18th Cambridge: Outline History

Cambridge District Scout Archive

The recent history of this active Group requires considerable expansion.

  • 18th Cambridge                      Littleton House School                                 1912
  • 18th Cambridge                      Little St Mary                                                 1914
  • 18th Cambridge                      St Nicholas Ferrar                                       1960
  • 18th Cambridge                      The Good Shepherd Church                         1969

*****

18th Cambridge                      Littleton House School         1912 – 1914 

Formed in the summer of 1914

  • SM       Royston
  • ASM     B Betteridge    Christ’s College
  • ASM     BC Williams    Lyndewode Road

By November 1914

  • ASM in charge            Basil Cuthbert Williams (aged 18) later Civil Service Rifles
  • with                      Pacey               Christ’s College
  • with                      Airey                Christ’s College

They are recorded as having a Scout troop.  T A Airey, listed in the Early Warrants list from IHQ as working with the 18th, was later to be killed 1st July 1916.

18th Cambridge                      Little St Mary (St Mary the Less)      1914 – 1919

The overlap of dates with Little St Mary’s is a little unclear.  The Cubs and Scouts of Little St Mary’s were formed in the summer of 1914 but not registered with the District until November 1914.  It may be no more than a very swift turn round of numbers.  Alternatively only the Cubs were formed in 1914 and there was no overlap with the 18th Scouts.  This would be an overlap not seen elsewhere in Cambridge numbering systems.  A record in the Secretaries Notebook of 1921 of 1918 date of opening may relate to the Scout troop or Wolf Cub pack only. 

The pack closed in around 1919.  They are not named in the single issue magazine of January 1920 Reveille!

Little St Mary played host to 11th pack for a period in the 1920’s but did not restart a pack, or troop.

District numbers were not reused between 1921 and 1944 and new groups were few after WW2.

18th Cambridge                      St Nicholas Ferrar               1960 – 1961                35109

Opened on 24th June 1960 the group was given the provisional name of the host church which was to become The Good Shepherd Church.  The group was controlled by the church and met in the Church hut in Mansel Way.

Re the Church name – ‘a new church in Arbury in 1958 which they wished to name the Nicholas Ferrar church, which was refused so it was called the Church of the Good Shepherd, and has a fine side chapel dedicated to Nicholas Ferrar.’

Support for the Church and for the Scouts was provided by the 14th, initially a parent Church to the new developments in Arbury. No census returns exist for these years and it is not known if they were active.

18th Cambridge                      The Good Shepherd Church 1969 – date                39547

Opened on 27th November 1969 it was a controlled group, meeting initally at the Vicarage on Highworth Avenue and later Mansel Way.

The scarf was initially Cambridge blue with an Oxford blue border later added after 1975.  A badge was added later still. 

  • Cubs                1970 – date
  • Scouts              1971 – date

The group moved to North Cambridge District between 1983 and 2001, the records of which have not come to Cambridge District archive.

  • Beavers

JWR Archivist Jan 2023