Linton Scouts: Outline History

Cambridge District Scout Archive

  • 9th Cambridge District (Linton)         1912 – 1915
  • N Pack (Linton)                                  1921 – 1926
  • 5th Cambridge District (Linton)         1925 – 1928
  • 69th Cambridge (Linton)                    1933 –
  • Linton

9th Cambridge District (Linton)         1912 – 1915

Registered in 1913 with 13 Scouts but before the archive records of yearly census figures. Like most troops outside Cambridge town it stopped during the Great War.

  • G O T Barber SM (resigned October 1913)
  • R Stapleton ASM
  • V Nunn ASM

N Pack (Linton)                                  1921 – 1926                4797

Pre the move to Group system unattached Packs had a different naming system.   Formed ahead of a local Troop they were not automatically the 5th Cambridge District Linton Pack.  Returning census numbers between 1922 and 1926 the Pack registered at IHQ in January 1922 with number 4797.

  • Miss Felicia G L Purkis                        CM
  • E H Whiffin                                          ACM

They listed 23 in the pack in late 1921 at registration, which suggests it was active ahead of formal registration. In 1927 the pack became the 5th Cambridge District (Linton) Pack. The pack headquarters was Balsham Road Linton.  Miss Purkis lived at Barham Hall, Linton and was founding SM of the troop in 1924.

5th Cambridge District (Linton)         1924 – 1928                13265 later 7575

Registered on 18th December 1924 it has census figures

  • Scouts              1925 – 1928
  • Cubs                1928

The move to IHQ number 7575 indicates that the troop and pack became part of the Group system in 1928.

The lack of census figures between 1928 and 1934 suggests the pack and troop were inactive.

69th Cambridge (Linton)                    1933 –             1934                16773

Registered in 1933 with the new IHQ number 16773 it returned census figures for Scouts in 1934 only.  Around this date two changes occurred; the move to the Group system in 1928 when Packs and Troops were registered as a single unit and the move away from categorizing Troops as Cambridge or Cambridge District.  This renaming was the second of these.

Linton                                                 c. 1935 –

In 1934 69th Cambridge (Linton) is omitted from a list of Groups working in the pre split grouping of South Cambridgeshire.   It is not clear that it was inactive at this point or missed off the list.  It appears to have restarted shortly after the start of the new District with the name Linton, having dropped the Cambridge numbering.

A Claude H Perry was T/L at Linton c 1939 (aged c 17) and engaged with 11th Cambridge Scouts on a frequent basis. His two brothers were P/L’s at the same date. Claude was accustomed to higher standards of Scouting equipment and skills than the 11th at that date. He served as an ARP Messenger WW2.

Cambridge District does not hold records for this new Group and Linton remained within South Cambridgeshire and later Granta until this District was split between the three surrounding District in 2012.

It is now part of Newmarket District.

JWR Archivist July 2022