Scout Group Amalgamations

Cambridge District Scout Archive

Cambridge Archive

Amalgamations between Troops or Groups occurred from as early as 1908/9 when the 2^nd Cambridge closed and patrols were attached to the 1^st Cambridge District (New Cherry Hinton). Amalgamations and other unifications occur for many reasons, under local and national stresses.  This is a review of forms of amalgamation, not a full list of all amalgamations in Cambridge District.  For these see individual Group records.

Temporary amalgamations

Attaching as a separate patrol may indicate that a troop had hopes of soon restarting.  The 2^nd Cambridge (above) the Patrol moved as a named subset ‘patrols of the 2^nd working with the 1^st Cambridge District Cherry Hinton’.  The patrols met at different places during this time. The 2^nd Cambridge, Newnham, did restart, having maintained an identity within the 1^st Cambridge District for up to two years.

In contrast when the 3^rd Cambridge attached to the 9^th it was less clearly intent on restarting.  The patrol in ‘a patrol of the keenest was attached to the 9^th Queens College Choir’ reads as a quantity.  That incarnation of the 3^rd had a short history and little hope of restarting.

Towards the end of their 1945 – 2000 incarnation the 44th pack dropped to 4 members, before a brief resurgence. During this time the meet with another pack to make meetings viable. It was not described in the 44th records as either a mutually beneficial coming together or a favour from the other, unnamed, pack; nor yet was it described as an amalgamation.

War time amalgamations

Scouting records from the years of the Great War are poor.  It was a period when Troops started and folded frequently and most of the ‘Cambridge District’ (for which read villages) closed.  Amalgamations in this period are not recorded although for Troops closer together it is likely that some boys or patrols found new homes.  No evidence of this comes from the names of Troops.

‘Our District Troops mostly had to close down during the war; but half the Villages in the District seem to be clamouring for Troops now.   Reveille 1920

Second World War records show many groups worked together.   A record of the requisitioning of Scout halls for evacuees, Home Guards, Air Raid Wardens or other war time needs exists and groups needed to cooperate.  Many leaders went to active service (that is, the Armed Forces) and left the area, as did those potential leaders the Rovers.  Some amalgamations, such as that of the 42^nd/29^th were of the troop but not the pack.

District Minutes 28/01/1944              ‘Mr Bennett reported that the 67^th would be working with the 13^th pack. The position would be reviewed after the war’

A particularly convoluted war time amalgamation was finally resolved in 1950 when the Local Association recommended           

• 25^th pack become                                           25^th Cambridge Open Victoria Road    Congregational Church
• 29/42 A Pack become                                     29^th Gp                         East Barnwell
• 29/42^nd and 25^th Troop and 29/42^nd B Pack    42^nd Gp Open HQ Trinity Church Hall

The 25^th were recorded as ‘working with’ the 29^th/42^nd following the withdrawal of sponsorship.  The needs to separate the 29th and 42^nd and to absorb a leaderless 25^th Troop were resolved in this plan.

Permanent amalgamations

Not all amalgamations hoped to be temporary.  These could be equal or unequal or move imperceptibly from one to another as the background situation changed.  The 11^th/9^th was a permanent amalgamation.  The 9^th had ceased to operate with the increasing ill health of C T Wood, their founder and driving force of the troop; a very significant Scouting influence in Cambridge and Cambridgeshire.  It remains the only Group with dual numbers in the Cambridge District. The 6^th/17^th Cambridge also remains, but now in another district.

Equal amalgamations

Groups that amalgamated on an equal basis may be identified by the retention of the joint numbers.    The 6^th/17^th, 7^th/23^rd, 42^nd /29^th and 11^th/ 9^th are examples of this mutually beneficial arrangement.  The 67^th/13^th started as an equal amalgamation but the 67^th diminished (see below).

The 7^th/ 23^rd amalgamated on the closing of the County School (7^th), a group losing its base and catchment. The 7^th VSU amalgamated with the 5^th VSU (see below).

The potentially confusing 4^th / 17^th was a shared building between the 4^th Cambridge Scouts and the 17^th Cambridge Guides.

Unequal Amalgamations

District Minutes 1935             10^th amalgamated into 36^th  ‘The committee could not recommend that dual registration to preserve the 10^th but might suggest the GSM consider the formation of Christ College patrols within the Group.’

