Cambridge District Scout Archive
Silver Wolf
Born in 1909 and first a Scout at his School Ipswich Grammar School, he founded the 13th Ipswich Sea Scouts in 1929 (the number had been left vacant). The 13th remained his central interest and the flag was the only one at his funeral in 1999.
He is described as ‘tolerant, generous, possessing a good sense of humour and an amusing raconteur’ and ‘a true giant of Suffolk scouting’.
(James) Derrick Pearce MBE was a teacher and Bursar at St Faith’s school after WW2. An active Sea Scout he had started 13th Ipswich Sea Scouts in 1929 aged 20 and was GSM. He was later ACC Water Activities for Cambs. District and County and helped at the 60th. On return to Ipswich he became CC of Suffolk. He was awarded the Silver Wolf in 1966 and MBE for Scouting in 1967.
His roles were, (All Suffolk except where stated)
- 1936 – 1945 ADC
- WW2 RN OS and later Officer
- Deep Sea Scouts Portsmouth and in this role met King George VI Admiral of the Fleet
- 1946 – 1966 Bursar and Housemaster St Faith’s Cambridge
- WW2 RN OS and later Officer
- 1947 – 60th Cambridge Sea Scouts
- 1945 – 1947 ACC (Water Activities) Suffolk
- 1947 – 1950 ADC
- 1950 – 1960 ACC and DCC
- 1953 – 1967 ACC (Water Activities) Cambridge
- 1961 – 1975 ACC (Leader Training)
- 1967 – 1975 CC
- 1975 – 1988 County Chairman and AC Sec. (Camping)
- 1988 – 1999 County Vice President
- He was also Sea Scout Advisor for Southern England.
- Medal of Merit 1939
- Silver Acorn 1955
- Silver Wolf 1966
- MBE 1967 (for services to scouting)
He is the only person to have an appendix to himself in Scouting in Suffolk, The First Hundred Years by Richard Freeman and Kevin Mulley.
It is evident that he was involved in all the Sea Scout Groups in Cambridge, 1st, 12th and 60th. It is the 60th that recorded his presence most regularly.
No. 2131 Mar 1951 Leys Fortnightly
On Thursday night, March 15, Mr. Pearce, who needed no introduction to us, told us some fine yarns on his life in the Navy. Owing to sea-sickness he was condemned to remain on land, where his first venture, after winning a commission at Portsmouth, was to allow his men to go out of range of his voice, whilst marching on a huge parade-ground, and thus get out of control, with the disastrous result that they marched straight over the Divisional Band. Owing to this little episode he was moved to a smaller transit-camp staffed by several disreputable officers in charge of about sixteen hundred characters who are usually found on Dartmoor. He was not surprised, therefore, at the many happenings at the camp : chicken stealing, money pinching, razor slashings, drunken orgies, attempted suicides and domestic troubles. Many exampJes were given, such as the wife who drew a gun on the sight of her husband ; the sailor who broke into the rum store at night and was found dead next morning ; another with a split personality who drove a lorry out of the camp backwards, with serious consequences. Towards the end of the war Mr. Pearce was responsible for the shooting down of a flying bomb, against orders, and unfortunately the bomb crashed almost on top of Montgomery’s wartime H.Q., so for fear of further misadventures the Admiralty made him Commanding Officer of the camp ! M.C.S.
1173 July ‘47
Mr. J. D. Pearce entertained us at another meeting with a quiz of nautical terms and his experiences on a destroyer in a convoy to Russia. The story of his glove which was caught in the breach of the A.A. gun and returned at the next round caused some amusement, but it could not compare with the remarks the Admiral made when he saw a fish frozen in two feet of sea ice on the deck of a destroyer.
1293 May ‘55
Mr. Ayres, who has been Scouting for thirty years, recently went to a parade in Windsor to receive the award of the Silver Acorn. Also present for the same reason at the parade, which was inspected by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, was Mr. J. D. Pearce of St. Faith’s.
JWR Archivist Oct 2022
Cambridge District Scout Archive 