Blitz evacuee family keep nation posted

The face of Prime Minister Winston Churchill is also among the images to appear on the stamps in the Britain Alone collection, brought out to mark the 70th anniversary of the Blitz.

The picture of the three young children being evacuated from London to Northampton shows the evacuees with labels attached to their lapels, waiting at King's Cross station.

And a 60p stamp in the collection depicts the three siblings – John Dawson, Barbara Southard and Rosemary Brett – reunited almost 70 years later to recreate the picture at the same station.

A special miniature sheet of four stamps marks the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of troops from Dunkirk. The collection pays tribute to the wartime generation who, the Royal Mail said, resolved to "dare and endure" on the Home Front when Britain and the Commonwealth stood alone against the Axis Powers.

Royal Mail head of special stamps Julietta Edgar said she hoped the collection would serve as a "poignant reminder" of how much the country was affected by the Second World War.

She said: "After the fall of France in 1940, Britain suffered a period of huge uncertainty and grave danger brought into sharp focus by the destruction of the Blitz and the possibility of defeat in the Battle of the Atlantic.

"Daily life was changed forever as new civil defence organisations were formed and nearly three million people were relocated from big cities to the relative safety of the countryside."

The collection will be on sale for a year.