Colin "Johnny" Walker's Scouting Milestones Pages

The Scouting Milestones BLOG and Updates

Milestones: September 10th 2011

I see that when I wrote the last 'Blog', as long ago as May 11th, I was working hard on the 3rd chapter of my new book Scouting Collectables Volume II. I am delighted to tell you that after much hard work this was finished in time for its launch at the Midhurst Badger's Club Meet held in August. The book has nine chapters, covering English County badges, Scouting Postcards, Scout Cigarette and Trade cards, Gallantry and other Awards, Belts, Whistles, Scraps an Cut-outs, Rover Scouting, and Lithographed Tins. There are over 600 coloured images in the usual Scouting Milestones style. It can be found in the (See my on-line shop )on these pages, where you can purchase it via PayPal or cheque.
The Midhurst Event seems to grow proportionally to the decline in opportunity for 'Badgers' to buy and sell Scouting Artefacts at the Gilwell Reunion, held just one week later. Its success is well deserved, Chris Hollingham, has contrived to provide the best of all worlds. The Grange Community Centre, in the middle of Midhurst, provides every facility including cooked refreshments, it is airy and spacious with very cheap parking just outside (free for the first two hours). It is a truly an international event with stallholders from Canada, America and Australia, and Holland (apologies to those from elsewhere) and a wide range of Scouting artefacts from the mega rare to swapable 'doubles' from enthusiastic and knowledgeable traders. It was a worthy event to launch my book which was very well received. There was camping available inside and outside the local Scout Hut just a couple of miles away in the beautiful Cowdray Park. Chris is an excellent host and organised evening meals at the local hostelry, taken up taken up by most if not all of the stall holders, giving the whole event a wonderful social atmosphere. Next year the event is already booked at The Grange. If you are not already a member of the International Badgers Club and collect badges, then you should be, the regular The Sett magazine will contain details of this and all other forthcoming Badger Club meets, one of which will be not too far from you (Some held in quite few other countries across the world.)
Between the Midhurst and Gilwell Reunion events I was absolutely delighted to see my old friends from Finland, and we were able to share two very pleasant evenings together, one of which in the Rover Den of the Thane Rover Crew, Britain's latest Rover Crew formed entirely of paid-up members of the UK Scout Association (more of which later). We all set of from Yorkshire in a borrowed Scout Group minibus to cross the border into foreign parts (Lancashire) to visit the wonderful Be Prepared Scout Museum at Waddecar, the work of Michael Loomes, who like most of us, is a volunteer Scouter. With his brother has built up the museum from a bequest from John (Wilkie) Wilkinson on of the attendees on the first Gilwell 1919 Woodbadge Training Course. 'Wikie' went on to found the first ever Woodbadge course outside Gilwell. The museum however is rightly described at Lancashire's Little Gem (though Michael was able to show us plans for expansion.) The thing that will hit a visitors on entry is that here you will find wonderful exhibits (that are frequently rotated so more than one visit is in order) displayed with care and pride. It is the U.K.'s only purpose built Scout Museum, and perhaps the least said about the reasons for that,the better!
My involvement this year at the Reunion was confined to giving three talks and two walk and talks round the park. Free will donatations were collected after these events and I am pleased to report that over £100 was collected for the Scouting Holiday Homes Charity. Thank you for all who donated. It was of course wonderful to meet old friends and make new ones, but many people expressed their disappointment of the demise of the 'Badgers Village' and use I was able to make of the Gidney Cabin in previous years. Many of the visitors and sellers at the Midhurst event has ceased to attend to reunion as they feel that their interest are no longer represented. This is a great tragedy, If you did attend the union, and have any sympathy with this view I urge you to reflect it in your 'feedback' comments that can done on line. The Reunion organisers are to be congratulated in providing this opportunity for feedback which surely indicates that they are keen to listen. We have an opportunity to make things better!
The concluding service at the Reunion finished with the presentation of a 50 year long service award to my friend and Rover Scout Mate Ken Beardsley. In the presentation, mention was made of Ken's tremendous impact on the built environment of Gilwell Park. With the help and support of his Rover Crew, Ken has initiated many projects in the Park, including numerous gateways with wonderful 'scoutcraft' carvings, the amazing Rover Scout Lectern which I was proud to letter with the Scout Promise and 1st Scout Law, (Please nobody else tell me that I have got the word 'obey' wrong in the Promise, this is a Rover Scout Memorial, the Promise and the 1st Scout Law inscribed are that which was current when Rover Scouts existed wthin the Association.) The latest gate to be erected, across the entry to 'The Lid', carries Ken's wonderful carvings, but we told that the gate had to contain the lettering 'Gilwell Park Activity Centre'- I spotted that there something lacking, - so Ken incised my lettering half inch deep, six inches tall, and painted in gold, 'THE SCOUT LAW IS THE LAW OF THIS CAMP'. I trust that will cause all who pass through it, to reflect on the true purpose of this world famous cradle of Scouting.
Let me leave you, as usual, with this final thought.
Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Milestones

May 11th 2011

So much to do, so little time to do it! The never changing cry I am afraid, but things move on so rapidly. Since my last blog, we have been on two holidays, one in North Africa, the other in Vietnam and Cambodia, both with distinctive cultures and wonderful scenery. We of course enjoyed ourselves immensely, took a lot of photographs, and learnt a great deal, some of which was not too comfortable to European ears. Vietnam is one of the very few counties in the world that does not have Scouting, but as is the way in communist countries there is a state youth organisation, members of which we saw out and about in organised groups, looking very familiar in their neckerchiefs and shirts with badges, all smiling and evidently enjoying themselves.

