Chairman's Notes Autumn 2016 by Melvyn Gallagher

Among the successes of Team G.B at the Rio Olympics were medals for kayaking events.  One of our athletes stated that he first tried the sport as a Scout and no doubt other medal winners in other sports had their first taster by trying out a sport organised by Scouting or Guiding. I was quite surprised to see just how many Scout stamps have been issued depicting kayaking and canoeing including issues from Antigua & Barbuda 1987, British Virgin Islands 1982, Dominica 1977, Dubai 1971, Eire 2002, Nevis 1995 and New Hebrides 1975. There are also many other stamps picturing Scouts with non sporting and native canoes enough to make an intersting display! As the Rio Paralympics are only a few weeks away, I looked very hard to find a related stamp issue the only one related to this theme to my knowledge being a sheetlet of sixteen stamps from Libya in 1998, half depicting Scouts and half handicapped athletes, for their "International day for Handicap & Scout".