A new set of stamps is being issued to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Eight of the 12 stamps depict scenes of celebration by service personnel and civilians when news of the conflict’s end was announced.

The eight images were originally photographed in black and white, but have been brought to life in colour for the first time by colourist Royston Leonard.

They depict:

– A serviceman returning home to Oreston, south Devon, from his air base in Lincolnshire
– Nurses celebrating VE Day in Liverpool
– Crowds celebrating VE Day in London’s Piccadilly
– Evacuees returning home to London after a stay in Leicester
– Troops marching along London’s Oxford Street
– Soldiers and sailors leaving a demobilisation centre carrying their civilian clothes in boxes
– Allied prisoners of war at Aomori Camp near Yokohama, Japan, cheering their rescuers
– A member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service proposing a toast during celebrations in Glasgow

The other stamps show images of personnel returning from overseas, and the return of children evacuated from cities.

Four additional stamps presented in a miniature sheet show images of official monuments and cemeteries built to remember and honour the fallen as well as a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.

Philip Parker of Royal Mail said: “Our new stamps capture how the end of the war was greeted and the resulting return of service personnel after nearly six long years of conflict. We also pay tribute to those who never returned, and the victims of the Holocaust.”

The stamps will be on sale from May 8.