History

This page has some historic information on the group. If you have any further details please do not hesitate to contact us.

David P S Harvey's Memories

David Harvey is now living in Houston Texas. He wrote to us in late 2015 to say that he and his brother Richard were two of the original members of the troop back in 1950. It was great to hear from David.

By 1955 David had succeeded in obtaining the Scout Cord and was fortunate enough to be selected to be one of the three junior scouts to represent the Rugby District at the World Jamboree at Niagra on the Lake in Canada. Two years later it was off to the 50th year of Scouting Jamboree at Sutton Park.

The Scouts Masters name was Bill Lyburn a Scotsman employed by BTH who lived in Bilton and came to Dunchurch to form the troop together with the McKenzie brothers. We met on Friday evenings at the hut ( now a garage ) at the house opposite the entrance to the Dun Cow. There were two patrols the Otters and the Kingfishers and during the winter months we also met on one Saturday afternoon per month.

Skipper Lyburn ran the troop on his own the only assistance was from Euan McKenzie who was the troop leader but still under fifteen. The weekly meetings were on Friday evenings from 7 until 9 and started with prayers and the boy scouts oath. Next the boys were inspected special emphasis being on the Scout hat neatly folded neckerchief and clean shoes. They then were taught how to gain the tenderfoot badge and then onto second class, first class and assistance with proficiency badges. In the spring we went onside games in local woods and star gazing (which David never really mastered!). The scouts was a God send for boys in the village; the church choir was David's only other organised activity.

In addition to the encouragement given to improve theirselves to obtain the First Class and Scout Cord badges the troop went on regular weekend and summer camps. The first camp was at Easter in a field just off the Southam Road at Toft Farm. The first summer camp was in Scotland the next year in North Wales at Talybont just outside of Barmouth and the third year on Dartmoor.

The first summer camp in Scotland was in a field adjacent to a mountain stream outside of Coupar Angus. They travelled up overnight on steam train to Perth, then caught a local train to Coupar Angus. They camped on Skipper Lyburn's brother's farm so the last part of the journey was by tractor and trailer. Skipper had reserved three compartments, two for the patrols and one for the leaders. The six kit bags were on the floor and the sleeping arrangement was very simple. The patrol leader and the seconded stretched out on the two seats number three and four slept on the kit bags and the two youngest on the shelves for luggage. The camp lasted two weeks and the two patrols took it in turn to do the cooking. David's lasting memory is stirring the large Billy of porridge. The steam was beginning to hurt but when he just stirred the top he was ok. To cut along story short David was cleaning the Billy for the rest of the day. A lesson hard learned!

They had to wash ourselves each morning in the mountain stream which was extremely cold but very clean. The camp lasted two weeks over the Rugby shutdown (last week of July and first of August). They spent the days making gadgets digging latrines, having kit inspections and going on hikes up the neighbouring hills and lochs. They were taught not to erect the tents under trees and on the last day a lot of time was spent on ensuring the tent and groundsheet were dry and folded neatly. This included all the ropes and the tent fitted neatly into the canvas bag. The other major lesson learned the hard way was not to lean on the tent when it was raining. There was competition between the two patrols but David didn't recall it being too aggressive.