Scout History
Our 100th celebration was really all about the Scout Troop as that was the first section in our Group, so our memorabilia events were mainly concerned with the Scout section, but covered all aspects of Scouting as you’ll see in the various sections under Our History. Therefore, spreading the Scout Troop across various sections means there’s not a lot to report here, but one very important fact is that we have our original Registration Certificate, which was signed by Mr. Archie Ferguson on 12 November 1921, stamped and approved by the Scout Association on 26 November 1921 (a handwritten date), but there is some dubiety about this as we also have an officially recorded date of 21 November 1921.
However, as it’s the Scouts’ Centenary and we hijacked the memorabilia to cover a lot more, we thought it fair to give the Scouts a bit of space of their own, so kept something back to give them some limelight!
The bit we kept back is the Scout Programme, as at the memorabilia displays we didn’t cover what has changed in terms of the programme. Like all sections of the Scout Organisation the Scout programme has changed to keep up with current times, but many parts are still with us as they were 100 years ago; others are with us but in a different guise.
Lasting parts of the programme are knots, badgework, map reading, outdoor pursuits, open air cooking and, of course, camping – all fundamental parts of being a Scout. We still do all these activities, along with a few modern ones.
We all know how important Scouting values are and that the skills we learn as Scouts will be with us for a lifetime. We’re all therefore keen to learn, either to enhance skills we learned in the Beavers or Cubs, or learn them as new if we came straight to the Scouts.
Knowledge is never wasted (as confirmed by oodles of former Scouts) and we’ve enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, the challenge nights which test us, the knots which can sometimes tie us in knots, badgework which makes us work and think (with the benefit of a badge for the pain we may have endured for said badge!), being able to read maps, use a compass, cook with the minimum amount of equipment, put up a tent (and it stays up!), and pioneering skills, such as building tables and benches, gateways for camps, bridges and ‘A’ frames for activities, and so the list goes on.
Some of our former Scouts said that they’ve tied knots and carried out other tasks in later life, to be asked by someone who didn’t know they were a Scout “where did you learn that?”. Their answer? “The Scouts, of course”.
However, most important of all is that is we always think of our fellow Scouts, and that we’re all there to help and look out for each other, Scout or not, a lesson which is so important to us as we grow.
Scouts have given us all of that, and we’re very grateful for it.
Finally …
We’ve built a gallery for historical Scout photographs and, as you’ll appreciate, our archive has an enormous amount of photographs (and we’re still receiving them), all of which need to be scanned and uploaded. This all takes time and we’re doing our best, but please be patient. To save looking at an empty gallery, we’ve made a on start it, so please click here see what we have at the moment (and keep visiting as there will be a lot more).