Rover History 1945 - 1956

1956 - "Torpedo Attack!"

It has often been said that it is perhaps best that we cannot see in to the future, or else we may tend to become morbid. How true this statement is was to be proved to us before very long.

From the foregoing chapter, it can be seen that we felt that at long last we had 'turned the corner' and hoped that we were to have many happy years ahead, for I do not think that anyone reading this narrative will be able to say that we had not had some very turbulent years since the re-start in 1945. Recalling the many seeming ups and downs that we had experienced over the years, and the way that the Crew weathered these storms, gives a sense of pride to all, but it must be said that what had gone before was to seem almost paltry at the side of the catastrophic blow which was to hit Rovering before the year was four months old.

It has been proved time and time again in History that an attack comes from the least expected places without the s1ightest warning, and so history repeated itself, as it seems to have the habit of doing, and on the morning of the first of April, it had materialised, and all over the age of twenty-four were out of the Crews.

A 'decree' from the "great panjans" at IHQ [Imperial Headquarters] told everyone quite bluntly that there was to be no beefing about this order, that we were not to criticise, that we were to accept this 'scheme' without question, as they had decided that this was the best for Rovering.

Never before in the history of the Movement has such a miserable and dastardly way been adopted to enforce what was tantamount to a dictators decree, on members, without the decency of giving the Rovers any opportunity to discuss it. One can only compare it with the enemies' submarine attacks in the last war, something swift, destructible, and vicious inflicted upon an unsuspecting victim.

The Crew, in keeping with all others, was stunned with this new order, and whilst Rovering was reeling and gathering itself to try and think clearly just what the whole thing was going to mean to the individual Crews, we heard the words of "democracy" and "loyalty" thrown around like pieces of refuse on the stormy waters. How miserably hollow they sounded, how pitiful they were to be used, torn asunder, and dished out as being the policy of the Movement(per IHQ). Never before have words of the English language been so misused and misinterpreted.

Naturally the Rovers did discuss this plan, tore it to shreds and made their own decisions regarding the whole thing. The 59th decided upon a policy of 'wait and see' and consequently from April to September they carried on more or less as usual, but on a far more limited scale than would have been the case under normal conditions. For the whole of this period however, everything seemed unreal somehow, like floating in a void, without any particular object in view, merely drifting as circumstances ordained.

Sheffield Rovers were asked by "Gibby" [W Jenkins-Gibson] to carry on 'as you were' for six months, with the object in mind, to allow the Crews time to 'set their houses in order', so that those who were to go could leave things in good order for those who were to follow.

It was felt that something of the nature of this scheme would have a real effect in time to come, when the scheme, for better or worse, had had time to prove itself or otherwise. Time therefore is the main factor, and it will be only in future years that the differences are going to be felt to the full, and as I am not a prophet, I will not, and cannot, say how this are going to be, suffice to say that Rovering as we have known it, is a thing of the past, and this new "facade" that has been built round Rovering may or may not weather the 'atmospherics' of future years. As I say, time can only tell.

Having had time to think a little about the situation that had been created, the Crew got down to the job of attempting to make something constructive out of the shambles that we were left with, and in August they called a meeting with other Crews to discuss ways and means of sorting matters out. From this meeting they formulated a plan to completely re-organise Rovering in Sheffield and submitted it to the powers that be. It was received favourably, and now we can only await developments.

Even in the midst of the chaos, we were delighted to entertain the DIC of Jamaica [D D Ash], and our own D<a href="../detailed_description.php?itemID=383">30140</a>]C.

So we drifted to the end of the Year, with more members in the Forces, and some of the others (including the writer), merely hangers on, to a future of uncertainty, to a future where it is realised that Rovering will have to fight for its very existence, a future with an uncertain outcome at this time.

We can only renew our determination that whatever the outcome, we shall do our utmost to keep Rovering in the 59th Group.

[Despite Terry's despondency, the Crew survived and continued until 1967,
when the Advance Party Report's recommendation that Rover Scouts and Senior Scouts
be replaced by Venture Scouts was implemented.
However, the Group was not able to support a Venture Scout Unit until 1980]