I am currently spending my days enjoyably writing Volume II of Scouting Collectables. Chapters so far complete are Postcards , Cigarette Cards, and Belts and Whistles. It would be possible to write en entire book on each, but you can be assured that each chapter has been given the full 'Milestones' treatment, all the rare artefacts illustrated have a story to tell worth reading. Three chapters down only 12 more to go!

As a Past Master (the highest level of degree) of the New Lyke Wake Walk Club of Great Britain I attended the annual Wake at the Lord Stones Cafe, Carelton Bank in Cleveland recently, and the usual sorrowful time was had by all. The mourners present exchanged condolences on having to hear funereal addresses from the club officials who had been specially disinterred for the day. Great Fun. One piece of news was perhaps a tad less mournful than the rest. The club has money to give away (!) to Scouts or any persons who are Dirgers (those who have completed at least one registered crossing of the Lyke Wake Walk), who are seeking funds to go on to do other adventurous activities. In the case of Scout groups and I am assured that consideration will be given to those groups who have yet to complete a crossing and are looking to have their expenses for such and undertaking subsidised e. g. towards the cost of the diesel or mini- bus hire. Applicants should visit the club site and write to Tearful and Traumatised Treasurer (see link to Grants on the site index). Another development will be a new degree for 'Purveyors of Purgatory', to be presened to group leaders and other who encourage those who are suffiently guilable to spend hours wallowing in the bogs and being laughted at by t'blue man i' the moss', and Fat Betty!
The Lyke Wake Walk could be said almost to owe its origins to Scouting as its Founder Bill Cowley (Chief Dirger) was a keen Scout and then Rover Scout. He worked in the Indian Civil Service and whilst there set up the 'Tara Devi' which was a Gilwell Style training camp for Indian Leaders enabling them to complete their Wood Badge. On his return to the UK Bill Cowley bought a farm in North Yorkshire on the edge of the North York Moors and realised that it was possible to complete a walk of 40 miles from ancient burial ground to ancient burial ground, to the coast across what was then trackless moor. This became a 'challenge hike' to be completed within 24 hours that has now been achieved by tens of thousands! Annual races and Wakes -fun(ereal) meetings - are held annually . Rover Scouts such as Arthur Pukrin of Middlesbrough claimed most of the early records. See our The Lyke Wake Walk pages to hear the mournful tune of the Lyke Wake Dirge and sing along with the Yorkshire dialect words, as well as to read of some of previous 'crossings' with Venture Scouts Units with whom I have been associated. I would be delighted to hear from any past members.

I have also attended a meeting recently the Central Yorkshire's Bramhope campsite to finalise plans for the County Camp 'Challenge 11' to held with spitting of Bramhope at the end of end of this month, May 28th 29th 30th . The Scouting Milestone's Travelling Heritage Exhibition will be on site throughout the Jamboree and I look forward to making new friends - as well as have a great time with old mates.

Plans are also being prepared for the annual pilgrimage to Gilwell Park for the annual Gilwell Reunion. It seems there will be some changes. In some form or another however I am confident that the Scouting Milestones 'Roadshow' will be on site, and that my traditional talks in the White House after the campfire will happen and there be a repeat of last year's popular Scouting Heritage 'Walk and Talk' around the park. I will keep you informed. An important part of the Reunion (any UK registered member of the Scout Association can attend - see the Gilwell Reunion website) is meeting up with old friends and I am looking forward to seing my Finnish Roots Group friends who so kindly helped to look after me during my wonderful stay in Finland last year. They will be experience a bit of Yorkshire hospitality prior to their trek to Gilwell.

In the longer term I hear that the Trans-Am Jamboree, that is to be held in Columbia next year, is to have its name changed to allow for the fact that there will be in attendance several Caribbean Countries. There is a possibility that I may be attending this world event, and again I will keep you informed.

Scouting is alive and well at home and abroad - Live the Promise, have great fun and enjoy your camping. The Founder would wish for no better.

Let me leave you, as usual, with this final thought.

Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Milestones December 15 2000

A Happy Christmas and Good Scouting for the coming year to all Scouting Milestones readers. You numbers continue to grow and so you form a wonderful worldwide 'Scouting Family', as the comments on the Visitors' book pages and in my mail box demonstrate. Julio Vargas writes from Columbia (South America) to tell me that he his finished his translation of my History of the Rovers pages into Spanish and as he has recently been appointed to the National Training Team, he well placed to use the pages to good effect with the growing number Rovers in Columbia. His own crew has more than doubled is size. This really is wonderful to hear. Anybody who would like a Spanish translation of the page just paste the following link to Julio's blog into your browser. http://descoutsparascouts.blogspot.com/
B-R-A-V-O Julio!

