Friends of the Fourth

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2007: FOTF News 20 FOTF News 19 2006: FOTF News 18 FOTF News 17 2005: FOTF News 16 FOTF News 15 
2004: FOTF News 14 FOTF News 13 2003: FOTF News 12 FOTF News 11 2002: FOTF News 10 FOTF News 09

Summer Edition 2006 No. 17

Editorial

Next year is the movement's 100th birthday and there are many events being planned across the country to celebrate, including the centenary jamboree at Hylands Park, Chelmsford. We thought we would produce a bumper edition of this newsletter in the centenary year. We realise that none of us has been involved for 100 years, but there are many experiences we can all call upon about our time in scouting spanning more than half that time. We therefore challenge all members to write about one or more of their experiences or write some anecdotes for us to include in our 2007 editions.

Subscriptions

We have included reminders for those whose subscription is due. We have maintained the level at £2 per annum and those who wish to pay in advance are welcome to do so. If, however, you wish to make a donation in addition to your subscription, we'd be grateful if you can clearly specify your wishes.

Please continue to encourage former members of the group with whom you are still in touch to join the Friends - the £2 a year subscription is their only commitment.

Awards

Many congratulations to Dave Sweetland who was awarded the Bar to the Silver Acorn in the St George's Day honours. Dave continues his Scouting at the Fourth as Assistant Group Scout Leader and does much for the Group in the background. The Award is richly deserved.

Congratulations also to all our Scouters who recently received Long Service awards: Dave Sweetland, Brian Yearley, Tom Pennington, Les Prescott, Carol Salter, Ann Mays, Margaret Pennington, Pat Jacobs, Kay Attwell, Paul Green, Steph Jones, Paul Stansbridge and Joanne Blackwell.

Congratulations also to Sally Washington and John Humber of Brownsea Cub Pack on receiving the Chief Scout's Commendation for Good Service.

Leaders

Wedding bells were in the air in Silver Troop as Scout Leader Paul Green and Assistant Steph Jones were married, and also Assistant Paul Stansbridge and Assistant Joanne Blackwell were also married. Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Green and to Mr & Mrs Stansbridge!

The Explorer Unit, although now District controlled, still meets in what began as the Senior Den and then became the Venture Scout Den. The District now rent the Den from the Group. However, all the members are from the Fourth so we continue to regard the Unit as "ours"! The new Leader of the Unit is Albert Short, and we wish him every success in leading the Explorers. Alan Avery, former Venture Scout Leader, continues to lead Purple Troop.

Birch Beaver Colony has in recent years been led by Sheila Kinton, who for several decades was Akela of Brownsea Cub Pack. Sheila has finally decided to "hang up her woggle" and will be retiring after the summer break. "Retiring" is probably not quite the right word as she is still a Fellowship member, and continues to provide support to Brownsea Pack, particularly at their summer camps.

Cedar Beaver Colony

Valerie Street, known to the Beavers as "Badger" is the current leader of Cedar Colony. The Colony recently visited London and this is Valerie's report of the visit:

Is it possible to have a good day trip all for one pound? Yes is the answer. Many of Cedar Colony plus two Cubs, two Scouts and a sprinkling of parent volunteers went to London on Saturday 8th April. We met at Worcester Park station and caught the 8.58 to London Waterloo.

We enjoyed a slow scenic walk via the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, just in time for Big Ben to strike 10.00 and on to St James Park. By then the boys were slowing down and needed a rest, so we had our morning drink and biscuit. We admired the ducks and slowly weaved our way through the tourists to arrive exactly on time at the gates to Buckingham Palace. We presented our letter to the police officer on duty and we felt very important when he asked the tourists to step aside as we entered the grounds.

We were told where to stand for the Changing of the Guard and, despite being joined by some very noisy Brownies, we had a splendid view of all that was going on. The soldiers looked splendid with their bright red tunics and their very tall black busbies. They were the outgoing Guard. There was lots of shouting and inspections and marching around and live music by the band.

The next band arrived in completely different uniforms which we soon recognised as the RAF. More commands were shouted, there was more music and the Officer in charge of both the Guards and the RAF came over to speak with us. We admired the Flight Lieutenant's very shiny shoes and asked how long it took him to polish them. We laughed when he told us that it would take him days, so he paid someone else to do it!

After the parade two very nice and informative police officers joined us and gave permission for us to take a group photograph. We played in the lovely wood built playground in St James' Park and enjoyed our picnic lunches and sang Happy Birthday to James Francis who was six that very day. We walked through the park, up the Mall to Horse Guards Parade and took a peep at the entrance to Downing Street. Nelson's Column was covered for restoration work and there were a few weary Beavers, so we walked over the new Hungerford Bridge to Waterloo where we missed the train by one minute! We arrived safely back in Worcester Park at 3.30 and all the boys said they would like to do it again.

News from Members

We've had some more correspondence with members from the 1950's and 1960's era which is excellent and you'll read of another link-up of old scouts after half a century. In the editorial we've challenged everyone to submit an anecdote or experience from their time in the Fourth - it doesn't have to be an epistle; just a few lines will suffice, so how about some stories from later decades?

We've heard again from John Pryke following his interesting letter which we serialised over the last three editions. John Writes:

The Internet Strikes Back!

