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Royal Mail is to issue poppy-coloured stamps marking the occasion painted by an artist who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan

Four of Royal Mail's six poppy-red 'Lest We Forget' stamps, illustrated by Matthew Cook, a reservist with The Rifles, who said remembrance holds 'a very special place in my life'.
Four of Royal Mail's six poppy-red 'Lest We Forget' stamps, illustrated by Matthew Cook, a reservist with The Rifles, who said remembrance holds 'a very special place in my life'.

Royal Mail will release six new stamps on 11 November, the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme's outbreak, with each artwork rendered in colours drawn from the red poppy. The collection was commissioned from British artist Matthew Cook, a former Parachute Regiment and Rifles reservist who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. David Gold of Royal Mail called remembrance "a profound place in our national life."

Cook said the project felt "particularly special" given remembrance's place in his own life as a veteran.

The stamps go on sale on Armistice Day, which this year also marks 110 years since the Somme began on 1 July 1916.

Cook previously illustrated Royal Mail commemorative stamps featuring Royal Ascot, Henley Regatta and the Highland Games.

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