Although not a member of our Club, it is sad to report the death of the Hon. Betty Clay CBE, the youngest daughter of our Founder.  She died peacefully in her sleep in a nursing home alongside her home in Somerset on Saturday morning 24th April 2004, just a few days after she and Gervas, her husband had celebrated their joint birthday - her 87th and his 97th.  She lived her life to the full, committed to the ideals of Scouting and Guiding and carried on the vision of her parents.

In the last bulletin there was a tribute to David Jefferies who had been a long time member of SGSC and since then Colin Walker has added the following information to his web site. "During the war David had applied to become a member of a team of Scouts to tour Australia and New Zealand, to help inform the Australian public of circumstances in war-time Britain.  A similar group of four Scouts successfully toured the United States and Canada.  David was invited to London for an interview, and travelled down by train to spend the night aboard the Royal Research Ship Discovery.  Unfortunately for him there were air raids over the East End of London that night, which David and others on board watched from the deck.  Later, he slept in black-out conditions in Captain Scott's cabin.  It must have been an exciting if not terrifying experience.  David was selected for the tour, but unfortunately this had to he cancelled because of the progress of the War in the Far East.  After the fall of Singapore, there was an increased Japanese submarine menace and threat to Australia.

Our member (No.96) Jan Henrik Bergqvist from Stockholm, Sweden writes to enquire if anybody knows where he can find a list of those countries that have changed their names.  It becomes very confusing trying to keep up with all the changes.  If you can help please email him at or contact me and I will forward any correspondence.

As a regular viewer of eBay sales I was surprised at the price realised of some items.  During April a set of the GB 1957 World Jamboree mint stamps opened at £10 and after a week made £16.00 (US$ 28) with a total of seven bids.  This set can easily be purchased for a third of this price, and no doubt others will appear on eBay at the same starting price which means they are being bought by people who have no idea of market values.

Also sold on eBay recently was the 1937 Girl Guide Rally Rocket Cover No. 7.  This was one of 65 covers sent from the Girl Guides Rally held at Bengal, India on 2nd March 1937.  Two Rockets were fired from this camp, both of which included a personal message to everyone present, reproduced in the hand writing of the World Chief Guide, Lady Baden-Powell.  Rocket No. 7 contained 30 covers and 1000 messages and Rocket No. 8 contained 35 covers and also 1000 messages.  Each of the covers bears a Girl Guide rocket stamp which was tied to the cover by a circular cachet reading "Girl Guides Rally, Bengal" while in the centre of the circle is "Carried by propaganda Rocket 2-3-37" . The word "propaganda" is spelt correctly but in the one line purple cachet you will see that it is spelt "Propagnda" without the "a" between the "g" and "n".  Also during 1937 a number of Rockets were fired from the All India Scouts Jamboree, and again they carried special covers, postcards and propaganda items.

A provisional date for your Scout Philatelic Calendar is the 7th National Exhibition of Scout & Guide Philately which is being held by "Club Filatélico de Scouts y Guías" at the Madrid Postal Museum from 5 - 20 November.  This follows on from the 5th Euro-Scout meeting being held in Prague from 15-17 October.

I have recently attended the SOSSI Annual General Meeting which this year was held in Dallas, Texas.  This was held to coincide with the National Exhibition "Texpex 04" and amongst the displays were a number of good Scout exhibits including one "Canada Celebrates the Scouts and Guides" by Alex Hadden and "Baden- Powell, Two lives of a Hero" by Lawrence Clay, both members of the SGSC.  A most enjoyable Dinner was held on the Friday evening attended by over 30 members and friends.