From The Archive

35 The Oundelian 2011

The Oundle School Scout Troops 1931 - 1972 The Scouting movement, set up by Sir Robert Baden-

Powell in 1907 to encourage the physical and social

development of boys, recently celebrated its centenary, but

it took a further twenty years or more for the movement to

take a hold in Oundle School. The first troop was that

established by Laxton School in 1929 and its success

encouraged the foundation, with the enthusiastic support

of Headmaster Kenneth Fisher, of the Oundle School

troops eighty years ago in 1931.

Initially the Scout Troop was established in order to train

senior boys to become scoutmasters and to help with the

local town troop. Dudley Heesom, the Head of History,

was the first Scoutmaster and Messrs Caudwell and de

Ville his assistants. Initially there were nineteen scouts in

patrols named ‘Otters’, ‘Curlews, and ‘Swifts’ but this

quickly expanded to a further two troops plus a Senior

troop. The field Houses’ troop comprised Hawks,

Kingfishers, Peacocks and Woodpigeons and the town

Houses under Mr Caudwell Beavers, Bulldogs, Herons

and Plovers. By 1932 there was a total of sixty in the three

troops. A Berrystead troop was set up in 1934 and a Sea

Scout troop in 1943.

The troops trained and paraded in a variety of buildings

spread around the town, including the Anchor Brewery

Maltings in South Road, Cobthorne stables and the British

School behind West Street, although a wooden scout hut

with a brick chimney was erected in 1935 adjoining the

Bramston Paddock . This was much later moved to the

back of the Berrystead where it currently stands. Camps

Tea up for the 1st Troop, Camp, 1933. ‘101 things to do with string’ (F.D. Lenton, St Anthony)

Heading to camp at Wadenhoe, 1932.

From The Archive

36

were held at weekends and field weekends. The routine

tended to consist of the raising of the flagpole, fire-lighting

to cook breakfast, the ‘brailing-up’ of tents and tidying up

of the site before inspection in uniform. Marks were

awarded to each patrol for tidiness. Uniform was then

discarded in favour of shorts etc. for wide games,

competitions and sports. River skills (rafting, bridge-

building and swimming etc.) were popular and general

training in self-reliance and citizenship through such

activities as First Aid, map-reading, path-finding and knot

tying was encouraged.

Local camps were held, amongst many other places, at

Lilford and Wadenhoe and others at Aysgarth, Llan

Ffestiniog, Windermere, Wray and Youlbury. In 1933 a

dozen Oundle Scouts attended a jamboree held at Godollo

in Hungary and a number of King’s Scouts under ‘Tub’

Shaw attended a rally in Leicester in July 1937 to meet

Lord Baden-Powell who showed them the Order of Merit

he had just received. In the same year, a party of 24 scouts

was sent to the World Jamboree at Bloemendaal

Vogelenzang in Holland. In the run-up to war, many

chances arose to mix with troops of various nations, and

encounters with the Hitler Youth movement were

frequent. Indeed, in November 1936 a group of Hitler

Youth members visited Oundle and sang at a concert for

the benefit of the School. As they were entertained by their

hosts in the Tuck Shop (now the Common Room), their

uniforms gave rise to much comment.

On the outset of the Second World War in 1939, the School

Scouts participated in the national scout appeal to collect

paper for the war effort and pressure was brought to bear

on scout recruitment by the requirements of the new ‘Cert

A’ shooting qualification. However, the scout troop

maintained some momentum and training became centred

on achieving the First Class and King’s Scout badges. In

January 1941 a memorial service was held in the parish

Church on the death of the Chief Scout, Lord Baden-

Powell.

Bridge-building at Cotterstock, 1931

‘Stags’ and ‘Eagles’ set off to Hungary: Market Place, 1936.

An encounter with the Hitler Youth near Frankfurt, 1935.

Lord Rowallan with Headmasters Fisher and Stainforth and

scoutmasters, 1945.

The 3rd Oundle Troop, Easter 1949. (Scouter: D.L. Venning)

From The Archive

37 The Oundelian 2011

The end of the war saw conditions in Europe unpropitious

for further camps abroad, but morale was raised in

autumn 1945 by the visit of the new Chief Scout Lord

Rowallan to visit the annual camp and inspect the troops.

After the War, the Sea and Land Scouts were amalgamated

and the result was one Laxton School troop (the First,

under ‘Spec’ Mansfield) and four Oundle School scout

troops under, amongst others, Michael Caswell, Dudley

Heesom, George Huse, and ‘Tub’Shaw: the Third, Fourth

(Junior), Fifth and Sixth. The ‘District Commissioner’ for

both schools was D.L. Venning, one of the Mathematics

masters.

Whilst exploring the coastline during the Senior Scout

camp on Anglesey in 1952, a group of Oundle scouts came

across a bale of grey cloth which proved on closer

inspection to be 30 yards of Bradford worsted. It was so

heavy that they could not carry their booty back to camp

intact and so passed on part of it to some local inhabitants

and hauled the rest back to their tent. They were startled

to be awoken at midnight to the glare of a flashlight

brandished by the local policeman who upbraided them

for the crime of ‘smuggling’ (or at least for not reporting

their find); an article headlined ‘Schoolboy Smugglers’

appeared in the local press the next day.

By the 1950s in Laxton School, Scouts was an alternative to

C.C.F. and met principally on Wednesday afternoons,

The Reverend Parker, 1944.

when full uniform was worn. This consisted of a khaki

shirt, shorts and stockings with green garter flashes

(maroon for the senior troop) and black shoes. A green

beret for the main troop and a maroon one for the senior

troop had begun to replace the old ‘Baden Powell’ hat by

the late 1950s. A grey neckerchief with woggle was worn

by the senior troop and a chocolate brown one by the rest.

The troop patrols were identified by varying shoulder

flashes (Otters: purple and white; Owls: brown and white;

Falcons: red and yellow; Seagulls: red and blue, etc.).

Robin Rowe took over the role of Scouter with the Senior

Scouts, soon to become Venture Scouts, in 1966, but by the

early 1970s, due to competition from the well-funded and

highly-trained adventure Training Section of the C.C.F.,

there remained only three scout troops: the

‘Tickery’ (Berrystead) Troop, the Laxton School Troop and

the Oundle School Troop. These were amalgamated in

1972, finally being ‘wound up’ after their final camp at

Boars Hill, Oxford in 1980.

Tracking precisely the development of the Oundle troops

has proven a more complicated task than I anticipated, so I

would be grateful to any former Oundle School Scouts

who can offer additional information or correct me on any

inaccuracies in the above.

Many thanks are due to Mike Wasse (Laxton School, 1961)

for his notes on the Laxton Grammar School Troop and for

the loan of his scout uniform, and also to Robin Rowe and

Lindsay Rooms (ex-Staff) for their assistance in the writing

of this article.

Stephen Forge,

Oundle School Archive

stf@oundleschool.org.uk

Elements of the uniform