Célébrités du XIIe au XXe siècle — Maréchal Lyautey

On 10 July 1953 France issued «Célébrités du XIIe au XXe siècle», a six-value semi-postal series (Yvert 945–950) whose surtax went to the French Red Cross. The set honoured Saint Bernard, Olivier de Serres, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Gaspard Monge, Jules Michelet and, on the top value of 30 F + 7 F in lilac-brown, Maréchal Hubert Lyautey (1854–1934). Only the Lyautey stamp belongs to the Scouting theme; it is a Scouter-on-stamp rather than a Scout design, and carries no Scout imagery.

Lyautey — soldier, first Resident-General of Morocco, Minister of War and Marshal of France — was one of the earliest senior French figures to back the movement. He joined the patronage committee of the Éclaireurs de France in 1911, and in 1928 accepted the honorary presidency of the Bureau Interfédéral du Scoutisme, the body that grouped the Scouts de France, the Éclaireurs de France and the Éclaireurs unionistes de France (joined in 1938 by the Éclaireurs israélites de France). He took the office on the condition that he serve all the federations equally, arguing that their confessional, social and regional differences did not change a shared purpose, and he held it until his death on 27 July 1934. He appeared alongside Baden-Powell at the 3rd World Jamboree at Arrowe Park, Birkenhead, in 1929, and after his return from Morocco in 1925 he opened his estate at Thorey to Scout camps — a tradition that survives today in the national Scouting museum at the château de Thorey-Lyautey.

The stamp was drawn by André Spitz and engraved by Gabriel-Antoine Barlangue, recess-printed in sheets of 25, format 26 × 40 mm. First day was 9 July 1953, general sale 10 July, and the series was withdrawn on 12 December 1953; the print run was 1,300,000 sets, and until 19 July the six values could only be bought as an indivisible set at 130 francs. Catalogue references are Scott FR B281, Michel FR 970, Yvert FR 950 and Stanley Gibbons FR 1177. Imperforate examples of the issued design exist (about 400), and Yvert also lists 950A, a Lyautey design refused by the family and never issued.