Rover History 1945 - 1956
The Rover Crew photographed in 1950
Front Row: Geoff Booth, Dennis Elshaw, Paul Rouse (Acting RSL), Dave ? and Sydney Knapp
Second Row: Peter Gurney, Terry Mounsey, Dave (?), Pete Atkinson, Geoff Lomas, Ray S (?)
Back Row: Dick Barrand, Ray Neil, Colin (?), George Booth and Norman Shaw
[The Crew History contains a number of references to terms no longer in use eg "Mate" and "Squire".
For an explanation, and to view an archive of Scout training material click]
1945 - "Rebirth of the Crew"
On the 14th of September 1945, the 59th Rover Crew was reformed and active Rovering started once again at St Augustine's. Although there has been mention of a Crew existing before this date, indeed as early as 1918 there was a Crew, this was the first time that there had been a Crew since before the War, and it is the only period where there are comprehensive records to enable this narrative to be written.
At the meeting, already mentioned, there were ten present, including Mr C F Toombs who was to become our first RSL. This meeting, and all which were to follow up to 1946, were held in his front room at his home in Endcliffe Rise Road.
We decided that Man Gee Wang should be our Rover Mate, and that Keith Jones was to be our first Secretary, and Rex Wild - Treasurer. Meetings were to be held fortnightly on Tuesdays. These would be for business and later recreational activities. The Training aspect was not forgotten, however, and it was then decided that we should meet at the "Cottage" in Dyson Place each Friday evening, for this purpose. (At this time, the Troop were using the St Andrew's Hall for their meetings as our Hall was still occupied by the Army).
During this year we had our first visit from "Gibby" [W Jenkins Gibson - ADC Rover Scouts], and after we had told him of our aims etc, he gave us the benefit of his "great wisdom" and said that "Scoutcraft was only one-fifth of Rovering activities" and he recommended that we should visit classical concerts, exhibitions and so on "see more of the world in which you live", he continued.
Finally, he mentioned some more officials that he said we should have, these were Hikemaster, Librarian, Social Secretary and Log Keeper. The Crew did decide to to have these chaps at the next meeting and Ray, Neil, Norman Shaw, George Parkin and Eric Hodgkinson were appointed to these offices respectively.
Later on when we had relinquished our "tenancy" of the Hall in Dyson Place and were able to return to our own Hall, the Vicar granted us facilities for our Training evenings to be held fortnightly, on Thursday evenings, in the Lecture Room.
These are the 'highlights' of our opening year and in this state of affairs, having our meetings separate, and all upset, we found ourselves on the threshold of a New Year.
1946 - "National Service Creates a Difficult Situation"
Up to now, although we had had difficulty with our meeting places, at least we had all been together. But now a new hazard, which up to now had only been heard of but not experienced came into our midst - National Service.
This was to cause difficulty with a number of members of the Crew, as we shall see later, and during this year Terry,George,and Rex joined the Forces.
As Rex was the Treasurer, a new one had to be appointed and Norman Shaw now became the Treasurer. Earlier in the year, Keith had resigned as Secretary and Dick had been appointed in his place, so one can see that we were now dealing with a 'shifting' population, which made the arranging of future programmes almost impossible, although, I hasten to add, these were made and carried out as best as the Crew were able.
By the ending of the year, during September, it was decided that we should hold weekly meetings and that is the start of the present system of working.
So to 1947.
1947—Crew almost disbanded.
By this time the Crew was nearly extinct, not quite, but almost, as the Services had claimed nearly all our members.
The records for this year are very scanty and therefore it can only be assumed that activities were practically at a standstill.
