68th Cambridge: Outline History

Cambridge District Scout Archive

  • 68th Cambridge (Grantchester)                      1933                            16771
  • 68th Cambridge (West Wratting)                    1934 – 1935
  • 68th Cambridge (Byron House School)            1943                            8638
  • 68th Cambridge (Byron House School)            1943 – 1946                 22785

68th Cambridge (Grantchester)                     1933                            16771

This transient listing became the 62nd in 1934 with a new IHQ number. The 68th registration is unclear. Grantchester transferred to West Cambridge in 1935 becoming 1st Grantchester.  It did not last much longer.

68th Cambridge (West Wratting)                  1934 – 1935

Registered on 28th September 1934 and transferred or planned to be transferred to South Cambridgeshire District in the 1935 division of the very large Cambridge District into four smaller Districts. Records from this District are not held by Cambridge District.  The Group does not appear in the County list of January 1935 in either District.  A re-registration date of 28th Jan 1935 is given and a reference to the Group is found in 1937 but they are not present in the next available South Cambridgeshire records post WW2.

In the year ahead of formation West Wratting was listed as the 43rd in the AGM, but without any details.  The next ‘68th’, Byron House School, was also offered the 43rd ‘as it was working in the same area’.

68th Cambridge (Byron House School)         1943                            8638

68th Cambridge (Byron House School)         1944 – 1947                22785

The school moved from London in 1939 with the school Group the 1st Kenwood.  It is as 1st Kenwood that entries appear in 1943 and as 68th Cambridge from 1944 until 1946.   The pack was recorded as closed in 1947. School Inspectorate records for the time in Cambridge are dated to 1953 which may suggest a return to London in 1952 or 1953.

Based at The Orchard, Huntingdon Road it opened in 3/2 1944 under the control of the HM Ella M Terry and with a CM Nancy Henderson. They had one leader and 14 Cubs

The two Cambridge registrations with separate IHQ numbers are unexplained.  

The school remained in Cambridge and the pack, the 2nd Kenwood are named.  They are not listed on Cambridge Census returns under this name and may have reported to the London District whilst awaiting a return to London, or have been both 2nd Kenwood and 68th Cambridge for, respectively, in-house and District purposes, or they just closed very quickly. It is not known if the pack divided.

Byron House School is listed as the 61st Cambridge in 1950 but did not give census returns for any year.

Byron House School amalgamated with St John’s College School Cambridge in 1973.

JWR Archivist Aug 2022