ScoutsGuides

Scout and Guide Charity Christmas Posts

in Great Britain

Welcome to what I believe is the only website devoted to the study of the Postal Services operated by The Scouts & Guides in Great Britain. In these pages I have attempted to bring together illustrations of the stamps, cancellations and special commemmorative items used and to record exactly when and where these items were in use. These services only operate during the month prior to Christmas due to a special parliamentary dispensation that eases the Post Office monopoly at that season (see the Historical Background section).

So far I have identified over 400 different Scout & Guide related posts. There are also at least 30 similar Charity Christmas posts run by Boys Brigade companies, Churches & Schools but these are outside the scope of this exercise. These other posts often seem to be mainly for the members of the organisation concerned rather than operating as publicly available postal services. In the exceptional cases where a Scout or Guide post was operated on a "members-only" basis this is clearly indicated near the top of the first page of information on that Post.

A small section entitled Unmarked postal services lists any services operated by Scouts and Guides where no stamp or cancellation is currently used on cards carried. This section is probably very incomplete.

Access to the sections of this catalogue can be achieved either via the County (Administration boundaries as at 1981) lists, by the Scout County (Scout Association organisational structure 2001) lists, or via the alphabetic index (see below). In any case the actual name used for the postal service will be found to be the name of the main area served, rather than being listed under the sometimes somewhat obscure Scout or Guide Unit names (especially true for Venture/Ranger Unit names). Please note that the Scout County Index is very incomplete at present.

New information regarding the Posts mentioned herein, or indeed of any other Scout & Guide Charity Posts, is always welcomed and I can be contacted via e-mail at johncrabbe@yahoo.com. I would like to thank all those who have contributed items of information for this catalogue - in particular Gus Annand who gave permission for the use of data from his 1981/90 printed catalogue and Bruce Kilgour who has since filled more gaps than all the other contributors between them.

References are occasionally made to the type of paper or self-adhesive labels used by the various posts, all relevant trademarks are acknowledged and respected. For the record the following precise measurements apply:-

Copyright notice © 2003-2023 - the format of this catalogue, including the numbering system, the illustration reference coding system and the overall organisation is copyright. Use of the numbering system for identification purposes is permitted as long as a suitable acknowledgement is included. Copying of any part of these web pages onto other sites is actively discouraged - these pages are constantly subject to update and review as new information becomes available and any copies would therefore rapidly become outdated. Instead you are freely invited to cross-reference to any of these pages from your own sites.

Catalogue Notes

Catalogue Format

Historical Background


Browse via the County Lists


Browse via the Alphabetic Lists


Items available for purchase


Why not organise a Scout & Guide Post in your area?


Unit website link

Wherever this web logo appears is a link to the relevant Scout or Guide Unit's website - where information on the post's operation can be found


Unit publicity link

Wherever this logo appears is a link to an illustration of a publicity leaflet or poster.


This page last amended 26th June 2023.
© Copyright 2023 John Crabbe.