Hellenic Post 150th Death Anniversary of Lord Byron

HELLENIC POST  on 4 April 1974 issued a series of First Day Cover stamps dedicated to Philhellene Lord Byron. The stamps  commemorated the 150th anniversary of his death. In Greece, Byron is considered a hero in the Greek War of Independence, for which he paid the ultimate price -- he lost his life fighting in the cause of freedom for Greece. One stamp depicts Lord Byron in Souliot costume, the other portrays him addressing soldiers. The cachet shows the house in Missolunghi, where during the Battle of Missolunghi, Byron died.

Byron has been honoured many times in Greek postage stamps as well as in Albania, Armenia, Hungary, Monaco, and Russia, but to my knowledge never in the country of his birth; only a line from one of his poems in the Royal Mail British Romantic Poets series was issued in 2020. Although Byron is recognised as one of the literary greats, if not the greatest, Romantic poet in English literature, he was in the Victorian era controversial due to his many par amours and illegitimate children. Even today, to some extent, he remains controversial.

His only legitimate offspring, Augusta Ada Lovelace neé Byron (Countess Lovelace), was a mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation.  

The uniform worn by Byron in the stamp is of Souliote origin. The Souliotes were an Orthodox Christian Albanian tribal community in the area of Souli in Epirus from the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century, and who by their participation in the Greek War of Independence came to identify with the Greek nation. They successfully resisted Ottoman rule for many years. At the height of their power, in the second half of the 18th century, the Souliote confederacy is estimated to have consisted of up to 4,500 inhabitants. After the revolution, they migrated to and settled in newly independent Greece, and assimilated into the Greek populace.

Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron) was the son of English Royal Navy captain, John Byron (Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron), and of his second wife, the Scottish aristocrat Catherine Gordon (Catherine Gordon). As an aristocrat on his mother's side, he was a descendant of King Edward III of England. At the age of ten, in May 1798,  Byron inherited from his grandfather's brother, William Byron, the title of Lord, as well as his very large property in Nottinghamshire. He spoke with a Scottish accent most of his life, owing to his early years and schooling there. He received a Master's degree from Trinity College, Cambridge. Later he traveled extensively across Europe to places such as Italy, where he lived for seven years in Venice, Ravenna, and Pisa after he was forced to flee England.  Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire and died leading a campaign during that war. He died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted after the first and second sieges of Missolonghi.

Source: Wikipedia