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Lundy is a tiny island in the Bristol Channel about 12 miles from the mainland of Southwest England. The British Post Office served Lundy from late 1880 to 1927 when a new owner of the island could not find anyone willing to serve as sub-postmaster.
The owner, Martin C. Harman requested the BPO to close Lundy's Post Office. A mail vessel owned by Harman carried the mail free, to and from the mainland sub-postoffice at Instow for the next two years. In 1929 Mr. Harman decided he could no longer afford to continue the free service, so he conceived the idea of issuing special stamps from Lundy for affixing to incoming and outgoing mail.
Interestingly, he chose the puffin as his unit of currency, the equivalent of the British penny. The first Lundy stamps were issued on November 1, 1929. The stamps have legitimate status as "local" issues. Since that time most Lundy Stamps of different Puffin denominations have appeared and have quite a large following among collectors.
In 1954 two air mail Lundy stamps (denomination two puffins) picture an airplane in flight with a lighthouse below. The legend is "Plane over Old Light-Lundy." Also in 1954 a 6 puffin stamp shows Soay sheep and Old Light. The designer of this stamp was John Dyke. Finally, a vertical 2 puffin stamp printed in red depicts a map of Lundy Island at the northern tip of which is designated "North Light" although no lighthouse is pictured.
This story appeared in the June 1996 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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