Following an approach by the committee set up to mark the tercentenary
of Dr Samuel Johnson’s birth in Lichfield on 18th September 1709,
Michael Fabricant has enlisted the help of the Secretary of State for
Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (the department formally known
as the DTI), Rt Hon John Hutton MP, to ask the Royal Mail to issue a
commemorative stamp in 2009. The Royal Mail is a wholly owned agency of
the Government responsible to the Secretary of State.

Michael Fabricant says: "There could be a series of stamps on the life
of Dr Samuel Johnson each featuring one of his famous quotations or even
just one stamp as part of a series commemorating the lives of a number
of famous Englishmen whose anniversary all arise in 2009. We have
already had a commemorative 50p coin marking the publication of Samuel
Johnson’s dictionary. What’s good enough for the Royal Mint, should be
good enough for the Royal Mail."

A petition requesting the stamp will also be presented to John Hutton by
Michael Fabricant later in the year. The issue of the stamp will form
just part of the international celebrations marking the tercentenary
throughout 2009.