the birth of lexicographer Samuel Johnson. Writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859, feminist Mary Wollstonecroft in 1759, and composer Henry Purcell in 1659. The breaking of the water speed record by Donald Campbell in 1959 and the publication of Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources (3C) by Professor Martin Ryle's Radio Astronomy Group in the same year are also marked.

All the stamps from this set are 1st Class Stamps:

* Fred Perry - Born in Stockport in 1909 Fred Perry was World Table Tennis Champion in 1929 before moving on to become World Tennis No.1 in 1934, a position he held five times. he was the last Englishman to win the Wimbledon, US Open, French Open and Australian Open Men’s Singles. He won Wimbledon on three separate occasions.

* Henry Purcell - Born 1659 Purcell was the greatest British composer of early classical music, incorporating French and Italian elements to create a uniquely British Baroque. His most famous work is Dido and Aeneas considered by some to be the first British opera.

* Sir Matt Busby - Born in North Lanarkshire in 1909 Busby initially found fame playing for Manchester City and Liverpool before war service ended his playing career. He is better known for managing Manchester Utd from 1945 to 1969 guiding the team from the tragedy of the Munich Air Disaster of 1958 to European Cup triumph in 1968.

* William Gladstone - Born in Liverpool in 1809 gladstone was Prime Minister of the UK on four separate occasions. Noted for his fierce rivalry with the Conservative Benjamin Disraeli, the Liberal Gladstone presided over many reforms to the electoral system.

* Mary Wollstonecraft - Born in 1759 Wollstonecraft was the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women, one of the earliest works to argue that women were not inferior to men, but only appeared so due to lack of educational opportunities. She is regarded as one of the founders of feminist philosophy. Her daughter was Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.

* Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Born in 1859 Doyle qualified as a doctor but is better known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes about whom he wrote four novels and 56 short stories. Doyle was also a prolific author of ghost stories, historical novels and science fiction as well as a keen sportsman who played cricket for the MCC.

* Donald Campbell - Broke the Water Speed Record in 1959 hitting 260 mph. Equally at home on land and water Campbell broke eight land and water speed records and is the only individual to hold both land and water speed records simultaneously. Campbell was awarded a posthumous CBE in 1967 1st Class.

* Judy Fryd - Born in 1909. When faced with the problem of finding a place to educate her daughter who had learning difficulties Fryd wrote to Nursery World seeking advice. the response led to her forming the Association of Parents of Backward Children (now better known as MENCAP) a pressure group that has achieved a revolution in attitudes towards those with learning difficulties. She was appointed MBE in 1967 and CBE in 1996.

* Samuel Johnson - Born in 1709, Johnson was a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. His greatest achievement was his Dictionary of the English Language, first published in 1755. It was the most commonly used English dictionary until the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928.

* Sir Martin Ryle - In 1959 the Radio Astronomy Group at the University of Cambridge led by Professor Martin Ryle published the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources (3C) which led to the discovery of the first quasi-stellar object (quasar). It was a landmark map of stellar sources and Ryle’s work led to confirmation of the Big Bang Theory. Ryle was knighted in 1966 and awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in 1974.

- Mrs. Nagalakshmi Tadakaluri, Philatelist.

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