67th Cambridge: Outline

Cambridge District Scout Archive

The 67^th has a very unclear history, being first formed a year ahead of stepping out of the Cambridge District histories and the second group being formed during WW2.

• 67^th Cambridge Swaffham Bulbeck                1933
• 67^th Cambridge                                               1939 – 1944
• 13^th/67^th Cambridge St Radegund’s                1944 –

67^th Cambridge Swaffham Bulbeck  1933                                        16978 / 16459

Not listed in the Cambridge District 1933 AGM report by 1935, the next available list, it had moved to the new North Cambridgeshire District, shortly to be renamed the East Cambridgeshire and eventually Mid Cambridgeshire.   It was registered with 9 Scouts and only returned census figures for 1934 before the division when details were lost to the remaining Cambridge District.  The scarf was blue with a gold border. 

• H L Gittus                    SM
• Jack Stevens                ASM

All the Groups that moved dropped the X^th Cambridge element to their name leaving it free for use in Cambridge District

Mid Cambridgeshire survived as a District but struggled during WW2 and the remaining Groups reintegrated with Cambridge District, being formally listed in 1946.  Swaffham Bulbeck was not among them.  A Swaffham Prior Scout Group is now in Newmarket District.

67^th Cambridge                                  1939

Few details survive. In the 1939 collection of details the 67^th recorded 20 Scouts all of whom were evacuees.   It was presumably this Group that amalgamated with the 13^th in 1944.  It is noted that a pack was registered in 1942.  It is the 67^th that was called an Evacuee group in November 1939.  The name St Radegund is only recorded later, number and name are nowhere recorded together at this date.

From Secretaries ‘Defunct Group’ list we have

• Temp Registration Nov 1939 67th Cambridge
• HQ : Grafton Street Scouts
• Thursday 7 – 9 pm
• Group Scarf; Controlled by the Principal, Northern Polytechnic, Holloway, London N7 (?)
• Scouts
• SM G H McKay, 19 Coleridge Road (George H McKay, lecturer Northern Polytechnic)
• 4 Selwyn Coll Rovers assisting Nov 1939 20 Evac. Sct.

Census returns

• Cubs 1942 – 1943

13^th/67^th Cambridge                          1944 – 1946                            21504

This Group was Notts’ Own/ St Radegund’s, and first recorded as amalgamating on 28^th January 1944.  It is described as an Evacuee Group but little else is known.  The 13^th had property and equipment; the 67^th had leaders but had few other resources.   The packs, no 67^th troop at this date, would combine for the duration of the war under the 67^th leaders.  The decision to run the combined pack by 67^th leaders may reflect a lack of 13^th leaders, but this is perhaps unlikely (see 13^th).  The experience of running a pack of Evacuees may have swayed the decision. 

It was recorded that the position would be reviewed after the war, clearly moving towards an allied victory at this point, which might suggest the association with the Northern Polytechnic institute had diminished or ended and the pack was of evacuees drawn from younger and more general spread.

The 67^th element was closed by 1946 presumably as the evacuees returned.   The 67^th did not enter separate census returns for this period.

The scarf of Green and Red may have represented an amalgamation of the two groups but with war time rationing this is unlikely. 

JWR Archivist Aug 2022