75th Anniversary

We’ve whizzed forward to 1996 – which is our 75th year.

Like the 50th, the 75th was a celebratory event.  The purpose was two-fold – first to recognise the milestone and, second, to reflect on years gone by and those who were instrumental in the Group, not only those who started it, but all who have followed.

Like all celebrations, we aimed to cater for as many people being able to attend as possible.   Formal events organised for our 75th celebrations were:

• a Reunion Night on Friday, 8 March 1996;
• a Group Camp in June 1996;
• a church service in October 1996; and
• a dinner dance on Saturday, 23 November 1996.

Looking back, our 75th celebrations took place during the calendar year for that event, however, our Centenary was slightly different, with events held from November 2021 to November 2022.

We’re fortunate to have a lot of the correspondence from the 75th, starting with a letter from Neil Connor (who was Assistant Group Scout Leader (and also former Pipe Major of the Pipe Band – see Pipe Band article)), said letter inviting ex‑members to the Reunion Night, also advising that other events will follow.  An original version of the letter from Neil is available here.

Although we have no other invitations to events, it was obvious that they were sent, as our archive has a number of replies from ex-members for various events.  You’ll appreciate that due to data protection, we’re unable to have them publicly available.

As is always the case with events such as the 75th, and of course the 100th, there was a search for ex-members who, for many reasons, may have lost touch with the Group, but would welcome the opportunity to catch up with old friends and reminisce.

The photograph available here, (the original of which is in our archive) is a picture of the Group from 1947, which was published in the Renfrew & Erskine Gazette on Thursday, 25 January 1996, thereby starting the search.  We were proud to display the original at our memorabilia event.

We’re delighted we succeeded in tracking down a number of our ex-members.  Some were unable to attend events, but those who did (a few are in the photographs below) thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Finally …

Leaving our 75th behind us, we move on to our Centenary.  To read the next chapter of our history, please click here.