This is a rather confusing issue, but maybe we can sort it out!
It first appears in H.132, the version of the Handbook which was issued jointly with the London Cigarette Card Company (mine is the 1950 edition) - and that tells us that the title of the set is adopted, in other words it is not on the cards, but early researchers gave it a title to make life easier for them and for the collectors of the future, and they chose "Boy Scouts and Girl Guides". The Handbook also says: "Fronts are in colour, illustrated in "Review" Vol.1 page 116. Issued by Cope. Unnumbered series of 35. 1-26 are letters of the alphabet with semaphore and morse equivalent. [It then lists the other cards, in alphabetical order, as :]
27. A Canadian Girl Scout - reverse "Calculating Distances" (f)
28. Early Morning Gallop - reverse "Weather Signs 2" (m)
29. Felling Trees - front and back (m)
30. Nature Studies - reverse "Weather Signs 1" (f)
31. Preparing Tea - reverse "To Build a Fire" (m)
32. Reveille - reverse "Bivouacing" (m)
33. The Chief Scout B.P.
34. The Trail - reverse starts "Scouting" (m)
35. Washing Dishes - reverse "Grilling" (f)
This raises more question than it answers - firstly I am not sure that is such a good title if most of the cards in the set show signalling rather than scouting life. "Review" is the "Cigarette Card Review", and I have some of those, but sadly not this one, which is No.6. So if you have a No.6 in your library it would be much appreciated if you could please send us a scan of that write up. Unless it is just the picture in the centre spread, but in that case it would be interesting to find out whether the card they illustrated was a boy scout or girl guide rather than one of the signalling cards, because that would explain why the adopted title was what it was - it was taken from the only card they had yet been shown. Also, why was it a "Canadian" Girl Scout, when there is no other mention of Canada, or any other countries? And lastly, I think that this alphabetical order is not the right way to list them, but more about that in a minute.
Six years later, in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, the set is described as "Boy Scouts & Girl Guides (A). Sm 68 x 37. Un`nd (35) See H.132"
Now if you look at the rest of the Cope section there is a thrill waiting, for these cards appear again slightly further down. In that instance they are listed under the Contrabando issues, as a "Danish language version, same fronts but backs in Danish. Speider Billeder I Hver Parke". 68 x 37. Back shown X61-14. Un`nd. (35)"
"Speider BIlleder I Hver" translates to "Scout Pictures In Every". Parke is odd, for it means Park, and makes no sense. However "Pakke" is Danish for Packet, which seems much more likely - so if anyone has this Danish version maybe they could look and see if it is an error in recording?
Section X61-14 appears at the back of the book, and it is almost the same back as our set, except for the top where our card says "Cope Cigarettes" it says "Contrabando Cigarettes" instead, which you have to admit is a strangely unlawful sounding name. Also looking it up in a search engine simply finds lots of references to smuggling! So do any collectors have a packet or more information? If so please let us know.
The pair of sets also appear in our updated World Tobacco Index, with the same text, just different card codes. However the order of cards in the updated Handbook under H.132 is different. They move The Chief Scout B.P. to number 28, and the others all move down by one number, until we get to 33., which has become Reveille. Cards 34 and 35 remain the same.
And I still do not think that is right. For if you look at the backs and fronts of the cards you throw up definite pairs, which are :
tracking :
A Canadian Girl Scout - reverse "Calculating Distances" (girls on front)
The Trail - reverse starts "Scouting" (boys on front)weather :
Nature Studies - reverse "Weather Signs 1" (girls on front)
Early Morning Gallop - reverse "Weather Signs 2" (boys on front)cooking :
Preparing Tea - reverse "To Build a Fire" (boys on front)
Washing Dishes - reverse "Grilling" (girls on front)
This leaves
The Chief Scout B.P. (which I can put either first or last)
Felling Trees - front and back (boys on front)
Reveille - reverse "Bivouacing" (boys on front)
It might be the case that the two odd men out go together, as both those tasks relate to setting up a campsite and a tent, but it seems strange that all the others are boy - girl pairs. Are there two girl cards missing ? And how did we get to thirty-five cards anyway, because there is not one single whiff of evidence that actually says how many cards there were in a complete set.
Go off, check your cards, and lets see what we may discover.....