Prince Charles meets young stamp designers

Prince Charles met with the young designers of the Royal Mail’s festive stamps for 2013 this week.

The British royal was head of a panel of judges who whittled down over 240,000 entries from children aged four to 11, who made stamps in response to the question: ”What does the Christmas season mean to you?”

The first class stamp – depicting Santa Claus – was designed by Molly Robson, seven, from West Sussex, Southern England, while the second class stamp, featuring three singing angels, was painted by 10-year-old Rosie Hargreaves, from Devon, South West England.

The prince met both girls at a reception, held at Clarence House in London, where he gave them each a framed copy of their designs. The actual stamps featuring their work will be on sale throughout the UK during the festive season.

Rosie said: ”It felt really amazing to win. I was very excited about meeting Prince Charles. I think mummy and daddy were more nervous than me.”

Rosie’s father, John Hargreaves, a physics teacher, said: ”When the Royal Mail phoned up to tell me that Rosie had won, I screamed out in joy. But then I was told it was a secret, so I had to pretend to my family I was screaming because someone phoning about a good report for my school.”

Molly was equally ecstatic about her work appearing on stamps across the country.

She said: ”I was very excited that I won. The picture took me two afternoons to draw. I usually like to draw rainbows.”

Molly’s mother, Clare Robson, added: ”Finding out that Molly had won was quite surreal, considering such a vast number of children took part. I know everyone at Molly’s school will be really pleased.”

As with all special editions issued by Royal Mail, both winning designs were approved by Queen Elizabeth, whose portrait graces all ordinary stamps.