Cambridge District Scout Archive
Eric Whitehead was engaged with the 10th Cambridge from 1958 to 1985 and longer as it affiliated with the FSE as the 1st and 2nd Cambridgeshire. During this time he complied a song book which runs to over 800 entries. Some are in full and run to two or three pages, some little more than aide memoire.
These he placed in twelve categories:
- A Action
- B Ballad
- C Country
- D Ditty
- H Hymn
- M Marathon
- O Opening / Closing
- P Poems (6)
- R Rounds
- S Spiritual
- SO Scouts Own (2)
- Y Yells
A few are strictly Scouting songs, referencing scouts and in one Marathon, M9, specifically referencing the FSE. One at least Ditty, D53, is a specifically Girton based song, concerning the Girton Wanderers football team, though it may well have been a standard song with local adaptation. Several of the Action songs do not provide full descriptions of the actions. Some have the basic musical notes added to aid the tune, many have ‘to the tune of’. The Opening/Closing group are campfire pieces.
On a brief review many songs are known to me (aged over 65) and maybe 40% I do not recall. The yells and ditties have many more, new to me. A few are politically incorrect, using language and reflecting attitudes of a previous era. These are perhaps most notable in the Spiritual category, but critical eye will see issues elsewhere. As judged from the Yells Eric did not generally incorporate negative calls and if active today is very likely to have made different selections throughout. The politically incorrect items are soft inclusions, that is standard songs, knowingly dated but in the general repertoire, rather than hard items using vicious terminology and proposing a restrictive political viewpoint.
The Scouts Own category included B-P’s Message. One Yell is in a form I have not come across elsewhere:
- Everywhere we go,
- People want to know,
- Where we come from, who we are -ar?
- And we tell them
- Scouts come from everywhere
- And if they can’t hear us …
The three folders I have seen do not have page numbers and are not in logical order throughout, but each page is dedicated to one of the above categories. The whole does not look as if it was taken on camp. Each typed page is in good condition, allowing for one or two torn holes punched for filing. Eric hoped that they were all out of copy-write, I suspect this is not so even now, one at least being penned in 1962.
It is hoped to have the songbook scanned.
JWR Archivist Mar 2024
Cambridge District Scout Archive 