A
few months back, I bought a book titled To any dedicated stamp collector, such (and
Ten Under Cat (Figure 1) by one Cecil
Rose. I had never heard of its author
and had little idea of its contents, apart from
the fact that it was the memoirs of a stamp
dealer; I love such books! It turned out to be a
quick read and I finished its 160 or so small
format pages within a few hours.
First, a bibliography of the book:
Rose, Cecil, and Edward Lanchbery. Ten Under
Cat: Reminiscences of a Stamp-Dealer. London:
Cassell & Company Ltd, 1958. 159 + (1) pp,
numbered in Roman numerals till v, then a blank
page, and then 7-159. Hardbound in dark green
cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Dustjacket.
Price 10/6 on dust jacket front panel.
Lanchbery seems to be the ghost writer as the
title page says, “…by Cecil Rose as told to
Edward Lanchbery.”
So, how does the book get its name? At one
page, Rose says that when he started dealing in
stamps, he “… bought as one of the trade on
discount terms. ‘Ten under Cat’ – ten per cent
under catalogue price – the phrase rolled glibly
off my tongue.” On another, he tells a buyer,
“I’m charging you ten percent under catalogue
price. Honestly you won’t do better. I swear it.”
1 of 10
other) statements sound incredulous, many of
his facts and especially his numbers, which
often went into many tens of thousands of
pounds (the value of one pound then equates
to about 25 today), sound fictitious. To top it
all, Rose relates some dubious transactions
with great relish; if some of them indeed took
place, why should he publish them and risk
getting into trouble?
So, I went online to read more about the man.
And I realized that Rose was a much more
colorful character than the average stamp
dealer! And, trouble did eventually catch up
with him; in 1960 as he approached his late
years, he was arrested, tried and jailed.
Early Years
Cecil Rose (Figure 2) was born c. 1903-04.1
From his book, we learn that his grandparents
had fled the Continent and settled in England.
Rose’s mother ran a large house of 13 in the
(then) village of Salford near Manchester. Rose
had three brothers and seven sisters. Rose’s
father was a jeweler but was “too religious to
be a good businessman.” He had no shop or
office but worked from home, buying,
polishing, cutting, setting stones, and reselling
them privately. He later started trading in
Figure 1. Front Cover of Ten Under Cat (1958) along with
the dust jacket inside panels giving a synopsis of its
contents.

stamps in bulk.

Rose’s eureka moment was when he was 16

and wanted a bicycle. His only wealth was in
stamps (which he had bought for full catalog).
He took enough stamps of catalog value to a
dealer to cover the cost of the cycle. And he
learned the lesson that he wouldn’t get more
than a fifth of the catalog for the two or three
stamps that the dealer was interested in.

Violá! Rose set about preparing approval

sheets and selling stamps at catalog (though
one wonders which collectors pay full
catalog?) In 1926, the family moved south to
be close to major stamp hubs of Europe. After
operating for five years from home at
Finchley, his father and he opened a shop in
Oxford Street in London.

Unfortunately, Rose’s father passed away

just a year later. Still young, in the following
years, Rose learned the trade the hard way. He
was often the target of “petty frauds and big-
time confidence tricksters.” Nevertheless,
slowly business grew, and he became known
as “Rosie” to collectors and dealers.

2 of 10
 was returning to his country, held the lease.
Rose bought the lease and opened his shop
near the end of 1945.

Rose gave a talk on stamps to the Eton

College Philatelic Society and soon his shop
became the society’s headquarters. Due to its
proximity to the college (just about half-a-
mile), his shop became prominent with his
wife, Mina, helping him out. The shop was so
popular that, over the following decade, he
claimed he had an average of 400 college boys
on his list of regular customers (Figure 3).

In his book, Rose devotes a good-humored

chapter to his dealings with Eton schoolboys.
They were either looking for a bargain or
trying to pull his leg by making him search for
non-existent stamps or spoil his dealings with
adult collectors by making comments on
Rose’s unfair prices.

