Britain's Longest Reigning Monarchs

On 21 December 2007 Elizabeth II became Britain's oldest reigning monarch surpassing Queen Victoria who died aged 81 years, seven months, four weeks and one day on 22 January 1901 and George III five days earlier. However, Queen Elizabeth II still has several years to go before becoming the longest reigning monarch. The Queen, the fifth longest-reigning monarch in 1,000 years of British history, will on March 5 next year overtake Henry III, who reigned for 56 years from 12161272. It will be 2011 before she passes the record of King James VI of Scotland and I of England and then 2012 before she overtakes George III, who served for 59 years from 17601820. With Queen Victoria remaining as the longest serving monarch who ruled the Empire for almost 64 years, providing Queen Elizabeth is still on the throne on 9 September 2015, she will take Queen Victoria's place.
Britain's Longest Reigning Monarchs
Christmas on Ascension Island

Raymond Briggs was born in Wimbledon Park, London, in 1934. At the age of fifteen he went to the local art school and then studied painting for two more years at the Slade School of Fine Art and here he was awarded 'The Diploma of Fine Art (London University)'. Since leaving the Slade School of Fine Art in 1957 he has been a freelance illustrator, book designer and writer producing a number of highly successful illustrated books including The Snowman, Fungus the Bogeyman, When the Wind Blows and Father Christmas, many of which have won prizes including the Kate Greenaway Award.
Christmas on Ascension Island
Botanists and Plants

The earliest visitors to Ascension during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries found very few plants growing on the island. The reasons for the scant vegetation were mainly two-fold. Firstly, in geological terms, this is a fairly young volcanic island. Little could survive in such a barren terrain with its tumbled lava flows, ash and clinker-strewn plains, and craggy basalt peaks, without water and beneath a fierce sun.
Botanists and Plants
Anniversary of the RAF on postage stamps

2008 saw the 90th Anniversary of the founding of one of the world's first and most famous Air Forces, the Royal Air Force. A series of six stamps depicting important aircraft of the RAF is being released, with each stamp bearing an official RAF 90th Anniversary logo used by permission of the Royal Air Force.
As far as we are aware, only four Post Offices have been granted use of this logo on postage stamps, Ascension Island, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and Isle of Man.
90th Anniversary of the RAF
British Ornithologists
This special postage stamp issue marks the 50th anniversary of the expedition mounted in 1957-1959 to celebrate the centenary of the British Ornithologists' Union, one of the oldest ornithological societies in the world. This postage stamp issue of Ascension Island exists of eight postage stamps.
As a part of the celebration the British Ornithologists' Union decided to send an expedition to Ascension Island, undertaking pioneering studies of the biology of tropical seabirds. At that time, ornithologists were actively investigating the way in which bird breeding cycles were controlled, both by internal physiological mechanisms and by the characteristics of their environment.
British Ornithologists
Sharks

Five stamps with dangerous sharks were issued on Ascension Island in March 2008. Four of these values were produced in individual sheets of 10 stamps with plain border. These sets are also available in staggered se-tenant strips of four in a single stamp sheetlet with decorative border.
Sharks Ascension Island
Princess Diana

The stamps of Ascension Island are produced in sheetlets of eight. A very attractive photograph of Princess Diana, Princess of Wales appears in the border. The FDC depicts Princess Diana during her visit to Leicester in May 1997.
Princess Diana and Mother Teresa
Falklands War
It is entirely right and proper that Ascension Island should be remembered on the 251h Anniversary of the Falklands War. In the lessons learnt from Operation Corporate, the Commander-in-Chief Fleet said. Some special postage stamps were issued on Ascension.
Ascension Island