大象传媒

During the war we made up a buggy that would fasten on the back of a cycle and we had a two man tent and all the cooking equipment in there, we both had pannier bags that we had made to fit on each side of the back wheel. We cycled from Derby, I must have been 15 and my companian was 14. We camped all the way up to Northumberland to find the big field where the first big World Jamboree was held. We found the site, but there was nothing there to mark it. Now whether this was because it was wartime and things had been taken down, we never found out. We just found that there was this huge field, the farmer said; 鈥淲ell this is where it was. They took over all of the four fields that you can see from where you are; and that was the first Jamboree held in England鈥�.

There was a big Jamboree in Sutton Park, just after the war, I never went to that. At that time, following the war years, anyone that was not in the Forces ran Scout and Cubs Troupes to look after the children that had been left behind when there fathers were in the Forces. There were very few people and at one point I was running two Cub Packs and a Scout Troupe. The strangest thing was, the only time that I got any hassle running a Scout Troupe, was when I鈥檇 just taken one over because the Scoutmaster had gone into the Forces. It was based at the local Church of England and the church warden was very much affronted that I was doing it and I wasn鈥檛 a member of the Church of England! We just never even thought about that in Scouting; we just did what had to be done 鈥� I could never understand him. The parents were furious when they found out, but he was just that sort of a man. You had to be a member of the Church of England to do anything in the Church in his view 鈥� which I found very strange really, and so did most of the parents!

During the war, we met whenever we could, wherever we could, and it was mainly on a Saturday afternoon so that the Cubs could get home before it was dark and before there was any chance of air raid warnings. We started at one o鈥檆lock in the afternoon and always finished by 4 o鈥檆lock; no matter what we did, that was the rule so that they could get home in safety. If an alarm did go off, there was enough of us with the older Scouts to escort them home.

The older Scouts used to help with everything, including the Cubs, until they were old enough to go into the Forces. It was very strange 鈥� you had lots of help from people and they just grew up very quickly because they had to grow up and take responsibility. Then they went. It was a strange thing in one way, but very interesting in another ways. We used to get people to come and help us that were in the forces, posted near to Derby. The most memorable one that I can think of was Canadian, in the Canadian Forces. He came and he literally had a proper stick and a block that he always carried around with him, and he used it when he was in the Forces. He showed us how to light a fire using a thick leather thong that he had, and he bent the special stick that he had brought with him into a bow, and using the block piece of wood, which had a small hollow. Just by using friction and a bit of dry moss that he collected from outside the Scout hut 鈥� in fact he took the mass from a stream that ran past the Scout hut and let it dry out in the sun so we could see the whole process right from stage one. He managed to create a fire with just these basic things that he always had with him in the side of his uniform.

He had been a Scout in Canada and wherever he was, if he was anyplace for any length of time, he always contacted the Scout movement and helped, whist he could, when he was there. He was a great help really and a big inspiration for the children to see how world-wide scouting could be.

Another thing during the war, if you were doing your Scout First Class Hike, which was part of the First Class Badge, you had to take your gas mask with you and a tin helmet, which you just borrowed from somebody. Well, as it happened, I was in the Heavy Rescue Service and I鈥檇 got a tin helmet. You had to carry it with you and be prepared to try and help if there had been an air raid; wherever you where. Fortunately, the particular night I did a hike, and stayed over at the local Scout camp at Drumhill to the north of Derby, there wasn鈥檛 a raid; but there was one as soon as I got back home and off we went.

Most Scouts, at that particular stage of doing their badge theories, helped out. I had one help me showing adults in the Heavy Rescue Service how to build a tripod and do square lashings and diagonal lashings to hook things on that we could lift beams out with when people were trapped; and it was very useful. I felt very strange, I was only 16 at that time, showing adults how to do the basic things that we learnt in Scouts which had to be used by the Heavy Rescue Service. All we could do was get poles and make tripods out of poles and use them to shift rubble and get people out. It was a very practical way of showing the Scouts the value of what they were learning. Wherever we went in the first thing we had to do was set up a tripod using a square lashing or triangular lashing because it was necessary to set a tripod whenever we could get in.

The Scouts were all boys, of course. The very thought of a girl Scout 鈥� well, dearie me, it hadn鈥檛 even been thought of! It was alright to be in Guides, of course, but Scouts! I bet there would be a few girls with a lot to say about that these days? My grandaughter for one!
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Transcribed by Alan Brigham www.hullwebs.co.uk

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