The Bucket Shop

Figure 2. Cecil Rose. From Daily Herald, December
20, 1960.
The advent of World War II made his deposit
his best stock at the bank, close his shop, and
enlist in the army. He went to the Middle East
as a warrant officer in the Field Security Force.
When there, he admits that he franked some
high-value Cyprus stamps with the Middle
East Field Post office Cairo number and later
sold them as freaks for good money.
High Street, Eton
Collegiate Stamp Co. Ltd. (Collegiate) was
incorporated in April 1950 with the objective
of taking over Rose’s stamp business, which it
did for £10,000 (the amount was credited to
Rose’s loan account in the company). Its
original premises was in Rose’s High Street
shop (Figure 4). The reason for the word
“Collegiate” in the company’s name is
obvious.
Collegiate doesn’t seem to have prospered
much apparently since Eton College boys
were much too knowledgeable and smart!
During his trial, the prosecutor mentioned
that the Eton shop was bringing in only £20 a
week but Rose had “ideas of becoming
Britain’s No. 1 stamp broker.”

After the war,

Rose returned to
his stamp business.
His Oxford Street
premises had
suffered in the
blitz. After
operating from his
house at Windsor
for a while, he got
to know about a
shop in High Street,
Eton, Windsor from
a solicitor friend. A
South African, who
Figure 3. “Rosey”
showing stamps to
schoolboys. From
Daily Herald, April 30,
1960.

3 of 10

Soon thereafter, Rose started his monkey
business. He opened a shop in the Strand at
London, the mecca of stamp dealing, where
“the net was cast wider with the object of
enticing bigger fish into it.”
Apparently, Rose started sending circulars /
prospectuses to rich collectors asking them to
let him handle their stamp deals. His idea was
to deal in stamps similar to how stockbrokers
dealt in shares. His circulars read, “Do you
want a tax-free investment with guaranteed
capital appreciation? If so, we can give it to
you.” He gave investors an undertaking to buy
back stamps at an agreed increased value with
a few months.
He listed the Duke of Kent and Prince
William of Gloucester (a story about the latter
at his Eton Street shop appears in his book) as
among his clients, likely so that he could
entice the high and mighty to part with their
money. Apparently, he could be so persuasive
as to “charm birds out of trees.” Among those
seduced were a peer’s two sons (Hugh Waldorf
Astor and John Astor, second and third sons of
Lord John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron of Hever), a
vice admiral (Sir Charles Hughes Hallett), and
other wealthy men and women, all of whom
put money in Collegiate.
Initially, when Rose was paying back
investors, it wasn’t from profits but from
other people’s money – à la Ponzi scheme.
This wasn’t, of course, sustainable. Later,
when investors asked for their money and
profits, he gave evasive replies. The scheme
went on for about six to seven years until, on
January 13, 1958, a creditor’s petition was
allowed by a court which ordered the
commencement of the dissolution of
Collegiate; by July 1958, the company was
dissolved. The statement of affairs showed a
loss of £178,047 but it was thought that the
loss could well be in the region of £250,000.2
4 of 10
Figure 4. A 1953 Coronation first
day cover from Australia, where
Collegiate’s address is shown as
123, High St., Eton, Windsor.
Source: eBay (item no.:
284058764986, seller: fahlagoon).
Accessed January 10, 2023.
It is interesting to note that
Ten Under Cat was published
sometime in the beginning of
January 1958,3 just as Rose’s
schemes were unravelling. I
speculate that Rose could see
his company and himself on
the brink and he needed some
positive publicity; a witty
short book of his memoirs
with fantastic, intriguing, uncorroborated
stories of his life and stamp dealings would be
perfect. And, it was a possible continuance of
his shenanigans; after all, the last chapter of
the book is titled “Making Money out of
Stamps,” where he presents his thoughts on
the subject, likely aiming at the gullible
public.
For obvious reasons, Rose fails to mention
his skullduggeries with respect the 1957 Scout
Jubilee Jamboree. This episode raises
temperatures to this day, especially among
Boy Scouts.4
Scout Jubilee Jamboree and Rose’s
Skullduggery
After hectic lobbying by the Boy Scouts
Association, it was announced in mid-1956
that the Post Office would issue a set of
stamps (Figure 5) to commemorate the
Jubilee Jamboree of the Boy Scouts at Sutton
Coldfield5 in values of 2½ pence, 4 pence, and
1 shilling, 3 pence, for a total face value of 1
shilling, 9½ pence. They were issued on
August 1, 1957.
Rose apparently wrote to the Boy Scout
Association proposing that he would supply
souvenir first day covers bearing the three
stamps for 6 shillings, 6 pence6 each (the
initial proposed price was 6 pence), a
premium of more than 250 percent on the
face value of the stamps. Further, he
estimated that six million covers would be
sold (the number was reduced to two million
by January 1957). A considerable profit was to
be made and hence Rose promised to hand
over a minimum of £50,0007 to the Boy Scouts
Association.
On September 6, 1956, the Boy Scout
Association made arrangements that the
Figure 5. The Jubilee Jamboree commemorative stamps (Scott 334-336). Source: https://www.gbstamprolls.com/
queen-elizabeth-ii/boy-scout-jamboree. Accessed January 10, 2023.