My friends on Facebook will know about the problems I am having with the Royal Mail (If you are on Facebook and want to be a Facebook Friend then you know what to do!) Over a year ago I devised a Smiler which is a self-designed poster stamp attached by the Post Office to 'proper' fist class stamp. I used the space available for the Smiley to make it look like two new stamps side by side to the 'proper' Union Flag Royal Mail stamp. The left hand 'stamp' was the image of Jam Roll I used the cover image from my book Jam Roll: Baden-Powell, the Man and his Motors book but with the legend 'Preserve'. The other 'stamp' in the design had an image of B-P's Eccles caravan, the legend for that was 'Inform'. 'Preserve and Inform' being shortest paraphrase I could devise of the motto of this site, which you will find and the conclusion of this blog entry. Well, despite the fact that the Royal Mail had previously printed out these very smilers (which I then used when mailing out my Jam Roll books on behalf of the Charity B-P Jam Roll Ltd) - they refuse to allow a re-issue on the grounds that the radiator image shows RR logo In red (it was changed to black after the death of CS Rolls in 1932) the radiator badge is less than 2 mm square on the Smiler!! I have tried to point out that a. Rolls Royce logo is in red and has been so for 70 years and so not the current Rolls Royce logo. b. That Rolls Royce recognising that the funding for the car was coming from penny subscription from the Scouts of the world gave a substantial discount on the car clearly wanting to be associated with Scouting and Baden-Powell c. (and I feel this is very significant) that the car belongs to the Charity and I am associated with the Charity, so in effect the Royal Mail are saying that I cannot have a picture of our car on our Smiler. The same logic applies to the fact that image is from my book cover. So I have now formerly applied to Rolls Royce (which I really don't feel should be necessary) to use an photograph of the Jam Roll radiator. I will keep you informed of what I feel is political correctness gone mad!

I continue my mammoth self-imposed task of transcribing Baden-Powell's diaries from 1899 with the help of the Boy Scouts of America and the U.K. Scout Association- I have now completed transposed 20 years of the diary onto a computer database. A further 7 years are part complete (one of these because B-P lost that year's diary!) and I have then 'only' 14 years left to do. I have also had access to B-P's Journals pre 1899 and whilst they do not often contain day by day entries, much of the information is dated but of course the most significant difference is that the journals contain B-P's wonderful artwork. I have no intention of publishing B-P's diaries - they are not my copyright- but they do accurately inform all my work. Milestones readers benefit from this as in the last few days the Roland Philipps/Roland House; History of the Rovers; Scout Friendly Society; several of the Biographies; Charterhouse; 1937 Coronation; Discovery; Sea Scouts and the B-P Bibliography have all been amended to take account of information gleaned from the diary.
I am however very happy prepared to answer sensible enquiries about the diaries providing the answers can be found by a normal keyword search of the database. The missing years may appear to leave big holes in the database as it stands at present- this is not the case, as along with B-P actual diary, my 'B-P chronology' contains dated entries concerning the founder that have come from his books, other people's diaries such as Olave's and his daughters and particularly from his many letters- which I have also had access to in various Scout Archives and in private collections. I do appeal to readers who may have dated Baden-Powell items, letters- programmes or any verifiable first hand source to get in touch so that these too may be added in what is a unique and if I may say so wonderful Chronology of a great life. It has been a tremendous privilege working on this long project that has taken me ten years to date. There is still a long way to go I am very hopeful that given my recent strategy of photographing the real diaries or microfiche screen enabling me to work on the database at home- that this task is now achievable in my lifetime!

Another amendment to the site has been the addition to the Shop Pages of a set of 6 postcards to accompany the book Scouting Collectables. The book has created favourable comment and is rapidly selling out but a reprint is planned for the new year.(A PalPal buttom for both the book and the postcards have also been added.) Vol.II has been started and hopefully will be available by the Gilwell Reunion i.e. the first weekend in September 2011- but no promises! Most of my books have their own sets of promotoional postcards priced at £4.00 for a pack six and it is my hope/belief that in time to come these will themselves be Scouting Collectables.

My next speaking engagement is in Howden, Yorkshire on 27th January at Howden Methodist Church Hall at 10.30 a.m. . - Details from the Howden Branch of the University of the Third Age- whose website can easily be found using Google- should you live near enough and wish to attend.

Let me leave you, as usual, with this final thought.

Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Milestones --> November 23th 2010

Just a over month since my last blog- so I am getting better (I wish!) At the end of October I visited Atherton near Manchester to give a talk which was part of the fund raising for that District's Contingent to the Swedish World Jamboree, now seven months away! Atherton District are a very friendly crowd and I hope a good time was had by all - they certainly made me very welcome.

I have been working hard on transposing B-P's diaries from the photographs I bought back from America, and have made significant inroads on completing this work, especially as the day after I finished on the US images I was back in front of the diaries again, in microfiche form, at Gilwell amassing more entries to add to the 'B-P Chronology'. Part of the reason for the visit was that an opportunity arose to travel down to Gilwell with my Rover Mate Ken Beardsley who lives in the next village - to be met at Gilwell by his brother Brian and local (to Yorkshire) friends Cath and Alan Brown. These good Yorkshire Folk, are let me tell you, the salt of the earth! Never mind Scout Fellowships having being to be reformed as Scout Active Support units to ensure service - the Rover Motto of Service has never died in these Yorkshire hearts - as a walk around Gilwell Park would testify. They are putting the Scouting Heart back into Gilwell which though resplendent with many of the recent additional buildings etc - has lost much of its 'woodcraft' character of former days. Ken and his team are the antidote for all that. In their visits down from Yorkshire ( Have I mentioned that county before?) over the last couple of years -as well as the 'normal work' carried on as part of the 2nd Gilwell Service team, they have:

