In 1935, “The Cameric Cigarette Card Club, was started in London by two former school friends, Derek Campbell Burnett (who provided the "Cam") and Arthur Eric Cherry (who provided the "Eric"). This club was the first to successfully attract isolated collectors who were scattered right across the British Isles and turnthem into a unique fellowship, with local Branches.
From November 1940, it even produced and circulated a regular printed magazine called “Notes & News”, a whole run of which are available in our library. They prophesise of how the hobby would develop once the war was over, but sadly Mr. Cherry was not to see this. He died young, a Prisoner of War in Singapore. Three years later, Franz Vernon Blows would become the President of the Cameric Club and write this splendid article to tell the story of a friend sadly missed.
The Cameric Club held regular meetings at London’s Bonnington Hotel, a most attractive building within easy reach of the British Museum and Bloomsbury. The Society’s main officials were Franz Blows, Fred Piper and W.W. Wright, whose son would later edit the Cartophilic Society magazine.