The Welsh first colonised Patagonia in 1869, and despite being unprepared for what wasn’t the land of milk and honey and bara-brith they’d been promised, managed to settle and farm a sizeable home-from-homeland.

But in 1960 civil war broke our between the Welsh settlers and the Spanish speakers. It was to become the Welsh Vietnam. A lot of what really happened behind the front lines was never spoken about – until the truths began to emerge in the Aberystwyth books of Malcolm Price. Many of the brave boyos of the Welsh Foreign Legion who fought so far from home came from that area, and the fighting scarred many for life.

These are four stamps commemorating two events in that war. The 5D stamp of 1962, whose design is based on the Welsh flag shows Clip, the canine Hero of the Mission House siege aka ‘Hero of Pasadizo Secreto’, who gave his life to help the cause. The other three stamps, from 1971, commemorate the audacious bombing raid of the rebel HQ ten years previous. But rumour persist that what actually happened never appeared in the official reports. Do these stamps give any indication of the truth? Read the Aberystwyth books and judge for yourselves.

Included is a rebel label issued as pretence of a postage stamp, inciting the locals to rise up and Free Patagonia