Born Charles Philip Arthur George on 14 November 1948, His Majesty King Charles III is the eldest son of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. He became heir apparent at the age of three, when Elizabeth acceded to the throne in 1952. As heir apparent, Charles adopted, as tradition dictated by the Charter of King Edward III, the titles of Duke of Cornwall and, in Scottish peerage, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.

As a nine-year-old, he was given two further titles: Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. Charles acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022, following the death of the Queen, and on 6 May 2023, his coronation took place at Westminster Abbey. This is the first stamp issue Australia Post has released to honour King Charles’s birthday, his 75th. The black-and-white stamp shows a smiling young prince on his arrival in Sydney in 1966, before joining fellow students at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop campus, which he attended for two terms. A striking portrait by New York-based fashion photographer Alexi Lubomirski is reproduced in the colour stamp, showing the heir apparent seated at his desk in the Garden Room at Clarence House in 2018.