1911 Windsor Rally

Cambridge District Scout Archive

The newly crowned King George V reviewed 35,000 Boy Scouts at Windsor on July 4^th 1911. 

120 Boy Scouts attended from Cambridge from 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, 10^th, 13^th Cambridge and 1^st Cambridge District (Cherry Hinton).  Ten Scout Masters also attended.  The schools 5^th (Perse) and 7^th (County) were a third of the total.

Scout Masters were allocated mixed troops of 24, the surplus S-Ms being ‘unattached’.  Those with troops were named; L Spiller (Queen’s, 7^th later 9^th), Waldegrave, Curzon (1^st), H R Mallett and Morrish (later Murrish of 10^th and founder of 12^th).   Curzon died WW1; Spiller became a HQ Commissioner; Mallett, DC and Mayor).  The whole was coordinated by District Secretary Rev. H R Bailey. 

The rally was so arranged that those in the front ranks were most likely to meet the king.  The first Scout in Cambridge to become a Kings Scout, O. Webb of the 1^st Cambridge was in the first rank and Corporal Stone of the 1^st Cambridge District (Cherry Hinton) who had been awarded a medal for bravery by B-P, was in the second.

Most of the contingent started at 01.40 from Cambridge arriving at the Windsor grounds for breakfast at 07.00 (all carrying food in their knapsacks for the day).  The rally started at noon following which they entrained at Windsor at 20.05 and after meeting a Special Train in London returned to Cambridge after almost 24 hours.  It was reported by H Mallett to the reporter that, as a matter of trust, the Cambridge contingent had been permitted to visit the town of Windsor between dismissal from the rally and departure on the train, and none were late.

The homeward journey was ‘a continuous round of mouth organs and other melodious instruments’ but these ‘died gradually away’.   On nearing Cambridge the Scoutmasters woke the boys, some having to be stood up until they became aware of their surroundings.

In the final stages of their journey they played ‘We won’t be home ‘til morning’ on their mouth organs and the National Anthem.

JWR Archivist Oct 2021