Mayflower Stamp Co. Ltd. (Mayflower) be the
sole distribution agent of (official) first day
covers for the Jubilee Jamboree. Mayflower
was specifically created for this purpose. Rose
was one of the five directors, the managing
director in fact, while the other four were
“names which would add distinction to any
board.” To bring about legitimacy to the
venture, Rose cleverly invited respected
gentlemen to the board, one of whom was the
Marquess of Donegall to become the
chairman. The Marquees was told that
Mayfair was a partly charitable, partly profit-
making concern; he was even induced to
invest £500 in the company!
There was disquiet in the post office regards
to this arrangement. On November 3, 1956,
the assistant postmaster general discussed
the proposals regarding the Mayflower
arrangement with Sir John Wilson, keeper of
the Royal Philatelic Collection (Figure 6). Sir
John had strong opinions about releasing
stamps outside the Post Office before the
issue date so that Mayflower could affix them
on covers.8 He also viewed involvement with
the Mayflower with great concern.
official first day covers in 12 designs, four of
which were used for the Jamboree. Themes
included the (a) Jubilee Jamboree (gathering
of Scouts), (b) Jubilee Rover Moot (gathering
of Rover Scouts), (c) Jubilee Indaba Camp
(gathering of Scout leaders), and (d) Brownsea
Island (the first Scout camp). The covers were
cancelled with the special postmark slogan
“Jubilee Jamboree – Sutton Coldfield” and
from the Jamboree Camp Post Office.
Mayflower advertised the offering of the
first three designs widely, both via flyers as
well as advertisements in the print media
(Figure 7). The former, circulated among
Scouting groups and others, mentioned that
the cancellations applied to the covers would
make them “unique” and that should cause
them to “increase in value from the date of

The director general was concerned that the

Post Office could come under strong criticism
from other stamp dealers by giving
preferential treatment to one company. He
felt the Post Office would have to make it
quite clear that any person or dealer could
obtain a first day cover without having to buy
it from Mayflower.9 The postmaster general
advised a certain amount of caution regarding
the Post Office’s dealings with the company,
pointing out that Rose released a figure to the
national press that his company was
expecting to sell 3 million first days in 1953
for the Queen’s Coronation, whereas the
actual figure was 6,700 covers. And now he
was now estimating a sale of siz million Boy
Scouts covers. Figure 6. Sir John Wilson (1898-1975). Keeper of the
Royal Philatelic Collection. Photo taken November 4,
Notwithstanding the apprehensions, the 1965. Source: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/
project moved forward. Mayflower produced Getty Images.

5 of 10

posting” (never mind the price that was more
than three times the face value of the
stamps!) Rose, via Collegiate, was believed to
have collected more than £40,000.
It was later revealed that only 60,63210
covers were produced, a fraction of the
original estimate. The high price of each first
day cover would have been one of the main
reasons for the poor demand especially from
the Boy Scouts who could hardly be expected
to buy them for such royal sums. Rose, via
Mayflower, paid the Boy Scouts Association
£95711 and pocketed the rest.12
Arrest and Charges
Just before midday on April 29, 1960, Rose
was arrested at his office in Gray’s Inn Road,
London. The arrest was on a warrant granted
6 of 10
Figure 7. Advertisement of
Mayflower Stamp Co. in The
American Philatelist, April 1957.
Rose opened a New York office to
deal with American orders.
Interestingly, while the British flyers
(and presumably advertisements)
showed the designs (a), (b), and (c,)
this advertisement shows (a), (c),
and (d). For some reason, the Rover
Moot design was substituted by the
Brownsea Island one in America.
to the Board of Trade, which
preferred 16 charges (which
increased to 20 by the time his
trial ended) against Rose under
the Prevention of Fraud
(Investments) Act, 1939, the
Larceny Act, 1916, and the
Companies Act, 1948.
Rose was taken to the
Cannon Row Police Station.
When asked by the Scotland
Yard’s Fraud Squad if he had
anything to say, Rose
mentioned that the charges
were untrue. In the afternoon,
he appeared at the Bow Street
Magistrate’s Court. He was
remanded on bail in his own
recognizance of £1,000 and a
surety of £1,000.
The first of 16 charges alleged
that on or about July 27, 1954,
at the National Liberal Club,
Rose induced John Astor
(Figure 8) to enter into an
agreement regarding the
purchase of 3,000 sets of British Crown
Colonies Victory stamps issue by falsely
stating that the number of the issue was
limited, that he could purchase and control
the whole issue, and that the stamps would
increase in value in short time. Two further
charges alleged the fraudulent conversion
from Astor of 1,511 sets of stamps, including
Crown Colonies, Northern Rhodesian,
Southern Rhodesian, and Nyasaland issues
between 1954 and 1958.
Another two charges alleged that Rose
induced High Waldorf Astor to enter into an
agreement to buy five sets of Tristan da Cunha
stamps by recklessly making a forecast that
they had great investment possibilities and
more than 150 sets of Burma military
administration stamps by predicting that they
would double or triple in value. Another

