Cambridge District Scout Archives
At the 1917 B. P Rally a number of members of the County and Borough Education Committees were among the guests. Alongside these were the Headmaster of the Leys school which did not host a troop for another twenty years, although a feeder school out of County did have a pack/troop.
Whilst the University had many interested observers from the start in 1908 and some schools were well engaged, notably the Perse, the Higher Grade School and the Cambridge Grammar school for Boys (5th, 6th and 7th Cambridge) the educational management committees were less obviously engaged. Milton Road school was the home of the 12th whilst this was founded by a teacher he had started with a troop (10th) nearby which split on having a large intake from the school. St Faith’s school (21st) was a fee paying establishment.
Shortly after this date Morley Memorial school (3rd) started and Mrs. Huddleston, an active front line administrator, sponsored her local troop (8th Cambridge District Sawston). Several other Cambridge District (village) troops started or met in schools with support from teachers, notably Grantchester (5th CD), but for many the driving force is unclear the troop going by the name of the village not the founding institution.
The increasing oversight by the educational committees may have been initiated by the needs of the war. The attraction of meeting B.-P. should not be undervalued. The Borough Education Committee were also responsible for granting ‘a whole holiday to the schools in the Borough and many of the employers of Scouts who had left school kindly released the lads for the occasion’. This last was not without prompting from some District leaders.
The direct engagement of the Council can also be seen in the involvement of the Juvenile Employment Service which whilst initially a charity was in part taken on by the Council. A member sat on the District SA committee.
Cambridge District Scout Archive 