Troop Songs, Yells and Mottos

Cambridge District Scout Archive

Songs and Yells

Troop songs and yells were part of the bonding but very few have lasted. A general example, a call and response song, adapted to most names and frequently chanted is ‘Everywhere we go’.

Everywhere we go-o
Pe-ople always ask us
Who we a-are
And where we come from
So we tell them
We're from Cambridge
Mighty, mighty Cambridge
And if they can't hear us
We sing a little louder
...
(Repeat, get louder each time until you reach your limit)
....
And if they can't hear us
They must be DEAF!!!!

The one local example, recalled in September 2020 by Donald Halls, of the 9th Cambridge (Queens’) of C T Wood. It is, I think, original doggerel, the Troop song

Oh to be a wandering Scout 
Oh to wander free
But of all the Troops in the Cambridge Group
The 9^th, the 9^th for me

C T Wood also taught them some ‘Greek’ songs whose transliteration, as recalled by Donald, has come down in the single line Hi Polly Ti Polly Tasti Polly Ti Polly Ta

1931 the 13th recorded a Group yell and in 1933 the newly formed 60th Cambridge had a Troop Yell, but what it was is not recorded.

The 7th record a Kingfisher Yell at a 1942 campfire. Again the yell is not given, but by implication it is more than the patrol call. (see Patrol Calls: Structure/ Sections/ Scout Patrols/ Scout Patrol Calls)

In 1951 Association Camp Fire the ”Cambridge Yell” and the ”SOS Yell” are entered as items. No details of the Yell are attached.

From Simon Mainwaring in 2023 ‘If I remember correctly from the 1950s:

“Eleventh Cambridge Scouts are we,

town and gown, fen and lea,

we are the scouts of Cambridge – C,A,M,B,R,I,D,G,E …CAMBRIDGE !”

This later became

“Eleventh-ninth Cambridge scouts are we, town and gown …”

Pre WW1 the 12th Cambridge record

In the 1912 Annual report the 12th also report ‘has its own war cry, Troop song and has instituted a Troop war dance.’

And for the 1911 BP visit (to the tune of the new hit ‘Oh I do like to be beside the sea side’)

The Cambridge University Rover Troop (c.1925) copied the German Ringpfadfinder Patrol call. It is not known if it was ever adopted in practice.

Mottos

Occasionally adopted by troops or groups and overlapping with names and yells we know of the following. Venture Scout Units and Explorers occasionally use names such as Nulli Secundi (Second to none – St. Ives)

		date
11th Cambridge	Unbeatable	1940’s
28th Cambridge	Mighty mighty 28th	1960’s

JWR Archivist Sept 2020

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