District Minutes 1943             ‘55^th pack amalgamated with and became part of the 12^th Group’      The 55^th number was immediately absorbed into the 12^th.                                                           

District Minutes 1944                         ‘Mr Bennett reported that the 67^th would be working with the 13^th pack. The combined group would use the 13^th HQ.  The Scouters of the 67th would be in charge of the combined packs.  The position would be reviewed after the war’.  Despite the Scouters of the 67^th being in charge the 67^th did not restart as a separate Group and the 13^th remained.  The 67^th was a pack of evacuees and initially run by students from Selwyn College.

The 11^th/9^th amalgamation appears to be based on mutual friendship of the leaders, possibly similar styles and catchments.  As noted above, the 9^th was not operating and HQ deemed it to be no more than a change of name.  It was an act of respect and friendship to C T Wood and has been deemed an equal amalgamation in spirit then and since.

‘In 1960 Charlie Wood was in failing health. He rang Alan Mackenzie, Scout Leader of the 11th Cambridge Scout Troop and asked if the two troops could be merged. The combined troop was to be known as the 11th/9th.’       J Yates History

Earlier amalgamations with the 11^th (later 11^th/9^th) were not equal.  From a 1931-1932  amalgamation the 11^th remain whilst the 34^th ceased and the 1968 amalgamation with the 2^nd approved by District ‘the 11^th/9^th should form a Cub pack and the 2^nd be cancelled’.

In 2005 the 7^th/ 23^rd, an equal amalgamation, was listed with the 13^th.  They met in the 13^th HQ, to the mutual benefit of both Groups but in time the 7^th/23^rd element was dropped; the 13^th remain.

Absorption’s

In 1956 the 29^th East Barnwell is observed to have ‘absorbed’ the 10th Girton.  The 10^th reopened quickly and the movement of boys back and forth is not recorded.

Reinventions

5^th and 7^th Cambridge Venture Scout Units were both attached to strong school based groups.  They had been working together for some time and become Tithe VSU at the closing of the County school in 1976 (7^th). 

Amalgamations before formation

 In May 1910 ‘the choir boys were formed into two patrols and attached to the 1st Cambridge Troop’. The choir patrols became known as the “Queens’ Own” and during the summer were formed into their own troop, the 9th Cambridge—Queens’ College’.          (Yates – History of the 9th Cambridge)        

From the District Minutes of 23/1/22            ‘Trinity College Choir to work as part of 7^th’.  This block intake into the 7^th Cambridge suggests a proposal that the Trinity College Choir would like to form a troop but was attached to the 7^th either to prevent (yet another) small section with limited leadership base or to act as an introduction to Scouting for a potential new troop.  No separate Trinity College Choir troop has been recorded.

Village Amalgamations

The records do not show two neighbouring village troops amalgamating.  Little but the bare fact is recorded concerning the many early name changes in Cambridge District groups (those outside the town boundaries). 

Between 1912 and 1919 the 3^rd Cambridge District shifts from ‘Longstanton and Lolworth’ to ‘Longstanton, Lolworth and Willingham’ to ‘Lolworth’.  This suggests recognition of the changing catchment area of a troop rather than amalgamation. The villages are not listed as separate troops before inclusion in the title.   By the 1920 list the 3^rd Cambridge District is ‘Willingham’.  Lazy record keeping should not be discounted.   

1st Harston (South Cambridgeshire) started as a patrol of the 56th Haslingfield before the 1935 split of Cambridge District. In turn they formed Patrols each based on a nearby village; Harston, Harlton, Hauxton, Newton and Little Eversden. For a time patrols met in their own villages, amalgamating for combined events. The name of the Group did not alter.

As Troops were required to re register each year name changes were easier, however, small spaces on paper forms, abbreviations that ‘everyone knows’  and idleness mean that many records used shortened versions of names (then and now) and confuse this record stream. 

‘Amalgamations’ for single events

Some records suggest that Groups were working together for an event.  Drawn competitions usually have this fact noted in written commentary and the double entry on the trophy noted below is an unlikely repetition.  Neither amalgamation is yet clear.

16^th/ 44^th listed on Cambridge South District Cub Athletic Trophy in both 1996 and 2000

27^th/7^th seen in 2002 – no clear context can be extracted from the entry.

In Conclusion

Amalgamations absorb Scouts likely to be lost as a Group closes.  The memory of the closing Group persists awhile and, if a new Group does not soon arise from the sheltered embers, dies.  Ownership of the space tends to dictate which name survives.  A few retain the joint name long enough for it become the new identity.  A very few remember the history of their forebears.

JWR Archivist Jan 2019