As you will read in other reports, the Euro-Scout exhibition in Chelmsford was a great success, and we were pleased to welcome many of our U.K. and overseas members.  From outside Europe visitors included Dr William Wells from Australia, Randall Frank, Lawrence Clay and Phil Edwards from the United States, Alex Hadden from Canada and Franklin Kuperman from Brazil.  I would like to thank Terry Simister, Melvyn Gallagher and Peter Duck who were on our sub-committee for Euro-Scout and for attending the ten preliminary meetings.  All the committee supported the event in many ways.  The next Euro-Scout will be held at Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany over the weekend of 28-30 September 2012 and for the first time, the Walter Grob Award (in memory of the late Walter Grob of Switzerland) will be awarded with a prize of 500 Swiss Francs The criteria for this award are that the display must be a first time exhibit and that it should not have taken part in a former competition or shows such as Euro-Scout.

To recuperate from the Euro-Scout exhibition I went on holiday to Warsaw and Krakow in Poland as my interest includes the 1944 Scout Postal Service during Warsaw Uprising.  The idea of the Museum to commemorate this tragic event started in 1983, but no construction work took place for many years, and the museum finally opened on July 31, 2004, marking the 60th anniversary of the Uprising.  A room was set aside in the museum to show the hundreds of letters and notes sent during the uprising and delivered by the Boy Scouts, and although they were photocopies on the four walls, they showed the Scout cancellations of that period.  The museum collects and maintains hundreds of artifacts, ranging from weapons used by the insurgents to love letters, in order to present a full picture of the people involved.  The Museum's stated goals include the creation of an archive of historical information on the Uprising and the recording of the stories and memories of the still living Uprising participants.

Sold at a recent sale by Grosvenor Auctions in London, was the very scarce Nigeria 1963 World Jamboree Miniature sheet with the red printing omitted on the 3d value.  Printed in England by Harrison & Sons Ltd, the Scout badge, Nigeria and the value were missing.  Sold for £800 (€ 905, US$ 1150) plus 19.975% buyer's premium, against the estimate of £600-£800.  I see from my records that a similar one was sold by Stanley Gibbons Auction in June 1981 for £280 plus 8% buyer's premium making a total of £302.  I thought this may have been the same miniature sheet, but from the position of the perforations, I can see that this was not so.  Also at the same auction were a number of India Rocket covers and other paper ephemera.  A postcard sent by Rocket No. 139 and given the name of "Lord Baden-Powell" made £500 plus buyers premium, while cover No. 134 "Dr R. Paganini" made £450.

Since the Euro-Scout meeting, our club held our Annual General Meeting on the Scout Ship The Lord Amory which is the Headquarters of the Docklands Scout Project in the West India Docks in London.  At this meeting I retired from being Chairman and am delighted to report that Melvyn Gallagher has taken my place.  With the recent death of our member No. 6, Norman Read from Bournemouth, I am now the longest serving member, having been allocated number 56 in September 1957.

Those in the U.K. who collect Scout covers will no doubt have had a problem with the transparent self adhesive photo corners that are now sold by Boots, Smiths and Dixons etc.  Although they used to be very good, today they are very small, and although may be suitable for photographs, are not much good for covers.  I did buy at a recent stamp fair, some corners produced by Prinz at £4.95 for 250 mounts but although they are better than those sold by the chain stores, they are not as good as those produced by Henzo.  These are made in Denmark and are of archival quality and on the Internet cost £3.49 for 500 (Ref No. 18309).  They are also available in 250 and 1000 lots and are highly recommended at www.henzo-albums-uk.com/accessories/photo-mounts.htm.

I was sorry to read in the Picture Postcard Monthly the obituary to Michael Goodman who died in June.  He was a most knowledgeable postal historian, and was to be seen at Stampex, Postal History and Postcard fairs.  Many of the scarce U.K. items in my own and other Scout collections came from Michael.  At one time he had a stand at Stampex where his stall was regularly besieged by customers four deep just after opening time.  Although he knew the real value of most items he was selling, I did once have a bargain.  In February 1980, I purchased from him a collection of Scout books and postcards for £40, and on looking through one of the books I noticed inside a 1924 World Jamboree badge in perfect condition.  Unfortunately, I was persuaded to sell this in 1986 for a considerable sum of money.  A mistake as I now wished had this rare badge in my collection!