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The Fleury Flair

In the attic, browsing through a schoolboy album, I was struck by the design of the Windsor Castle series and resolved to complete the omnibus set. I’m a sucker for the two-tone line engraved stamp anyway but this had something extra. Ingeniously, it still looks good even if the vignette is several millimetres off-centre – something that cannot be said for a symmetrical frame and vignette format.

So, it was all the more galling to find that the handbook had misattributed this masterpiece. The web site of Alan Cash reveals that designer’s name is Hugo Fleury. (I am still trying to find the source from which the erroneous “Harold” was found).

Alan is the great-nephew of Hugo and writes that the Fleury family were of German extraction and that they emigrated to England in 1876. Hugo, the youngest of seven children, was born in Bradford in 1893.

By 1901, most of the family were living in north London. Records show that they clearly had an artistic bent. Perhaps it is misleading to refer to Hugo as “H. Fleury” since his brother, Herman, produced artwork for postcards.

In 1923, Hugo married Henrietta Levy. This took place at Edmonton Register Office and one wonders if that was where they were living twelve years later when the Prussian Blue made its appearance there!

Hugo was employed as a printer's designer at Waterlow & Son. Besides the colonial design at the top of the page, he submitted, in September 1934, the design opposite for the GB issue, which was rejected, as were his October submissions below. The three are reproduced by kind permission of the British Postal Museum & Archive: www.postalheritage.org.uk

In the same year as the Jubilee, his design was used for a 1000 escudos banknote of Portugal. Later his design was used for the 1938 Cayman Islands definitive stamps. He designed Czechoslovakian banknotes, circulated from 1945. In 1949 his design was used for the Great Britain 6d stamp commemorating the 75th anniversary of the U.P.U.

Hugo Fleury's wife, Henrietta, died on 30th January 1963, at 69 Pembury Road, London N17, and Hugo, himself, died there on 26th November 1983.

Further information can be obtained from Alan Cash’s site at: http://cashewnut.me.uk/Genealogy/HugoFleury.php

AJA - June 2009