Oswald Bell

Cambridge District Scout Archive

Silver Wolf

DC and CC

1980

Oswald Bell was ‘an Expert Educationalist’ being the first Director of the Cambridge Institute of Education, a post he held for 20 years. As noted in his obituary above he was HQ Commissioner for Universities and Colleges for 20 years and chair of the HQ Education Advisory Board. He was chair of the European Commission of Cooperation and Co-Education of the World Bureau of Scouts and Guides.

He is quoted as questioning the relevance of Scouting in 1960 by Sian Edwards in ‘Youth Movements, Citizenship and the English Countryside: Creating Good Citizens’. It is not evident that she appreciated his involvement in the movement. He wrote in The Scouter in 1960 ‘What makes them tick’ concerning teenagers generally.

In the local newspaper obituary Oswald is noted for forging links between Rangers and Venture Scouts ‘ and his pioneer work in setting up units at a local level was adopted as national policy.’ It was on his watch as CC that the apparently informal Scout and Guide Troop / Unit was formed and the 60th gained permission from someone (unnamed) to step away from patrol centered scouting. Whilst this may have been an appropriate step within the particular circumstances of this fee paying and part boarding school for the time, it was during the gradual distancing of the school from many aspects of scouting and they eventually closed as a group.

Before his stints as DC and CC he was ACC Ventures for Cambridge. Professionally he worked with DC and CC Mainwaring and were said to get on well and work well as Scouts together. Practically Oswald also ran a camp at Abington for Scouts and Guides from throughout western Europe to come and learn English.

Oswald was awarded the Silver Wolf in 1972 shortly before he retired.

A Scotsman Oswald wore his kilt to camp. On one occasion at Abington the river flooded and as Oswald waded in to rescue the tools, his kilt blossomed about his waist.

JWR Archivist Nov 2019