I was up the ladder washing off the muck from the conservatory roof - as you do - when the telephone rang. I assumed my wife had answered it and later asked her who it was. She had not heard it, but by dialling 1471 she contacted a lady who hadn't made the phone call but guessed that her husband had.

I was summoned down from the ladder to take a call from someone who wouldn't give his name but assured Joan that it was an old friend. After a lot of verbal fencing, during which I was told that we had both been in the Senior Scouts at the Fourth, and after I had guessed, wrongly, that the caller was one Dave Robbins, all was revealed! It was Don Golledge who had 'disappeared' from the Worcester Park area nearly 50 years ago.

Few readers are likely to have known him, but the manner of his emergence from the past may be of interest as an indication of the power of the Internet. His son was working on his computer and in an idle moment had put his father's name into a search engine and much to his surprise it produced a positive identification (I believe the technical term is a "hit"?).

The search had located the Friends of the Fourth website on which was revealed the Christmas 2004 edition of the Newsletter. In this edition was the first instalment of my memories of the early years of the Senior Scout Troop, which mentioned Don Golledge as one of those at a camp at Hatchford Park.

As can be imagined, a lot of catching up took place. In those early days he and I and John Snell had been, as the saying goes, as thick as thieves and we had kept in touch for a few years after we had ceased active involvement with the Group. I have kept in touch with John throughout the intervening years and have put him in touch with Don. I hope we may be able to meet up some time in 2006, but that still has to be discussed.

If there is a lesson in all this I suppose it is that one should never be surprised who may pop out of the woodwork and, in particular, that the Internet is a very powerful source of information. (Mind you, you have to know how to do it. I put "jaguar" in a search engine recently to find an image of a big cat and got lots of images of expensive cars!)

As a consequence of this encounter, we signed up Don as a Friend of the Fourth - see end of newsletter for details.

We've also heard from Alan Rush on the Isle of Man who recalls his involvement with the Group's Gang Shows:

Yarns from the Gang Shows

I've had an idea for what could be a long-running article - Gang Show reminiscences - and hopefully my old pals will remember funny or curious tales that happened during the many Gang Shows produced by the Fourth.

My story comes from the early sixties when we used to perform a scene from Treasure Island. The scene was in the stockade on Treasure Island. All the goodies were defending the stockade, the Squire (Trevor Sulsh), Captain Smollett (Chris Willis), the Doctor (myself) and a handful of their manservants against Long John Silver (Dave Sweetland) and his band of cut-throats who were in the wooded area beyond the clearing that surrounded the stronghold.

John Humberstone had managed to get us some real flintlock muskets and along with good costumes (good old mums) really gave the scene a touch of reality. As the doctor, I had one of those muskets. I had a line to say as I looked out of a window (between the side curtains actually) - "Captain, if I see anyone, shall I shoot?" and Captain Smollett replied "Yes, Doctor, aim sure and aim well". We found that the best sound for creating musket fire was by hitting the edge of the stage with a thin piece of flat wood - a job for the props man - Bill Rush. I raised my musket, ready to fire and as I poked the barrel behind the curtains, it pressed up against one of the pirates' leather waistcoat (Hugh Wiseman waiting to come on stage). I pulled the trigger and the piece of wood crashed down on the stage. The Captain asked me "Did you get your man, doctor? Before I could answer, Hugh opened his waistcoat and there written in large letters on his bare chest was the word MISSED. Back on the stage, I could hardly answer the captain for laughing.

This article and my story seems more poignant now, as there is mention of the "SouWest" Gang Show in the Christmas edition. The Gang Show lives on...

We've heard from Jonathan Jefferis who is still scouting in Hampshire. (We remember travelling up to Musselburgh to Jon and Sheena's wedding with a crowd of us from the Group in the minibus. It must have been winter as we recall the heater wasn't working and we had to scrape ice off the inside of the windscreen on the journey! Ed.) Jon and Sheena are now grandparents - son Richard, now 23, and his wife Jennifer and their daughter (Jon and Sheena's granddaughter) Helen (six months) now live in Los Angeles, so Jon and Sheena have a long journey to babysit! Jon and Sheena's other son Graeme now lives in Edinburgh with his partner. Jon says: "Please tell everyone I was asking after them. I'm now burning 57 candles!!"

News from the Group

The Group continues to flourish. The Group Newsletter is now published quarterly and Fred Fletcher (Group Scout Leader) mentioned our newly restored front gates in a recent edition. He wrote:

"I hope that you have seen the improvement to our entrance gates; thanks to Andy Marshall, Brian Yearley, Dave Sweetland and Graham Atwell for performing this work for us. I'm sure the local people will now see that the 4th Worcester Park is thriving!"

The Parents and Friends are also working hard. Last year they raised £11,000 for the Group - a remarkable achievement. In April, 97 members of the Group attended the District St George's Day Parade and Promise Renewal Service. As this was the first St George's Day as a new District covering the whole of the London Borough of Sutton, the parade was held in central Sutton, marching along the pedestrianised High Street to Manor Park. Unfortunately it rained during the afternoon but it did just about hold off during the short service. Well done to all our members who braved the elements and turned up. Considering the weather it was an excellent turn-out for our annual parade.