Campaign to Put Soldiers on Stamps

A campaign was launched yesterday to replace the head of the Queen on postage stamps with the faces of soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq.

The Imperial War Museum and the Art Fund, an art charity, are trying to persuade people to sign an online petition to convince Royal Mail to put the stamps into circulation.

The stamps have been designed by artist Steve McQueen, who was embedded with troops in Basra as a war artist. "It was a frustrating situation," he recalled yesterday. "I couldn't get a good perspective on events." Later, at his home in Amsterdam, he was sticking a stamp on to a letter when the idea of stamps as a memorial came to him. One hundred and fifty four families agreed to take part; just 19 refused. Each family chose the photographs for the stamps.

Julie Maddison, whose son Christopher, a marine, died aged 24 in 2003, told the Guardian: "The stamps would be a modern-day version of the poppy. This would be an honour and a recognition for the soldiers."

The designs for the stamps exist as an installation, Queen and Country, bought for the museum by the Art Fund.

A Royal Mail spokesman said yesterday that its stamps "celebrated symbols rather than individuals". Privately, it is understood to regard the scale of the McQueen project as impracticable.