Education
He was later posted to Japan where he studied Japanese, but his true passion remained the Arab world.
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Bruce Conde
Edit Profilecorrespondent army officer collector
Career
Born Bruce Chalmers in San Juan Capistrano, California, Chalmers was orphaned and put up for adoption. As a young boy, he was an avid stamp collector, and wrote to the Imam (King) of, asking for local postage stamps for his collection. After studying Spanish at University of California, Los Angeles, he joined the United States Army, serving in the 82nd Airborne in North Africa during the Second World War.
Following his discharge from the army, he moved to Beirut to study Arabic with the assistance of the G.I. Bill.
As his correspondence with al-Badr continued, he received an invitation to visit the country. He was granted i citizenship and a passport.
Conde convinced the Imam that could make money selling postage stamps to collectors and was placed in charge of the country"s philatelic office, which eventually caused some friction between Conde and the Minister of Communications. Conde was accused of espionage and expelled from the country and his passport revoked.
Without travel documents, he spent three weeks in the Cairo Airport before moving to Beirut, Lebanon where he became a correspondent for Linn"s Stamp News.
Conde eventually found himself invited to the tiny emirate of, where he established a post office and again taught the country how to generate revenue from the sale of postage stamps to collectors. In gratitude, the government of issued him a passport. Following the overthrow of the Imam of in 1962, Conde returned to and enlisted with Royalist forces in the He eventually rose to the rank of General, while in the meantime overseeing the production of Royalist postage stamps, which helped to raise funds for the cause.
He now called himself His (or Her) Serene Highness Abdurrahman Bachelor of Arts de Bourbon, Prince of Conde claiming that his royal lineage had been recognized and "reinstated" by the i Royal Family.
Despite serving bravely in the war, the Imam"s forces collapsed in 1970, and Conde moved to Spain, and then to Morocco in 1980. During the 1980s, he ceased writing for Linn"s Stamp News, and wrote instead for Stamp Collector newspaper, owned by Capital Cities/American Broadcasting Company, Incorporated.
In 1984 Conde married Beatrice Dolgorouky, who claimed to have been descended from the Russian / Ukrainian royal families.
Having given up his United States citizenship many years before, Conde eventually found himself once again stateless, without a passport, and unable to leave Morocco. He died there on July 20, 1992.