Figure 8. John Astor (1923-1987).
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
John_Astor_(1923-1987).
charge alleged the fraudulent conversion of
£315 worth of St. Helena stamps from Waldorf
Astor.
Four more charges involved alleged
agreements or fraudulent conversion of
stamps belonging to Sophie Germaine Gasner.
A further charge alleged the fraudulent
conversion of £600 worth of Jubilee Jamboree
stamps from vice admiral Sir (Cecil) Charles
Hughes-Hallett (Figure 9) in London three
years earlier.
There were other charges of fraudulent
conversion of stamps belonging to Alan Allen
and Honor Riddell.
Rose also was charged with three offenses
under the Companies Act of being concerned
in the management of Collegiate and
Mayflower when he was still bankrupt, and
with failing to keep proper books of account
for Collegiate before its winding up.
Initial Hearings
On June 9, 1960, opening the case for the
prosecution, Sebag Shaw, counsel for the
Board of Trade, accused Rose of operating his
business “with the object of filching large
sums of money from people whom he
persuaded to buy stamps, not in the ordinary
way of stamp collecting but as an investment.
He said that the accused was “conducting a
bucket shop, except that his stock-in-trade
was not securities in the ordinary way, but
stamps.” “The pots are kept boiling and the
7 of 10
investors are kept happy until such time as
they begin to wonder if they will ever see their
money,” Shaw said.
At the end of Shaw’s opening address,
Gerald B. Owen, representing Rose, said,
“Defendant has said all along there has been
no fraud whatsoever on any of these charges.”
On the first two days as well as on
subsequent hearings, witnesses reveled the
shenanigans of Rose.
Appearing as the first witness, John Astor
said that he agreed to buy stamps on Rose’s
false assurance that he could purchase and
control the whole issue, which he claimed was
limited in supply. But apart from receiving
£900 he never saw the balance of his money.
Hugh Astor, who was also the deputy
chairman of The Times Publishing Co. Ltd.,
said that he paid £217, 10 shillings for some
Burma stamps, being assured that in three
months they should be worth double.
However, he never received any money from
either Rose’s company or from the man
himself.
A customer named John Arnold testified
that he made Rose’s acquaintance when he
walked into his Eton shop in 1954 to make a
simple purchase. By September, he had
invested £2,200. Over time he joined
Collegiate as a part-time salesman and later
assisted at the firm’s Strand shop. In
November 1954, Arnold was made a director o
Figure 9. (Cecil) Charles Hughes-
Hallett by Walter Stoneman,
February 1949. (Courtesy National
Portrait Gallery, London.)
Collegiate, but he never attended a board
meeting or took part in the company’s
business. Over three years and before he left
the company in 1958, he handed over nearly
£24,000 to the company, including by
borrowing money from his bank by providing
as collateral rent from property he held. He
got, in return 5,000 shares in a stamp
company; those shares were now worthless.
Yet another conned investor, Hughes-
Hallett said that in the beginning of 1957 he
invested £600 in Boy Scout stamps having
received an assurance that he would get back
a minimum of £850. Rose had told him that he
would make a probable profit of 200 percent
from handling the Jubilee Jamboree first day
covers. When his solicitors wrote to Rose,
Hughes-Hallett received payments for £100,
£50, £25, and £10 (note the sums declining
with time likely as money ran out), the last
coming in a few weeks earlier.
Another witness, Major Martin Gubbins,
company director of Trevor Wood, Ascot, said