built a bridge over the bombhole suitable for school parties and wheelchair users
built the lifeguards 'tower' by the swimming pool
built a wooden roofed outdoor dinning shelter behind Camp Square
built the spectacular - Dick Turpin Gate- in front of the Dorothy Hughes pack centre
restored the archway to the Woodlands camping area - sculpted out of oak - that was found abandoned - and built and fitted a new gate to it very much in the woodcraft tradition
built the new gateway to Essex Chase with magnificently carved Essex County badges
restored the outdoor alter with a marble top (protected by a wooden cover) adjacent to the Swan Centre. (It was great to see this being used for investitures at the Gilwell Re-union. This is a 'tradition' in the making that should be cherished!)
Built the most beautiful lectern in oak comprised of two life sized kneeling Rovers supporting a reading slope on which is lettered the Promise and first Scout law from Rover days - in which I am proud to have had a hand. This item too, kept in the Swan Centre, can be made available for anybody wishing to use it for services/presentations at Gilwell by asking at the reception office in Camp Square (by the Jamboree Clock)

None of these things have been bought as stock items a builders merchants they have all been hand crafted from scratch and brought to the Gilwell from God's own county! I am certain that I will have missed out much that this small team have achieved - they have made a difference - and they reflect the true spirit of Scouting- in its spiritual homeland. We should be grateful to them and all other members of Service Teams up and down Country who week after week give of their time and talents with out the need for a 'manager'.
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They will continue their stirling efforts in the coming years. The Yorkshire Maffia though won't thank me for telling you that their average age is beyond that of the State Pension! If anybody out there is listening they deserve a medal! Should you be lucky enough to see them- or any other service team member at work on a Scout Campsite, stop and show your appreciation.

Sales of my new book on Scouting Collectables (See my on-line shop ) are going well such that reprint is likely in the new year. (It would make an excellent Christmas present - and you can order it directly from me via email at the links provided. I have already started work on the first Chapter of Volume II of Scouting Collectables which is to be about County Badges.

Let me leave you, as usual, with this final thought.

Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

October 22nd 2010

Doesn't time fly! At the end of my last blog I concluded by writing about my departure for Finland the following day and then on the USA. Well I have been back from America now for over two weeks, but my feet don't seem to have touched the ground. Finland and America may be contrasting countries but Scouting is alive and well in both.

Finland has a population of under 6 million people but has a very active Scout and Guide movement that work well together at all levels- something that perhaps we in the UK could learn from. In this their Centennial Year they ran Baden-Powell seminars in Helsinki and Turku which I attended as a speaker, talking to both young people and adult audiences. English is a common language in Finland but Swedish is the second language so it was surprising to me that so many people were prepared to turn out to hear an English speaker. You can imagine the response if the tables were reversed. Turku, the country's second largest city, contained a large outdoor activities store run by the Scout Association with an equally modern dedicated Scout Shop opposite. On these premises were the National Scout Museum catering for both the Finnish and Swedish speaking sections of the community. Not suprisingly the museum was the result of dedicated professional workers and a group of very willing volunteers. I ask again what is it that makes the UK so different in that having started Scouting we carry on ignoring the need to transmit out Scouting Heritage to our young people and the community in general. Small countries like Finland, Belgium and New Zealand have so much from which we could learn. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Finland and are very grateful to all our Finnish friends that made us so welcome. On our last day we were given a rare honour. Both the Finnish nation and Finnish Scouting look upon General Mannerheim as a father figure. This ex-President's home in Helsinki is now a National Museum and kept as near as possible to how it was at the time that Mannerheim lived there (when in 1933 he was visited by Baden-Powell when the Cruise of the Calgaric docked in Helsinki). Unfortunately the museum was officially closed on our last day - the only day when we would have been free to visit- however all was not lost as our hosts applied for us to have a private viewing of the museum- and our Finnish Rover friends took us to the Museum where we had a wonderful visit. General Mannerheim had many things in common with Baden-Powell and the photographs of the two men together clearly show they enjoyed each other's company particularly as General Mannerheim seldom showed his emotions.

We arrived home from Finland and the next morning I flew out to America landing in Kansas City in the middle of the afternoon. My host Tom Johnson lost no time in taking me out the following morning to the Heart of America Camporee site at the Naish Scout Reservation just outside Kansas City. Though the Scout Reservation had many wonderful permanent facilities the Camporee was of such large a scale, over 12,000 campers, that undeveloped totally natural areas had to be chosen for the Camporee and obviously a great deal of work was required to make all ready. This was not helped when the area was stuck by high winds (this is tornado country; remember the Wizard of Oz!) and some of the smaller lighter supposedly all weather tents with carbon fibre poles were just trashed by the wind. The poles did not snap, they just shredded! Interestingly the 'Indian Village' a half dozen or so traditional Indian teepees with hardly a tent peg amongst them proved to be the stable tents in a wind I have ever seen - they did not move and inch! The Camporee which was a weekend event was a great success- with great Scout Spirit very much in evidence. I spoke to adult and youth audiences in the evening and on a stage during the daytime. When not talking to an audience I was meeting Scouts - and signing postcards of Jam Roll and Eccles - having talked about the need for their continued preservation in my talks. There was no doubt of the interest of young people in preserving Jam Roll as it is 2500 miles away from their homeland. In the course of just 8 hours over £600 was raised mainly in $1 donations for its preservation!

