Cambridge District Scout Archive
The following was found in the records of DC F A J Mackenzie (Alan). It is a summary of Rover scouting at the Leys school, Cambridge, from its foundation to the implementation of the Advance Report in 1968/1969. The author is assumed to be GSL of the 60th Reg P Ayres.
A single record in the Leys Archive mentions an earlier arrangement, ‘abolished old Senior Crew and integrated them with the Rovers’. They were described elsewhere as the Senior Patrol, presumably the oldest members of the Troop as opposed to the Junior Troop.
Records remain of meetings held at the home of Reg Ayres , 6 Rustat Road, until 1971, although no formal end date is recorded. Several of these were based around talks by old Crew members.
A letter in the Leys archives suggests that Reg Ayres was involved in Scouting at a County level into his 80’s, holding a Honourary ACC role and an International advisory role.
Ronald Ingle, listed by Reg in his history, became involved with Rovers whilst in Scotland. Ronald shared a room with James McCormack. He had been a Scout and was in the ‘Corps’ and was later to move into the Home Guard. He described his involvement in letters home to his parents and was permitted to be a member of both at the same time. He considered the Rovers poorly run – it was only 5 years old and disrupted by the loss of leaders and the war – but enjoyed the camping and rope work. It probably suffered, in wartime, in relation to the military formality of the corps. Very active in many fields it is difficult to unpick if he attended regular weekly meetings but he did record pioneering work, camps, his hike and sleep overnight and had a pride in his skills in camp craft and cooking.
He reported an OL (Old Leysian) who returned for a Rover camp with the school before returning to his ship in the Merchant Navy and a new master who joined just after the end of the war, who was an enthusiastic scouter. He described a form of blanket sleeping in which two blankets were spread communally across the floor of the tent and, using blanket pins, folded two further in half to make a tube and a third doubled over his feet. He did not gain his height until he was older than most but was just over six foot tall at his point. This worked very well.
JWR Archivist Mar 2021 & August 2024
Cambridge District Scout Archive 