that in 1956 he had two successful
transactions with Rose. Later Rose told him of
his Mayflower venture, which the major
thought he might make a killing in. He
invested £500, and his two sisters £250 each.
Apart from a check for £25 received 12
months prior, he had received nothing except
“further promises.”
Ronald Gardner, acting on behalf for Mr. H.
Sawbridge, said he had paid Rose £8,000 to
buy stamps. Of this, only £2,000 was repaid
and in October 1956, Gardner had threatened
proceedings. In November 1957, Sawbridge
received a check for £6,911 which was
postdated to March 1958. This wasn’t
accepted as it was dated so far ahead and by
then no more money was forthcoming.
The Marquess of Donegall, appearing as a
witness, said that he accepted an invitation
from Rose to become the chairman of
Mayflower but that he had nothing to do with
its day-to-day administration. While £50,000
was promised to the Boy Scouts Association,
the Marquess said he believed some
installments were paid but the reminder was
not because there was no more money .
Other witnesses included Arthur Robin Hill,
who said he lost £9,000, and Sophie Gassner,
who invested £2,600 but recovered only
£1,000.
Trial and Sentencing
Rose was committed to trial at Old Bailey on
8 of 10
20 charges. He pleaded “not guilty” to all of
them. On November 28, 1960, the trial opened
and lasted three weeks.
The Queen’s counsel, Neville Faulks,
brought all of Rose’s trickeries into the open.
He clarified the three types of Rose’s frauds.
The “investment fraud” was getting people
to buy stamps as investments by making
reckless statements and promising false
promises concerning the extent to which
stamps would likely increase in value within a
short time. The “fraudulent conversion” was
the practice of inviting the public to invest in
stamps that Rose would retain and sell for
profit at an opportune time. This was the
fraud most people fell for. The third type of
fraud concerned the Boy Scouts Jamboree,
wherein Rose collected £40,000 but failed to
return most of it.
The jury took four and a half hours to find
him guilty on 12 counts involving fraudulent
conversions, false pretenses, and carrying on
business when an undischarged bankrupt. He
was found not guilty on 8 charges of recklessly
making misleading or deceptive forecast and
of fraudulent conversion.
On December 19, 1960, Judge Aarvold
sentenced him to 6 years jail and barred him
from management of any company for five
years after the end of his sentence. He told
Rose, “There was a fraud of which you were
well aware when you committed it. … It was
varied in its design and prolonged in its
operation … It involved obtaining the trust of
your victims and then avoiding discovery by
falsehoods, evasions and false promises. … It
is obvious to anyone that you are a man in
whom it is extremely dangerous to place any
trust or reliance.” Further, with reference to
the Boy Scouts Jamboree, he said, “… you did
not hesitate to use the fair name of the Boy
Scouts Association to further your frauds.”
Epilogue
Philatelic rascals and ruffians of all sorts
have been recorded since the beginnings of
stamp collecting in the 1860s. Rose was not
the first, and certainly not the last, who tried
to scan and defraud the unsuspecting. So long
as (even supposedly sophisticated and
shrewd) people get carried away by greed and
too-good-to-be-true schemes, conmen such
as Rose will be around to dip their hands into
victims’ pockets.
After the trial, one does not hear of Rose. He
seems to have vanished into obscurity. If
anyone has any further information, please “‘Stamp Dealer could Charm Birds out of
get in touch with the editor or me. Trees’ Q.C.” The Daily Mail. November 29, 1960.