After the Camporee I was invited to talk to Troop 201 of the Hillcrest Christian Church in Kansas- where I was made an honourary member of the Troop- and again, as a great honour, given an Order of the Arrow - Vigil, wooden arrowhead badge - which I am sure I do not deserve but will be a lasting memento of a wonderful visit.

From Kansas I travelled to Dallas where I was able to visit the BSA Headquarters, its wonderful museum and archive. I cannot begin to tell you just how good a museum it is! Those who continually bleat on about how history has no relevance to the modern programme need to go and look see- the whole multi-million dollar presentation is based on the past informing the present -and the future. On entering the museum one is met by an animated life-size free-standing Baden-Powell in an auditorium interacting with modern day Scouts on a giant screen behind. If this sounds 'naff', it is because my words are not doing it justice! When Baden-Powell opened his mouth and started to talk it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - and I have tell you, that that does not happen very often!
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.I was of course pulled as by a magnet into the Scout Archives, which again was a very great honour for me, not given to many 'outsiders' even as thoose 'just visiting'. I was able to work and record Baden-Powell's own archive of letters journals etc that are lodged in the archives, adding greatly to my databases that have been compiled over many years now and on which this site and my books are grounded. These databases are of course made available to both the UK and the BSA Associations, as the whole premise of what I do on Scouting Milestones is to 'preserve the past to inform the future'. You may be sure that my work is available to all those who are serious in wanting to progress Scouting.

Since returning from the USA, besides transcribing the information recorded there in to the relevant databases etc I have spent a most happy day recently with Ron and Margaret Driver in Grimsby, who not only shared their collection with me but had arranged a private viewing of a recently the restored oil-painting of j c cornwell v c, owned by Humbeside Corporation.. I was also able to photograph a street named after Jack close to the now demolished hospital where Jack Cornwell died. Images of these items will appear on the Cornwell pages on this site in due course.

Tomorrow, Saturday 23rd October I am to visit the Annual General Meeting of the Church Lads and Church Girls Brigade Historical Society at their Headquarters at Wath on Dearne. The Church Lads's Brigade were the first youth organisation to incorporate Baden-Powell's vision of 'scouting' in 1903, five years before the formation of the Scout Association. It, with the Boy's Brigade, can truly be said to be far more than Brother Organisations. I attend of course in a private capacity but take with me fraternal greetings from all those who know their Scout history! Let me leave you, as usual, with this final thought.

Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Milestones --> September 14th 2010

Well, I have seen a lot of Scouting artifacts and met a lot of Scouts and Scouters since my last entry! On 26th of August the Scouting Milestones 'roadshow' motored South and arrived at a previously uncalled at destination, Midhurst in the South Downs, Sussex, home of the excellent and very friendly International Badgers Club event held over the weekend in the town's sport centre, run by Chris Hollingham. Chris keeps open house for all who have real interest in Scouting- and throughout the weekend it was peopled by guests from the US, Canada, Australian and many English Counties. Each evening most of the stall holders met socially to eat together in a local hostelry making this event one of the most friendly in the badge collector's calender. Those who wanted to stay overnight patronised the town's hotelx, or slept in the excellent Scout Hut in the famous Cowdrey Park - (one in a hammock between two trees), or like us stayed in a motor caravan.
My new book on Scouting Collectables(see my on-line shop ) thankfully proved very popular, it being the first time since it was published that has been availabe for inspection and sale. Thankfully it proved to well received. Trading was encouraging. Those people who have an interest in collecting Scouting artefacts including badges should of course join the International Badgers Club who provide a diary of events all over the country of a similar nature, though it has to be said the Midhurst Meet is set, with its international dimemsion, to exclipse that of even the previously dominate Badger's event at the Giwell Reunion.
Being too far to travel back to Yorkshire and before the Gilwell reunion the following weekend, we stayed in the deep south and found plenty of interest, visiting a variety of locations including camping in an apple orchard, where the only mistake we made was not buying more than one case of the excellent selection of apple juice offered by our hosts at Ruggles Farm, near Wadhurst.

At the Reunion the weather, which had been set very fine since out departure from Yorkshire, continued re-establishing our faith in the English Summer. We, (the Scout and Guide Historical Society) occupied the Gidney Cabin as last year, putting on an exhibition of varied Scouting Artefacts including all the Scouting Milestones books which again attracted very positive attention. I gave a talk in Swan Hut on the Friday night - which was a repeat of last year's 'The History of the Rovers' a subject which I find very emotive, and once again the audience - from all over the world, were very pro Rovers and subsequent discussion proved that many of present had been invested as Rovers and of course are therefore still Rovers. Anthony Groves had attended the last South Eastern Rover at Gilwell Park where the coffin of Rovering was carried around the camp in to the planned demise of Rovering. Antbony has since sent a song written the time which sums up how Rovers felt at the time - and this will appear in due course on the History of the Rovers' page.
On Saturday afternoon I led a tour through the park stressing the many historic Scouting locations in the park. It was well supported and £66 was donated those who participated, again from all over the world, to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity. Saturday evening after the camp fire saw the traditional 'meeting' in the White House for a further Milestones session, but instead of me talking for the whole time, the audience were able to suggest topics that might be discussed and join in with observations and questions - this proved very lively and I was told entertaining. We were privileged to see examples, brought from Kent of the carving of Gilwell Rover Don Potter who was an member of the permanent Service Team at the time of Camp Cheif Gidney, and has his biograohy (see link) will show gave so much to Scouting.

