Award-winning artist Steve McQueen has created an artwork comprising 137 sheets of stamps, each bearing the face of a British soldier killed in Iraq, and a petition has been launched to get them circulated by Royal Mail.

Mark Thompson of Lancaster, whose son Kevin, died aged 21, after being injured in a roadside explosion last May, has backed the idea, and says soldiers lost in conflict are too quickly forgotten.

He said: "When they come back injured, or lose their life like my son, there is publicity for about four weeks, then it dies down and nobody wants to know.

"It is a fantastic idea.

"If we can get everybody to support it, it would be great.

"I would be really proud because it is my son – a serving soldier who lost his life.

"They are forgotten very quickly.

"We had Remembrance Day for these soldiers who went to war at 18 or 19 and there were a lot of people who did not have poppies.

"It was a bit upsetting.

"We should do a lot more – I think they do much more in America."

The stamps would also feature the face of Gunner Stephen Wright, from Leyland, who died in Iraq in September 2006.

The petition to have the stamps put into circulation has been backed by charity Arts Fund, who conducted a poll which found two-thirds of people across the North West do not believe enough is done to recognise those who have lost their lives in Iraq.

Mr McQueen, who won the Turner prize in 1999, produced the artwork – called Queen and Country – last year.

The stamp sheets were arranged in a cabinet in sliding drawers.

The piece has been exhibited in the region, at Manchester's Central Library, and has since been presented to the Imperial War Museum in London.

To sign the petition visit www.artfund.org/queenandcountry