“Six Years for Rosey of Eton.” Daily Herald.

Acknowledgement
I thank Scott Tiffney, librarian of the
American Philatelic Research Library, for
helping me with the scans of the philatelic
articles cited below. Feedback is always
welcome; my email address is abbh@hotmail.
com.
References
December 20, 1960.
“6 Years for Rosey of Eton.” Daily Mirror.
December 20, 1960.
“Rise and Fall of Cecil Rose.” The Philatelic
Trader. December 9, 1960.
“Six Years Gaol Sentence for Rosie the
Charmer.” The Philatelic Trader. January 6, 1961.

[Nodder, Wilf.] “A Rose by any Other Name

“Boy Scout Jamboree,” GB Stamp Rolls,
accessed January 10, 2023, https://www.
gbstamprolls.com/queen-elizabeth-ii/boy-
scout-jamboree.
“Current Comment: Private Jamboree.” Stamp
Collecting. November 30, 1956.
“Philatelic Fortune for Scouts.” Bristol Evening
Post. March 11, 1957.
“£50,000 for Boy Scouts from Stamps.” Torbay
Express and South Devon Echo. March 15, 1957.
“£95,000 loss on Scout Jamboree.” Belfast
Telegraph. July 17, 1958.
“Stamp Man on 16 Charges.” News Chronicle.
April 30, 1960.
Smells…” The Journal of the Scout Stamps
Collectors Club. 5 no. 1 (January 1961): P. 33.
Page, Derrick. “The 1957 World Scout Jubilee
Jamboree,” The Postal Museum, accessed January
10, 2023, https://www.postalmuseum.org/wp-
content/uploads/2018/12/Stamp-History-1957-
Scout-Jamboree.pdf.
Thomas, Gilbert. “Round the Shelves.” The
Birmingham Post & Gazette. January 28, 1958.
Walker, Colin. “1957 Jubilee Jamboree ‘Official’
First Day Covers: A Tale of ‘Skulduggery’” Scout
and Guide Stamps Club Bulletin. P. 63, No. 1,
Whole No. 353 (Spring 2019)

“Stamp Dealer ‘Rosey’ of Eton Accused.” Daily

Herald. April 30, 1960.

“Cecil Rose Arrested and Remanded.” Stamp

Collecting. May 6, 1960.

“Cecil Rose on Fraud Charges.” The Philatelic

Trader and Stationer. May 13, 1960.

“Court Told of ‘Bucket-Shop by Stamp Dealer’.

Express & Echo. June 9, 1960.

“‘Bucket Shop’ in Stamps, Court Told.” The

Birmingham Post. June 10, 1960.

“Stamp Deals like Bucket Shop, Court Told.”

News Chronicle. June 10, 1960.

“Accused Stamp Dealer: More Evidence.” The

Birmingham Post. June 11, 1960.

“Cecil Rose “Ran Bucket Shop”. Stamp

Collecting. June 17, 1960.

“Lord Donegall a Witness in Stamps Case.”

Belfast Telegraph. September 15, 1960.

“Marquess a Witness in Stamps Case.” Express

& Echo. September 15, 1960.

“Torquay Witness on Deal in Stamps.” Herald

Express. September 15, 1960.

9 of 10
Endnotes
1
At the time of his trial in 1960, newspapers reported
his age at either 56 or 57. I haven’t been able to find
the exact date of his birth; or death, for that matter.
2
This equates to more than £6 million in today’s
numbers.
3
Reviews of the book were published in the popular
press late January 1958. Since the copyright page of
the book mentions the year of publication as 1958,
this implies that the book came out in the beginning
of January 1958.
4
The reader is directed to articles by Page and Walker
and the website of GB Stamp Rolls for further
information on the stamps and FDCs of the Jubilee
Jamboree.
5
A Scout Jamboree, Scoutersʼ Indaba (meeting) and
Rover Moot was held from August 1-12, 1958 in
Sutton Park, a natural park of 2,400 acres, in Sutton
Coldfield, Warwickshire. The Jamboree marked dual
milestones as it was both the 50th anniversary of the
Scouting movement since its inception Brownsea
Island and the 100th anniversary of the birth of
Scouting's founder Robert Baden-Powell. About
33,000 Scouts from 90 countries camped for 12 days.
6
More than £8 in today’s money; a significant sum for
one FDC. These official FDCs are available on eBay for
a few pounds / dollars to this day.
7
This is a huge sum; about £1.3 million in today’s
equivalent.
8
In a meeting dated October 24, 1956, between the
Boy Scouts Association, Mayflower, and the Assistant
PMG, Mayflower requested that the three stamps be
given to them in advance so that they could affix them
on the 6 million covers. The post office was very
averse to the idea since it was impossible to guarantee
that, of the 18 million stamps, none went astray.
Finally, stamp affixing machines made by Vacuumatic
Ltd. was purchased for this purpose.
9
The Post Office sold first day covers for 2 shillings
each, but orders needed to be for no fewer than 60
covers. This meant that the only buyers would be
dealers. The covers had to be provided by the
customer bearing their full postal address and had to
be of one of three specified sizes. Many “unofficial”
FDCs were thus created.
10
Page (1992) quotes the Stanley Gibbons Specialised
Catalogue, which states that 60,632 covers were
“serviced.” Does this number apply only to the
Mayflower FDCs or to both the Mayflower and the Post
Office ones?
11
This number was revealed during Rose’s trial.
Nodder (1961), however, mentioned the amount as
£700.
12
In July 1958, the provisional account of the Jamboree
showed a net loss of £96,500; it is not known whether
this loss included the amounts not received from
Mayflower. The loss could have been lower had
Mayflower paid the Boy Scouts Association the
minimum amount of £50,000 it has earlier guaranteed.

10 of 10