Tomorrow I start of on a tour which will take to Helsinki and Turku in Finland to talk at Centennial of Scouting events including the B-P Seminars, a rare honour. I look forward to meeting up with my many Finnish friends. The 'tour' then proceeds to the Heart of America Camporee in Kansas USA, where again I will be giving talks and hopefully meeting many Scouts. After the Jamboree I meet with Tom Johnson's Troop 201 before flying to Texas to meet BSA archivists Scout Headquarters at Irving near Dallas where I hope to see some of the BSA's treasures and look to ways sharing of the Scouting Milestones databases.
All in all it is going to be a very busy and if into hectic time - but as somebody once said, (not B-P this time) -being busy, it as sure as heck beats the alternative!

Giving the success of Vol 1, 'Scouting Collectibles' it seems very likely that a reprint will be necessary, and was projected from the outset, Vol II is now planned. Already research has started into that most favourite of all Scouting Collectables, County Badges. If you would like to share any interesting history connected your Scout County Badge I would be pleased to hear from you.

Well, time to finish the packing - Sailing By is just playing out Radio Four as I write. Let me leave you, as usual, with this final thought. Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

August 1st 2010 Yorkshire Day - the white rose is flying over Fern Dell!

Happy Camping to all those that are going- and for those who have recently braved the elements, B-R-A-V-O! We have not that long ago returned from our Baltic Cruise travelling in wake of the 1933 Cruise of the Calgaric. The weather was absolutely wonderful and the Baltic like a Mill pond. As I always on board ship I met many Scouting and Guiding people including the Chairman of Kent Scout Association and his good lady.

The main project that has been occupying my time since returning from the Cruise is my new book 'Scouting Collectibles' 155 A5 pages full colour, 300+ images of some of rarest Scouting Collectables from leading Scout Collectors and Archives. I won't go on much more about the contents because you can read as the book is due to be published on Wednesday 3rd of August it is the subject of a current eBay auction. (It will soon be advertised on the shop pages on this site) The winner of the auction will of course get a specially signed copy! Somebody once said that writing a book is a bit like having a baby- I have never had a baby- but I can tell that it takes a least nine months and it will be very good on Wednesday when it stops pushing! Other than this first copy on eBay there is no need for readers of this website to enter into any sort of auction for the book- just write to me at link provided on this page. The cost is £20 (remember it is full colour) plus £2.50 UK postage, £5 for Europe and £7.75 for rest of the world. Remember to tell me if you wish the book to signed.

I have just had a very interesting email from Ron Glover who tells me that he did his Scouting in Hants/Dorset/S E Berks and made great friends with the District Badge Secretaries the brothers John and Alan Grad. They gave Ron a badge for his campfire blanket which was from the King of Siam's Own, a London Scout Troop. The badge was square, and white with a red elephant. Ron treasured the badge, put it on his campfire blanket that he used throughout his Scouting and Rovering Days until an RAF posting when unfortunately the blanket was lost. Ron (and I) would be delighted if any 'Milestoner'(a new word- but I think I will use again!) could assist by sending a scan of this badge should you have it in your collection - or know where one is to be found. Ron is anxious to try and recreate his campfire blanket. It be very good it we could assist to give this story a happy ending. You have never let me down yet!

The Reunion is getting close, but the weekend before I shall be at the Midhurst Badgers Club Event on the edge of the New Forest- so come and have a word if are going to that, or to the Gilwell Reunion which, as I said in the last blog, I will also be attending and giving talks (including one on the History of the Rovers) and a guided walk in aid or Macmillan Nurses (see last blog).

Well, lots to do before this baby gets to be born on Wednesday! Let me leave you, as usual, with this final thought. Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

June 28th 2010

Two blog entries in May - only one in June, what's been going on? Well as always I have been a tad busy. My new book, Vol. 1 Scouting Collectables, 160 pages, 15 chapters, 400 colour images is now finished HOORAY! Well, when I say finished what I mean it is, it is written. Now it goes through the vital process of being proof read- over and over again to try an eliminate all those tiresome typos. I have a team of four proof readers, two who have Scouting expertise, and two who are 'lay people' - but together they are a great team and the book will meet is publishing deadline of August 2nd. With all those colour pages publishing costs are going to be high but I am determined to keep the end price down to Scouting customers. My books are professionally printed with ISBN, but are self published that is they don't go into bookshops and I have to pay for them up front and sell them myself. So print runs are low compared, - with reprints whenever necessary, but I am glad to say that all of my books have gone in into second editions, some third, and one a fourth edition! Anyway, to keep costs down I have decided to sell advertising space in the book relevant to collecting and have so far found sponsors who are prepared to pay £25 for a quarter A4 page - full colour advert with images . This very competitive- one thee inch wide 'column ad' in Scouting, one inch deep is around £300 and not everybody who reads Scouting is a collector of Scouting artifacts. So, if YOU would like to advertise, please contact me and I will do my best to make your advert successful. I do not guarantee to publish all suggested adverts- they have to 'work' within the theme of the book, be visually appealing (I help with this) and be a service to by my readers as well as advertisers. If you wish to purchase the new book on pre-publication terms, then please visit my on-line shop

