During the early days of space flight it wasn’t just the Soviet Union and the USA breaking new ground. The Welsh Space programme scored some remarkable firsts including the first monkey in space – a Mwncinaut called Major Tom.

In the absence of official recognition of these feats by the Royal Mail, Mission Control produced its own labels for use on outgoing mail. It wasn’t until 1971 that regional commemoratives appeared celebrating the 10th anniversary of the flights of Major Tom and some guy called Yuri Gargarin.

The launches were from an atoll in the Welsh Indian Ocean Territories, but a special stamp celebrating the 25th anniversary of the final launch came as a complete surprise as the islands had been uninhabited for two decades.

Those monkeys that failed to make the grade as an astronaut were found work via Enoc Enoc’s Foundation. Here distressed gentlemen could be retrained as organ grinders to make a living with barrel organ and cute little monkey. Charity labels were issued in the 1970s to raise funds and several variations are known.