J A (Jac) Joel joined the 3rd Pretoria (Sunnyside) Scout Troop in Pretoria, South Africa in 1923, and subsequently served as ASM, SM, and GSM in that Group. He was appointed as Assistant Divisional Commissioner of the new Northern Transvaal Division in 1955, and served as Divisional Commissioner from 1962 to 1972.

Jac Joel, an architect by profession, was a keen philatelist, and assembled a comprehensive collection of Scout Stamps, which was near to complete when he donated it to the Northern Transvaal Area of the Boy Scouts of South Africa in 1989. The Area maintained the collection by subscribing to new Scout Stamp issues for a number of years, but terminated this in 1996 when it became clear that many countries were printing stamps with Scouting themes purely for commercial reasons.