大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Allan Price, of 大象传媒 Scotland, on behalf of Hugh T Bright and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

This is the story of four King Scouts who helped build a strong relationship between Canada, USA and Great Britain just as America joined World War 2.

The Canadian Scout Association were sponsors of a charity called the B-P Chin Up Fund. The charity helped Scout families who were homeless and destitute as a result of enemy bombing of their towns.

The fund was in need of a boost so the Canadian Scout Association asked the British Scout Association if four scouts who had experienced bombings of their town to come to Canada and tell the scouts and the people of Canada their experience. The scouts who were chosen from the ten scouts interviewed were Stanley Newton of London, John Bethel of Birkenhead, Roy Davis of Southampton and Hugh Bright of Glasgow.

We had all been trained in first aid, messenger service, fire watchers, and telephone operators, added to this was a crash course of the duties of an Air Raid Warden. As we were 16 to 18 years old we had no experience of public speaking.

We set sail from Liverpool in a Belgian Freighter of 10,000 tons called 鈥淓mile Francqui鈥�. We joined a convoy of 30 ships to cross the Atlantic at a speed of ten knots. The journey took 28 days and we landed in Canada at St John New Brunswick some time in April 1942. From St John we travelled to Toronto to be officially welcomed to Canada. We then made a nationwide broadcast to the Canadian people. From Toronto we travelled across Canada to the west coast to start our speaking tour.

We were scheduled to visit the then 9 provinces of Canada, spending at least 10 days in each. Each province was toured by car, and then by train on to the next province. Within each province we spoke at Scout rallies, public meetings, members of civil defence organisations and to members of provincial parliaments. In all the capitals of the provinces we were given a civic reception. This was the pattern of our tour, quite often we stayed in the homes of a scout. We had time to see some of the great sights of Canada, such as the Rockies, Lake Louise Royal Canadian Mounted Police Headquarters, and their Criminal Museum, Niagara Falls. We also visited City Museums and learned how British immigrants helped to make Canada what it is today.

The tour across Canada was re-scheduled when we were invited to tour 6 cities on the Eastern side of America. The American tour started at Boston on the 4th of July, which is the day that the American nation celebrates Independence Day. The four king Scouts lead the celebratory parade through the town of Boston. After the ten day tour of the USA we returned to Canada to finish our Canadian tour which by this time had lasted three months.

As the Canadian tour was finishing we were invited again to tour the USA from east coast through to the west. It would appear that our first visit to the USA was well received. We started the American tour at a scout camp near Syracuse in the state of New York. The schedule was that we would speak at the larger towns and cites in 32 states. Our travelling was done by train at night. Sleeping in the lower berths, and in what they called State Rooms. The tour of the States was a far more hectic experience for us. Again we spoke at rallies, High Schools, business men associations, and we made several more broadcasts over local networks.

There were many highlights of this tour, but the most memorable highlight was meeting a few film stars like Joan Fontaine and her husband Brian Aherne. At their house we had afternoon tea and a swim in their garden pool, then onto Nigel Bruce鈥檚 house where we met Raymond Massey and Reginald Gardner all playing pool.

We were guests of Irvin Berlin the composer of the musical 鈥淭his is the Army鈥�. Back stage we met James Cagney and Merle Oberon, another well known name was Henry Ford, his son and grandson. Henry Ford was the first man to mass produce the motor car as we know it today. He personally with his family spent three hours with the four of us, showing us round his Greenwich Village Museum, near Detroit.

We sailed home from New York in an American freighter 鈥淲ashington Express鈥�. The trip home only took nine days, landing us at Southampton. We journeyed up to London for a formal welcome home party. We were met at Euston Station by the Chief Scout 鈥� Lord Somers and the Deputy Prime Minister Clements Attlee. To our surprise we had not finished touring for the Ministry of Information (a government department) had requested that we tour Great Britain to tell the scouts and people of our speaking tour across Canada and America.

The tour of Canada, America and Great Britain lasted 9 months, and so it was back to the munitions factory for me and the armed forces for Stan, John and Ray. Many people in Britain suffered great hardships during the World War 2, but we four scouts experienced an adventure of a lifetime, making scouting history.

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