Well, what else have I been up to? As totally relaxing 'break' from my squared-eyed activity of writing on the computer, I went to the most unusual Scouting event that have so far experienced in my 58 year membership of the Scout Movement. A Scout Beer Festival! It was great. Well done to Newmillerdam Scout Group, Wakefield, for running this 'proper' two-day festival. They found local real ale brewers to donate barrels, and other people to sponsor them by buying barrels for them to sell. To accompany the beer, pea and pie suppers and beefburgers etc were to hand. Good weather helped to make the event very successful. The most appreciated brew was call Dam Scouts- a pun on the Scout troop's name. How refreshing, in more ways than one! Some groups moan and about lack of funds, lack of parental involvement and lack of public appreciation. 'The Dam Scout' get on with. B-R-A-V-O.
The 'night off' was great, but I have also been busy meeting deadlines providing material in Association with the World Moot being held in Kenya in late July this year. The Baden-Powell used the old English word Moot, to describe a international meeting of Rovers, and the 4 year tradition of Rovers had gone with a few misses since the first Moot at Kandersteg in 1931. However the UK Scout Association saw fit to abolish Rovering in 1968, and The World Rover Moot has had its title changed to Scout Moot since the year 2000. Read the history of the Rovers History of the Rover , on these pages, and you will get a pretty good idea how I am many Rovers and I feet about this. However, to continue, I was lucky enough in 2006 to visit Kenya and of course went to see the Founder's grave at Nyeri, the Outspan Hotel close by in the grounds B-P last home 'Paxtu' was built, and the near 'Treetops' that B-P often visited to sketch wildlife. Those that have been to Paxtu will know that visitors like to leave some memmento of their own Scout group- a badge or necker, and of course I wanted also to leave a tribute. So I left some scans of letters that B-P and Olave had sent from Paxtu telling their friends just what a wonderful place it was. I was hopeful that these might be mounted and placed on the walls of the litle museum that is now Paxtu. When it came time to leave, I could not find anybody in charge with whom to leave my gift, but left it anyway. A couple a weeks ago,out of the blue, I was contacted by the hotel chain that now owns the Outspan Hotel, and therefore Paxtu and Treetops. They still had my card, ane wrote to tell me they were doing a special promotion for the many visitors that they expect to recieve over the course of the forthcoming Moot, and could I help? Well of course I was delighted to do so- but the deadlines are very tight as the event is quite soon that yet another reason why I have been so busy. More about my efforts, the Outspan Promotion and the World Moot in the next blog.

Plans for even more activity loom very large. Very shortly I willbe off on a Baltic Cruise. Is is any old Baltic Cruise? - absolutely not. In 1933 B-P and Olave + family went on their own Baltic Cruise called Crise of the Calgaric/i>, accompanied by 600 Scouters and Guiders who enjoyed wonderful Scouting hospitality/rallies/jamborees every time they docked. Of course I don't expect the local Scouts and Guides will be out waving flags for me when I arrive! The route though has been carefully selected to match as near as possible that of the Cruise of the Calgaric. It is not a completely the same however as all Baltic Cruises these days call at St Petersburg Russia, which was out of bounds in 1933.

September promises to be a very busy month. I shall be attending the Gilwell Reunion and giving my usual Saturday eveing (after the campfire) talk in the White House - on a topic yet to be selected but the night before in the Swan Centre I shall be talking 'by popular demand' for those who missed it last year on - guess what- 'The History of the Rovers'. Tickets will given out to both of these talks free of charge (donations on the night to The Scout Holiday Homes Trust) on a first come first served basis. I have also been asked to lead a walking tour of the Park looking places of significance in Scouting History. This is organised as part of the programme and in aid of Macmillian Cancer Nurses Trust, and tickets will be available at the main White Reception County. The walk is so far projected to take place at 4.p.m. from their on Saturday. I will let you via this blog if there are changes to that but it will be in the Reunion Programme. Shortly afterwards I travel to Helsinki as the guest of Finnish Scouts to help celebrate their centennial and almost immediately fly to Dallas and Kansas to attend centennial celebrations there. Again more of this later.

Well that's all the news that's fit to print at the moment let me leave you, as usual, with this final thought. Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

May 31st 2010

It is a little bizarre that when I wrote the last blog on May 18th - less than two weeks ago- I should have mentioned the Minotaur, the Sea Scout Dunkirk Little Ship pages without any idea that the 70th anniversary of 'Operation Dynamo' was just about to happen, and despite (of perhaps because) of all the gloom currently besetting the world, it would become the one of the strongest news stories of the past week. I should net be surprised. The 'miracle' of Dunkirk was not just the lifting of the men of the beaches in such a Heath Robinson way, the heroism of all concerned, but the way this one bit of good news lifted the spirits of the nation at a time national gloom. We could without doubt do with a bit of that Dunkirk Spirit right now! This anniversary was made even more poignant for me by the news, just before the anniversary, of the passing of James 'Lofty' Christmas, who accompanied Minotaur as a naval rating on her heroic voyages to the Dunkirk beaches. The story of Lofty appears is some detail on the Minotaur pages, and Milestones is glad to have played a part in bringing his heroism to public attention. I am informed that there will be a BBC documentary about the Little Ships by Dan Snow on June 5th. Before viewing have a look at the Minotaur pages and see the part Scouting played in the 'miracle'. Can I just mention here the absolutely wonderful BBC Radio 4 production of the Snow Goose by Paul Gallico which has been run several times over the last few days (catch it on Iplayer. It tells the story of the evacuation in such moving terms. I am sometimes accused by those around me of living so much in the world of Scouting that there is nothing that I cannot relate to the history of our Movement. Well, at the risk of confirming their analysis. Paul Gallico was inspired to write Snow Goose by his friend Wild Life Naturalist Peter Scott, who lived in the lighthouse featured in the story, and kept a snow goose. Peter Scott was of course the son of Captain Robert Falcon Scott of the Antarctic, the Captain of RRS Discovery another 'Sea Scout Ship', whose history and long connection with Scouting appears on these pages. Peter Scott was present at the ceremony when the ship was handed over to Baden-Powell by the Governor of the Falkland Islands having being bought to the Embankment in London in October 1937. He was to become a leading wild life painter and a prominent conservationist and was a leading member of the trust that oversaw the safe transfer of RRS Discoveryfrom Scout ownership, to its present state of preservation in its home port of Dundee.

