Arnold Machin OBE RA FRSS (/ˈmeɪtʃɪn/; 30 September 1911 – 9 March 1999) was a British artist, sculptor, and coin and postage stamp designer.

[1] After imprisonment in the Second World War as a conscientious objector, he returned to modelling and sculpture, and created many notable ceramics which are now prized collectors' items.

[3] After retirement, Machin lived in his home, Garmelow Manor, Eccleshall, Stafford Borough, Staffordshire, until his death in 1999, aged 87.

[7] In the year 1956, while resident at number 15 The Villas, Stokeville, an estate of 24 Victorian houses in Stoke-upon-Trent, he received publicity in the national press when he chained himself to an old metal lamp-post, in protest at its planned removal.

[8] Machin's protest, "against the destruction of all the beautiful things which is going on in this country" did not prevent the lamp-post from being replaced by a concrete one; however, it was given to him for his own garden and his wife Patricia unlocked him.

[11] These included the fourth of the known final plasters made to create the Machin stamp series, the three others being kept in the Royal Mail archives.