A growing list of those Cambridge Scouts who spent some time as prisoners of war Has been added to the Local History/ WW1 WW2 pages.

It included the two known escapees.

The letter below records the movement of Leslie John Collis who was reported Missing in Action in the Far East theatre.

JWR

Syd Barrett, member of the 7th Cambridge Scout Troop and Pink Floyd, came from a Scouting/ Guiding family.

The book ‘Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head’ tells of his father Max meeting his mother Winifred Flack Heeps at a mixed Scout/ Guide camp in 1930. As related by Rosemary Barrett, if with some degree of uncertainty, they met on top of a hay stack.

Max was at the 7th Cambridge as a Scout, P/L and T/L and from 1928 ASM.

(Arthur) Max and Winifred later ran a Cub pack together, which I have not yet unearthed from the Cambridge Archives. However, Winifred is recorded as being the Lady Cub Master for the 24th Cambridge in 1928, and for a time the 26th St. Andrews Baptist Church pack. The 24th was a ‘closed’ pack and run from St Collette’s Preparatory school. She is also recorded (as Miss F Heeps) as being ACM at the 5th Perse Prep shortly after the end of the Great War.

The 24th Group only had a pack and was registered in the year that the Group system was implemented. There is no record of a pack running at this school before this date.

Written as Winifred M she has signed as Winifred F Heeps. Winifred remained involved in Guiding throughout her life. She was signatory to the lease on the Corrie Road Scout and Guide building in 1966, known as the 4th/17th.

Snippets of Syd’s scout life have been published but no new stories have come from the scout archives which hold few individual recollections of individual experiences. Should any be forwarded to the Cambridge District Scout Archive (see Contact) concerning Syd or any other name, known or unknown to a wider audience, they will be preserved, amalgamated into the existing or, with permission, published.

Such recollections give colour to the bare bones of the archives – and the story of the haystack sounds both more plausible and more innocent for being at a Scout/ Guide camp.

JWR

A teaser with a sad end – see Local History/ WW1 WW2/ WW1 Roles.

A source of traditional scouting kit, but unfortunately they stopped trading in 1972.

It does illustrate that this big store was catering for the needs of what was still a new enterprise – and either they were good at picking up on new markets or they too were swept up in the movement.

JWR

The loosest of episodes links a Cambridge Scouter with a Kipling character. Kipling was a prolific writer and created many characters outside the Jungle Book stories which populate the Wolf Cub/ Cub Scout hierarchy. It is perhaps most uncertain if they ever met but a Cambridge Scouter worked in direct support of one of Kipling’s schoolmates and a model from which one of his most Scout like characters developed.

• Elsewhere/ Kipling
• People/ Individuals/ L R Missen
• Structure/District/ Early Establishment Support/ Gallantry Awards

JWR

Ian Morrison (I E M Morrison) was picked, like Coombes Tennant published yesterday, as a name that had no clear University links but might be traceable.

He is a Cambridge child, moving here when he was three, but also attended the University (Trinity College) and was warranted as ASM for the 53rd Cambridge. Ian moved on to combine his journalistic job with that of ‘information operative’.

He was injured three times during the war, wrote books on the Far East, had a love life that inspired a Hollywood film and a song and died reporting on the Korean war.

JWR

This Cambridge Scoutmaster falls into the categories of POW, Gallantry medal winner and Spy. He was picked as a local name that might be readily traced and ended up as a Cambridge double first of many attributes and experiences.

We have no records regarding his work as an Assistant Cub Master, but his origins, his family and his life was full.

See Individuals/ People/ Cambridge Scouters

Not found on the Gilwell Rolls of Honour a student of Pembroke College and ASM of the 41st Cambridge, Pembroke College Choir Troop, Malcolm Joseph Clow, one of the last recipients of the Albert Medal before it became the George Cross.

Kings Scout, participant at Arrowe Park Jamboree, Cambridge swimming Blue, he died near the end of the Second World War.

Given for “for acts of the greatest heroism or for most conspicuous courage in circumstance of extreme danger”, not in the presence of the enemy, to members of the British armed forces and to British civilians.  Only 70 were ever awarded.

See People/ Individuals/ Cambridge Scouters

JWR

The identification of the names that have surfaced during this research, in particular through the ‘Early Warrants’ and the ‘Evercircular letters’ work, generally falls into the categories of ‘we can find them’ and ‘we can’t find them’.

We can (generally) find those attached to the Church, the Military and the University. Unusual or double barrelled names help.

We have trouble identifying local names, or, if identified, of discovering their stories. The category ‘Tales from the Early Warrants’ comprises, to date, martial exploits. Teachers in higher education can often be traced, through their papers or headships. Those in local Primary and Secondary education are harder to track, particularly if they work at a school not given to school magazines or publicity.

Running lists of Professors, Mayors, Bishops, Chief Constables and others who reach the top of their field – a disproportionate number this being a University town – risk hiding the work done by those whose jobs do not stand from the crowd.

It has been refreshing to spend some hours locating Scouters who were wages clerks, typewriter mechanics, packers of processed food and builders labourers.

Researches tell of the last daughter at home with the long lived widowed mother, working as a Master dressmaker; a Commercial Artist who was later in secret war work in Liverpool and hinted at making engines; the tailors assistant who was a member of the photographic society and got his pilots licence in 1939.

It is difficult to unpick the nuances in the status of a cashier at a drapers in comparison to a wages clerk. The bare bones of the job title give the job the same worth whether it carries responsibility for two or two hundred. And if you are of an age when you cannot appreciate the relative cost and mechanical complexity of a typewriter the role of typewriter mechanic is also hard to comprehend – he went on to repair aeroplanes in WW2.

None of this has yet brought forth exciting snippets and it is difficult to foresee a systematic collection of roles through these methods. But none of the names, usually Scouters with a long active service, has come back with the entry ‘Unpaid domestic duties’.

We do, however, have the page on Structure/ Trends/ Leaders 1945 – 1953 which was gathered at the time by W T Thurbon.

All grist to the mill – and a few slight leads that may unpack an adventure.

JWR

From the Early Warrants list we have uncovered a Cambridge University student who died in the Great War but was not entered on the University War List. The Cambridge University War List is a list of any who had attended Cambridge University and fought in the war.

A pilot who received one of the first 600 pilots licences in the UK in August 1913 and elected as a member of the Royal Aero Club in July 1914; Leonard died in training in October 1914. He was belatedly added to St Catherine’s Roll of Honour. His name will be forwarded to the Gilwell Roll of Honour.

See People/ Individuals/ Early Warrants/ Tales from Early Warrants

I am aware of the martial bias in these tales, but perhaps that is inevitable given the date. Many have defied ready tracing beyond the gazette entries of promotion. Their later lives often move gently into still waters. Those in the military, church and university are generally easier to find and this is reflected in the growing notes attached to the list.

JWR