Inventor Thomas Newcomen has been putting his stamp on the whole nation in the shape of the latest Royal Mail issue.

The only trouble is, it appears no one told his home town of Dartmouth about his inclusion in the Britons of Distinction series.

Organisers of this year's Newcomen 300 celebrations have been looking at ways to raise the profile of the inventor who effectively started the industrial revolution and changed the face of the globe.

But they only found out about the Newcomen stamp – which comes complete with a picture of the inventor's famous steam engine – when a member of the events committee went into the town's post office and spotted one.

They snapped up as many as they could but the post office quickly ran out and since then the town has been unable to buy a stamp honouring their home grow hero.

Ray Bridges, chairman of the Newcomen 300 committee, has been given the task of helping to celebrate one of the town's most famous sons.

He said: 'We only found out when one of our volunteers, Jane Mitchell, saw them in the Dartmouth Post Office and bought the remaining stock of 15 stamps.

'She later went to an Exeter post office and bought a further 20 stamps for the Newcomen 300 committee's use.

'You would imagine that when Royal Mail comes to market stamps such as these they would check to see if there are special situations which would created a greater demand and adjust the supply accordingly,' added Ray.

'We are trying to raise funds and interest in having an obelisk created to put on the main roundabout into the town to mark Dartmouth as the birthplace of the man who powered-up the Steam Age and the industrial revolution.

'It would have been a nice, professional touch to have sent out the letters with these commemorative stamps on.'

Dartmouth is planning a whole range of events to mark the 300th anniversary of Newcomen's steam engine invention.

They include talks, lectures, a book, a special beer and the £25,000 facelift to part of Royal Avenue Gardens and the next door Newcomen Engine House which houses one of the few original Newcomen engines left in the world.

The first class Newcomen stamp, which comes with the legend 'Thomas Newcomen inventor of atmospheric steam engine 1712' is one of 10 in the latest Royal Mail Britons of Distinction issue.

The set also includes Sir Basil Spence, Frederick Delius, Mary 'May' Morris, Odette Hallowes, Kathleeen Ferrier, Augustus Pugin, Montague Rhodes James, Alan Turing and Joan Mary Fry.

Now another 100 of the special stamps have been sent to the Newcomen 300 committe so it can send out letters bearing the national recognition of the inventor.

Ray said: 'This is a very kind of Royal Mail to donate the stamps in this way to our commemorative cause – especially as a first class stamp is now 46p. Our letters will be enhanced a great deal by having a stamp struck in honour of the man we are trying to raise funds locally to celebrate.'

Dartmouth Post Office manager Vanetia Higgins said: 'We had 800 sets.

'They are in sets of 10 and Newcomen's was just one of them. We sold the 80 in five days.

'I didn't know about the Newcomen celebrations.

'I don't have any say in what commemorative stamps come in. It just happened to be in this Britons of Distinction collection.'

When asked why Dartmouth had seemingly missed out on the stamp launchs, Royal Mail spokesman Mike Norman said: 'We were delighted to celebrate the anniversary and achievements of Thomas Newcomen on a set of Royal Mail stamps issued on February 23.

'We provided details of the launch to all media outlets in the South West.'

A Chronicle spokesman said: 'It's not something we remember receiving.

'It is possible, as notification was apparently sent by email, it was blocked by our spam filters.

'However, we agree with the Newcomen 300 group, it would have been nice if they could have been involved in the launch of the stamp.'