QUEEN AND COUNTRY - A Project by Steve McQueen

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Queen and Country is a collaboration with the families of the deceased, to whom the artist acknowledges a huge debt of gratitude. Each photograph has been supplied by the next of kin.

  • Tony and Julie Maddison, parents of Christopher Maddison, Royal Marines, died 30 March 2003, aged 24 Tony and Julie Maddison, parents of Christopher Maddison, Royal Marines, died 30 March 2003, aged 24

  • Julie Maddison, mother of Christopher Maddison, Royal Marines, died 30 March 2003, aged 24

    A commemorative stamp is a small price to pay for a life but it is a respectful way to remind us all of those who gave their lives for the war in Iraq whether we agreed with the war or not. Our soldiers had no choice but to go where they were sent but saw their job through bravely and with dignity.

    Please acknowledge this stamp as you will be acknowledging the ultimate sacrifice my beloved son gave for his country. Refusal to issue this stamp is tantamount to pretending this war and its deaths never happened.

    There are people who will feel extremely uncomfortable with the issue of these stamps but the outcome of decisions made has to be faced.

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  • Roger Bacon, father of Major Matthew James Bacon, Intelligence Corps, died 11 September 2005, aged 34 © Cate Gillon/Getty Images Roger Bacon, father of Major Matthew James Bacon, Intelligence Corps, died 11 September 2005, aged 34
    © Cate Gillon/Getty Images

  • Roger Bacon, father of Major Matthew James Bacon, Intelligence Corps, died 11 September 2005, aged 34

    You see the cabinet and you see the closed panels and you know your son is there with well over a hundred others. Your heart beats and your body tightens and then you pull the panel and there he is: the multiple images of his smiling face, the absolute assuredness in that face that everything is as it should be. Then the full force of loss hits home.

    We see and remember Matthew every day and the possibility that all those images could become postage stamps and be seen everywhere on envelopes; that other people as they go about their daily lives could see our wonderful son and all those other wonderful sons and daughters on the stamps and realise that the ultimate sacrifice had been made in the name of their country; that through the stamps they would become a permanent collective memory – all of that for us would provide a fitting memorial to our hero and all the other heroes.

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