Stamps of the British Empire: A World Tour

Occupied by the English as early as 1618, Gambia gained internal self-government in 1965. Seven Victoria and Edward VII definitives are shown, plus three later George VI and QEII pictorials on the supplement page depicting palm-wine tapping and rice farming.

Named for its roaring surf, Sierra Leone became an English colony in 1788. Eight stamps span 1859 to modern issues, including a UPU 75th-anniversary commemorative and later pictorials of a lighthouse and the Orugu Bridge.

Dutch, English and Danish traders settled the coast in the 17th century. This page runs Gold Coast War Tax overprints and a Silver Jubilee issue through to colourful independent-Ghana pictorials — a ginger flower, crowned cranes, a harbour scene and a hare.

A German protectorate from 1884, Togo was split between British and French occupation from 1915. Stamps here include Dahomey/Togo overprints from the French occupation and a Benin telephone-centenary issue.

Lagos was taken by the English in 1861, joined to the Southern Nigeria protectorate in 1906 and merged with Northern Nigeria into a single Nigeria on 1 January 1914. A long run of Lagos and Southern Nigeria Victoria and Edward VII definitives fills this sheet.

Northern Nigeria issued its own stamps from 1900 until its 1912–1914 merger with the south. Seven Edward VII portrait definitives are mounted on this supplement sheet, alongside a Togolese tree-planting stamp.

The unified crown colony and protectorate of Nigeria won independence on 1 October 1960. A Kamerun colonial ship stamp and a Nigeria pictorial are shown here.

England occupied the southern part of the Somali coast in 1884; the protectorate merged with Italian Somalia in 1960. Six stamps are shown, several on overprinted Indian-stamp bases.

Named for a French naval officer, the Seychelles fell to England in 1794. Five stamps run from Great Britain and Mauritius-stamp usage through the islands' own issues, including a lighthouse pictorial and a fairy tern definitive.

The Sultan of Zanzibar leased coastal territory to a British colonial company in 1887/89. Six stamps run from the Imperial British East Africa Company's first 1890 issue through modern Kenya Uhuru and warthog pictorials.