Stamps of the British Empire: A World Tour

Conquered from Denmark in 1714, occupied by England in 1807 and held as a British crown colony from 1814, Helgoland ran its own postal service from 1867. Hamburg had maintained a post office on the island since 1796, and Hamburg stamps cancelled with the Helgoland postmark are especially sought after. In 1890 Britain traded the island to the German Empire in exchange for territorial concessions in Zanzibar and Witu — no stamps survive mounted on this page, just the historical note.

Seized by a British landing party in 1704 and besieged unsuccessfully by Spain and France from 1779–83, Gibraltar used Great Britain's own stamps from 1857 before issuing its own Queen Victoria "GIBRALTAR" overprints. This sheet runs a long series from early Victorian issues in Centimos through to a 1968 H.M.S. Carmania commemorative, set beneath a hand-painted watercolour map of the Mediterranean marking Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus and the Ionian Islands.

Given to the Knights of St John by Emperor Charles V in 1530, Malta became a British possession in 1800 and an independent Commonwealth state in 1964, a republic from 1974. British stamps were used from 1857 to 1885 before Malta's own definitives appeared, cancelled here with the island's distinctive oval barred postmark.

Ottoman from 1571, placed under British administration in 1878 and a crown colony from 1925, Cyprus became an independent republic in 1960. Great Britain's stamps served until 1880; the sheet then runs Edward VII and George VI issues through to Republic-era pictorials, a hoopoe bird, and a refugee-fund charity stamp. A short note nearby covers the seven Ionian Islands — Corfu, Paxos, Leukas, Ithaka, Kefalonia, Zante and Cerigo — held under British protection from 1815 until their union with Greece in 1864.

French navigators claimed the territory as "New France" in the 16th century; ceded to England in 1763, Canada gained parliamentary self-government in 1840 and became a federal Dominion in 1867, joined later by British Columbia (1871), Prince Edward Island (1873) and Newfoundland (1949). This sheet carries thirteen classic Victoria, Edward VII and George V definitives, from an early "1" surcharge through War Tax and "For Third Class Matter Only" overprints.

All three Maritime colonies were part of French Acadia before passing to England in 1713 and 1763, and all three issued their own stamps before folding into the Dominion of Canada — New Brunswick from 1851–1860, Nova Scotia over the same period from its Halifax fleet station, and Prince Edward Island, named for a son of George III, from 1861 with sixteen values in total.

Fought over by France and England from the 17th century, ceded to England in 1713, Newfoundland ran its own postal administration from 1857 right up to 1949, when it finally joined the Dominion of Canada as its tenth province. This page carries a dense run of pictorial and portrait definitives — a Royal Visit commemorative, an Air Mail issue, and successive Queen Mary, King George V and Caribou-pictorial series.

Settled by the English in 1612, Bermuda remained a crown colony with internal self-government from 1968, first issuing its own stamps that same century. The sheet shows five stamps running from an early Victorian issue through a George VI ship pictorial to a "Founding of Dockyard" commemorative.

Columbus made his first American landfall on the Bahamian island of San Salvador in 1492; a haunt of pirates through the 17th century, the islands became a British possession in 1718 and an independent state in 1973. This page shows a colourful pair of 1979 Bahamas Christmas commemoratives, alongside the classic definitives mounted on the main Newfoundland/Bermuda/Bahamas page.

Attached to the crown colony of Jamaica in the early 19th century, the Turks and Caicos Islands became an independent British colony in 1959. Jamaican stamps were used before 1867; the postal territory's own name only appears on stamps from 1900. Two stamps survive here — an 1900 sailing-ship definitive and a 1966 bicentenary commemorative marking two centuries of ties with Britain.