Scouting’s big birthday (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Scouting’s big birthday

1:21pm Thursday 9th August 2007

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No matter how old you are, if you ever served in the Scouts you will remember the promise.

Scouts worldwide repeated the promise last Wednesday to mark the launch of the movement by Lord Baden-Powell 100 years ago.

Among them were the Lavington Sea Scouts, Redhorn Explorer Sea Scouts and Urchfont Scouts who joined 600 others on an international camp in the Lake District.

Former county commissioner Steve Chandler, who is chairman of North East Wiltshire Scouts, says that Scouts were active in Devizes very soon after Baden-Powell launched the movement.

Mr Chandler, who is researching the history of Scouts in the district, has also established that Scout groups were started in Marlborough in 1907.

Many organisations had their own groups. There were even Scouts at the former Marlborough Children's Hospital.

Marguerite de Beaumont, who ran the Scouts in Shalbourne for many years, epitomised the dedicated leaders of her day and was a personal friend of Baden-Powell.

"Scouting has always been very prominent in Wiltshire," said Mr Chandler, a retired police officer who now runs the county's outdoor activity centre at Oxenwood.

In Chippenham, the museum is celebrating 100 years of Scouting with an exhibition of photographs that will run until October.

But Mr Chandler has found few photographs although he has plenty of written archives.

He said: "There must be many photographs of Scouts at camp or doing other activities that people have in their family albums.

"We would love to be able to copy them to compile a history of Scouting in Wiltshire."

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