On July 1, 1986, the Netherlands issued a stamp on the occasion of the hundredth birthday of Dr. W. Drees. The stamp had a value of 5 cents and was designed by Jan van Toorn of Amsterdam. The stamp shows Dr. Drees at the Binnenhof in The Hague, where the Houses of Parliament are situated, after a photograph taken in 1947. Joh Enschedé en Zonen, Haarlem printed the stamps using four colour offset. Perf. 13×14.

On July 5, 1886 Willem Drees was born in Amsterdam. Even at an early age he was interested in politics: in 1904 he became a member of the Social Democratic Labour Party (in Dutch: SDAP). After having been a stenographer to the Netherlands Sates-General (Parliament), he became alderman of Social affairs in The Hague City Council. Early in 1933 Willem Drees opted for a career in national politics.

Until 1940 he was a member of the Second Chamber for the SDAP. In the same year he was arrested by the Germans and imprisoned for one year in Buchenwald concentration camp.

In 1944 Drees joined a special committee, which was set up by the Dutch Government in exile in London.

After the e liberation in May, 1945, he was appointed Minister of Social affairs in the Schermerhorn-Drees Cabinet. From 1946 to 1948 he held the same post in the Beel Cabinet.

One of the achievements, for which he will be remembered, is the provisional Old Age Pensions Act dating from 1947.

In 1948 Drees became Prime Minister in the Drees-Van Schaik Cabinet. In that year he was awarded an honorary degree by the Netherlands School of Economics in Rotterdam. From March 1951 to December 1958 Dr. Drees was Prime Minister in three different Cabinets.

In 1958 he retired from politics and became Minister of State. He died in 1988.