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History

4th Worcester Park Scout Group started in a garage in 1933. It has grown from 17 boys to become the largest Scout Group in Sutton and Cheam and home to the District's Explorer Scouts. At around 260 members the Group is probably the largest youth movement in Sutton.

During the second World War the scout grounds at Balmoral Road were used as allotments by parents of the then Boy Scouts and Wolf Cubs playing their part in the wartime 'Dig for Victory' campaign. The tradition of a Summer Fete at Balmoral Road started before the war in 1938 and has continued since the war ended to raise funds for the Group. It has the feel of a traditional country village fete.

The Group regularly acts as an ambassador for England when it sends one or two boys to the World Scout Jamborees and has represented the Scout Movement for the last three years at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, when the Queen lays her wreath. Since 1968 the Group have close links to the 8th Apeldoorn Troop in Holland (Sutton used to be twinned with Apeldoorn, near Arnhem).

It is not only the national and international events that see the Group being a prominent player. Recently they handled the Car Parking for Nonsuch Park's very successful 'Jazz in the Park' night, regularly raise funds for worthy causes and runs Xmas events for local elderly residences including an afternoon of entertainment.

Very many boys have passed through the Beaver, Cub, Scout and Venture/Explorer Scout sections of the Group, some of them reaching high office. Although the Group cannot claim ex-Prime Minister John Major (he was a Wolf Cub in 1st Worcester Park) as a member it does count the current Director General of the Royal Horticultural Society as a past Scout and current friend. For 40 years the late Sir Sydney Marshall, Mayor of Sutton, was a very big supporter of 'The Fighting Fourth' as it was known in wartime and was their first President.

The Scout Association

Nearly half a million (476,992) girls, boys and young adults, ageing from six to 25 are members of the UK's Scout Association.

The World Scout Movement began in the UK in 1907 with an experimental camp on Brownsea Island, Dorset. During the week-long camp Robert Baden- Powell and a small party of boys put his ideas for training young people in responsible citizenship into practice. The first official Scout camp was held at Humshaugh, near Hexham in Northumberland in 1908.

There are over 28 million Scout members in 200+ countries and territories across the world. The Scout Movement aims to help young people achieve their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential through a wide variety of team and individual activities.

Members progress through divisions of the Scout Association ranging on age: Beaver Scouts - 6-8 years Cub Scouts - 8-10 ½ years Scouts - 10 ½ - 14 years Explorer Scouts - 14-18 years The Scout Network - 18-25 years