This photograph of William Dillaway has been provided by the American Battle Monuments Commission, Cambridge.

They are collecting photographs for as many of those buried as possible and have a long term plan of displaying them in at the 75 anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

The first of the resumed annual visits, as requested by his twin brother in 1946, was carried out in recognition of Eagle Scout William, all American Scouts memorialised at the Cemetery and all those who died in the war.

JWR

I have added a new category, Evercircular letters, and put the first of the pages from this source.

Whilst it is totally based within WW2 (and I have placed it immediately after Local History, the last category of which is WW1/ WW2) it appears to deserve a section of its own.

A great deal of work remains on this unique survival. I will publish a full list of participants and names when it is completed.

JWR

This survival is proving to be a very interesting piece on young men scattered by the war. It has generated a dozen pieces before I have finished the first read through and will provide several more before I can get to the Scouting nub of the whole.

The Evercircular letters were a correspondence between Patrols of Rovers and Scouts, largely from the 23rd Cambridge, who had been broken up by the Second World War. The information garnered is feeding into the existing pages and will stand alone as an unusual open correspondence between friends.

It has taken several weeks, interspersed by camps, to get this far. I will complete the first work and probably rest on the whole, to step away from my small enthusiasms and see the wider picture.

I know of one existing relative in Cambridge who will be interested in the letters. If you know of any more please bring this to their attention. I will bring out a complete list of correspondents and the far wider list of people mentioned when I have completed the first reading.

JWR

I have found in my niece an intelligent soul who has given me a few bits of advice on the site which I will put into action now I am back.

The sub section ‘Demographics’ which unsurprisingly gets very few views, will be relabelled Trends, which is both a more accurate title and, I hope, a more inviting one. I have always thought some of the information in this section is very interesting, but have awaited its discovery in vain.

I will start a Gallery of pictures with minimal information. These will be linked to articles but will also stand alone for a more casual viewer.

More changes later and back to the Evercircular letters next week. This too may require a whole section.

JWR

I have restarted with a jump into the 1940’s and the Evercircular letters of the 23rd Cambridge Crew. Two days and only half way through but it is beginning to feed into existing pages. A very interesting cross section of military roles. Some were not ‘heroic’; but then a quiet life was when all that happened was ‘a month or two ago when Jerry dropped a bomb in the back garden’.

The Forces Bulletin, located in the Cambridgeshire Collection, has provided little of ‘Cambridge’ but was kept with the Evercircular letters; National support alongside the Group support to the dispersed Scouts. A page has been drawn out and will sit best in Local History/ WW1/ WW2.

‘Individuals’ have been further subdivided into Cambridge Scouts, Cambridge Scouters, and Scouts up at Cambridge. The first is for Cambridge Scouts who moved on to other fields, the second for leaders active in Cambridge and the third for Scouts or Scouters who passed through the University without being involved in Scouting within the District (as far as records show).

JWR

The next month will see me back into the camping season. Few new pages in the next month or so.

A couple of pages have been pulled out of the mess around the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, a most unclear body of information – to much inclined towards bombast and few hard details. I have integrated a fair number of snippets into existing pages from the 12th Cambridge records held at the Central Library. Old fashioned scrapbooks are so useful.

I have a half completed page on Cambridge Scouters with military Gallantry medals but I am not quite sure what it adds up to – maybe nothing. Similarly I have a half formed page on pacifists within Cambridge Scouting but not existing as a single body they are not readily identified and, I suspect, the relatively few I have found are an underestimate. This too may add up to nothing

One larger project awaits, and a number of lists which should be out there but are clearly incomplete with no ready way of filling the gaps or resolving the uncertainties.

Bit by bit.

Do ask if you would like to see anything in particular. It would be good to be nudged beyond my notions of what is interesting. If I can’t I will say and why.

JWR

Whilst Ernest Thompson Seton has no clear links with Cambridge his influence is seen in the development of Woodcraft ideas within Scouting and in Cambridge District.

We have located a letter from Seton to a Cambridge Scouter dated 1913. A full reading is attempted in the pages on Ernest Thompson Seton and John Murrish.

Leslie Jaggard, 12th Cambridge

Married 6th September 1941

Died 31st January 1942 aged 20

Having been in a field for the last for days I had not expected to pick up archive work. I chatted to a college about the founder of the 12th and added a piece to that jigsaw. Then whilst talking to the Cubs during a break in activities one, presumably without knowing my archive role and not from my pack, approached me to say that John Travers Cornwell (and he gave the full name) was still recalled in his family as being an uncle of one of his forebears.

The Cub did not mention the VC held by Jack, and indeed in explaining to other Cubs who he was nor did I. I am not clear why it was not a part of the family story to have become a permanent attachment to his name. Maybe he forgot.

Similarly I am not clear why I did not recall it in the moment other than we had passed and discussed a Commonwealth War Graves headstone on the hike and discussed the dead of the Great War. In telling of Jack I gentled down the martial element but recognised the Scouting spirit, working through all difficulties, doing his best.

JWR

Having spent a day at the University of Cambridge Library I have come up with a couple of items of interest and lots of names. This time around, I was here in the early days of my research, many of them mean something to me.

The Voyage of the Moronel to Sweden in 1935 was an interesting expedition in its own right. Taking the Chief Scout for a sail topped the story.

Not Cambridge centred, but a letter from Capt Roland Philipps shortly before his death to a P/L was also ‘a find’.

JWR