Manx Post Office Stamps In The Slipstream…

By Prosper Keating

Like other post offices, the Isle of Man Post Office issues commemorative first day covers to mark important events and dates. However, to mark the 80th anniversary of Operation Market Garden and the Battle of Arnhem in 2024, the Manx Post Office went just that bit farther.

Maxine Cannon — General Manager of Stamps & Coins — and her team not only had eighty Arnhem 80 first day covers flown over to Holland in a wartime C47 Dakota troop transporter but taken through the door into the slipstream over one of the wartime British drop zones by the Pegasus Display Team. 

Mrs Cannon told Hermes: “It hardly seems credible that it is over thirty years since we issued a set of stamps to celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Parachute Regiment back in 1992. We have worked on a number of projects since then with the Regiment and this has developed into one of our most longstanding partnerships. In that time  we have endeavoured to support charities who support both serving and ex-members, especially with our latest collection which commemorates the eightieth anniversary of Arnhem . A sincere thanks to everyone involved who made it possible.”.

Parachute Regimental Association Veterans Officer Major (Ret’d) Paul Raison told Hermes: “Another great initiative in this the eightieth commemorative year of Normandy and Arnhem. We are very grateful for the generous donation to the charity by the Isle of Man Post Office and their continued support to the airborne veteran community.”.

Readers will recall that the Pegasus Display Team — whose retired and serving members must have passed P Company or SAS Selection, Basic Parachute Course and have at least a hundred military descents logged — put three sticks out over DZ-X near Renkum on September 20th 2024. The Manx first day covers were divvied up between team members. 

Each folder of Manx Arnhem 80 stamps contains a signed certificate confirming that the stamps landed by parachute with the Pegasus Display Team on the Renkum DZ on September 20th 2024. The Isle of Man Post Office is donating a percentage of the revenues from these special Arnhem 80 first day covers to our Regimental charity Support Our Paras.

Jumping on Renkum with the Pegasus Display Team that day was the outgoing Colonel Commandant of The Parachute Regiment, Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison DSO MBE. General Andy, as he is fondly known to his officers and men alike, was Number One in the door in the first of the three Pegasus Display Team sticks. 

The Team is led by the legendary Ian Marshall — 2 PARA, Pathfinder Platoon and Red Devils — and Mark Briggs — 3 PARA and Airborne Forces — and comprises retired and serving British paratroopers. Members must have passed P Company or SAS Selection followed by Basic Parachute Course and then completed at least a hundred military descents. Other notable faces in the sticks included various senior staff officers from Army HQ and RHQ PARA, Army Parachute Jump Instructors and The Rt Hon Bayo Alaba MP. 

However, General Andy especially distinguished himself by landing in a tree from which it took some time to get him down. In fairness, General Andy was ambushed on the way down by a weather effect known as ‘wind shear’ and carried away from the rest of his stick, which landed in one of the tightest formations ever seen despite the wind conditions. 

The refusal of the C47 pilots to obey the jump masters and descend below the wind shear altitude posed quite a risk to the civilian enthusiasts on the vintage aviation company’s other lifts but the professional, government-trained paratroopers of the Pegasus Display Team took it in their stride.

In addition to the certificates produced and signed for the Isle of Man Post Office, a special Tree Jumping Certificate was made for and awarded to Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison DSO MBE by the Pegasus Display Team. Lt Gen Harrison’s predecessor as Colonel Commandant of The Parachute Regiment, Lieutenant General John Lorimer KCB DSO MBE, is the current Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man.