Scouts honour 100 years of doing with all their might

The 16th Sheffield Westbourne Scout Group celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and in an effort to chronicle their long history, the troop have been looking back over the log books which carefully detailed each meeting and each away trip during the Second World War.

Back then, there was little time for earning badges and learning how to tie knots. With nightly blackouts forcing the cancellation of many evening events, the Scouts turned their attention to the war effort.

Some mended old toys, which were then donated to local hospitals, and troop leaders secured extra land near their headquarters which was turned over to the Dig for Victory campaign.

With many of their members having been called up to fight, it was impossible to ignore the events happening on foreign soil

“We are at war,” reads the entry of Christmas 1939. “Half the crew have gone to fight, the other half are ready and prepared to go. What the future holds, what horrors are to come we cannot say, but we go on like St George and the Knights of Old to rid the world of a great menace. But we only live for one thing, even though we fight for it – peace.”

There are more than a dozen hardback books covering the war period, and while the Westbourne scouts of 1939 to 1945 did still enjoy the occasional weekend away to Alport (in the Derbyshire Peak District), gas masks had to be packed alongside mess tins, and the news that former colleagues had been injured or killed on active service was a regular reminder their numbers had been depleted permanently.

If they were ever in any doubt as to the importance of the Scout movement during times of conflict, one letter from the organisation’s high command, informed them that anyone who failed to turn up to the weekly meetings might as well as declare themselves to be on Hitler’s side.

“It is up to every one of you to attend every possible meeting,” it began. “Be a man. Now that we have met with a few difficulties don’t give in, show that you are a good society and face up to them. We are fighting to defend the principles of scouting, and every time you miss a meeting you are scoring a victory for Adolf Hitler.”

The youngest Cubs must have been left quaking in their boots at the idea that one missed meeting would see them branded the enemy, but the tough talking clearly did the trick. The Westbourne Scouts were regularly commended for their wartime efforts and today, the group – set up just four years after Baden Powell established the movement, in 1907, with the aim of helping young people become responsible citizens – is now one of the oldest in Yorkshire.

Much has changed since becoming a Scout was a rite of passage for all schoolboys, but despite the arrival of computers, the internet and endless children’s TV channels, it seems that scouting is undergoing something of a renaissance. Groups are currently active in 216 countries and the movement now boasts 28m members, two thirds of them in developing countries.

“We’ve actually seen our numbers increase over the last five years and I think that’s largely down to the fact the Scouts offer children an opportunity they can’t get elsewhere,” says Westbourne’s current scout leader, Chris Eyre.

“There is so much health and safety legislation these days that children don’t often get the chance to be outdoors building dens and lighting fires like they did 50 years ago. Becoming a Scout gives them a little taste of that adventurous spirit. Survival expert Bear Grylls is currently Chief Scout and he has helped raise our profile. Youngsters see him on the television doing all these amazing things and they want to have a little piece of it.”

Chris first joined the Westbourne group as a cub in 1976 and, as he says himself, basically never left. Having given more than 30 years service to the organisation, he’s looking to track down other former members to help compile a full history of the troop over the last 100 years.

“Scouting has changed dramatically since the movement first began,” he says. “But our philosophy and motto, ‘Do with all your might’, remains the same.”

The Westbourne Scout Group, which is undertaking 100 different challenges throughout its centenary year, is now looking to collate photographs, stories and memorabilia relating to the troop through the decades. Anyone who can help can call 07738 259387 or email [email protected]

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