I very much enjoyed my evening with the Newcastle Red Necker Fellowship at the Britannia Hotel Newcastle Airport last week, not least because it took back to Ponteland where I spent three happy years training to be a teacher. The warmth of the Geordie welcome cannot be surpassed and my thanks are due to Dave Mowbrey who ran the event to raise funds for the very worthwhile Scout's Holiday Homes Charity, which provides vastly subsidised seasisde accommodation for families (not necessarily Scouting) in top rate locations. After my talk we had a bit of fun with an 'Antique Road Show' style event, where the audience brought along items of Scout history for comment and evaluation. As always at these events the range of artefacts was interesting and diverse with some very important items of local and national significance, which of course all need to be documented and preserved. I was very pleased to meet again Peter Nicol, the retiring Deputy Chief Scout, who has now returned to the fold of active Northumbrian Scouting.

< It is should not escape our readers that the two items discussed in this posting, have a deeper significance for us. The passing of Lofty Christmas, and the range importance of Scouting artefacts that just one Scout Fellowship can produce from private ownership, points up the need that Scouting history, local and national, should be properly recorded now, whislt the people whe made the history are still with us!

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Mafeking Day May 18th 2010

I hope you all had a happy and productive Mafeking Day, the 110th Anniversary. Remember that without the fame that came from the longest running Siege of the Boer War, and all the pain and misery that entailed, our Founder could not possibly have launched the world's largest youth movement.

I have just returned from the Euroscout event at Chelmsford, hosted this year by our own Scout and Guide Stamp Club. It was pleasure to meet some of the world's leading Scouting philatelists. Though this event was non-competitive, congratulations must go to Hallvard Slettebø of Norway for his display on 'World Scouting' which has previously won two Large Gold Medals (best in show) at different World class philatelic events - against all-comers, not just Scouting exhibitors. The first of these being in China - one of the few countries in the world without Scouts. The significance of this achievement can hardly be understated. The congratulations are even more deserved because Halvard chose English to be medium for the exhibit, though of course this is not his mother tongue. Scouting Milestones is proud to have been involved in a very minor way in assisting in the translation. Chelmsford proved to be an excellent venue for the event in view of the friendship and support offered by the town. Though the exhibition is part of the 'Euroscout' series there were exhibitors from as far away as South and North America, and visitors from far and wide including Australia, making the event truly international. The next 'Euroscout' is to be held in two years time in Germany at the wonderful resort town of Rottenburg ob der Tauber. As I said in my last blog entry, there are quite a few important (but by no means well enough known) areas of Scout History that have their origins in Scouts being involved in wartime in giving great service and often sacrifice in running 'post offices' - there are very few episodes in Scout History that are not commemorated on stamps- and whether or not you want to collect yourself, looking at the interesting exhibits from across the world merely emphases the 'width and depth' or our wonderful Scouting Heritage.

I my way home I was very pleased to visit Purley to call in on Tom Samson, a one-time official photographer to the Scout Association - his photographic coverage began with the building of B-P House and the 1957 World Jamboree, though I could see his talent in the Kodak Brownie snapshots he took as Rover when he attended the Monzie Castle World Rover Moot in 1939. Among his treasured memories were meeting and working with many Scouting personalities including Ralph Reader and photographing many members of the Royal Family, including of course the Queen, who have taken an interest in our Scouting events.

The Scouting Milestone postbag continues to amaze me, and recent contacts have proved fresh information that has been added to Vera Barclay (Wolf Cub pioneer) on the Biography pages, A chart from the Scout Little Ship Minotaur has been added to the Minotaur and I have further contact with families who predecessors include Mafeking Cadets.

I look forward to addressing the Newcastle Red Necker Fellowship at the Britannia Hotel Newcastle Airport, at 7.30 p.m. this Friday Night (21st May. Tickets are available from Dave Mowbray who can be contacted on 01670 732269, or John Hutchinson 01661 852479. I am delighted to be going back to God's Own County, and will do my best to make it a memorable evening. Dave Mowbray has arranged for an 'Antique Road Show' element to the proceedings which should be a lot of fun. All proceeds are to the Scout Holiday Homes Trust. If you live anywhere close, (say within 60 miles!) come and enjoy real Geordie hospitality! Gan Canny!

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Milestones April 14th 2010

So much has happened since my last entry that I hardly know where to start! Firstly news of the Scout and Guide Historical Society (at last I hear you say). You will recall that I have purchased the necessary large amount of webspace but having found nobody wanting the job of webmaster for the Society website I tried to use my Scouting Milestones WebSite as a template to create the new site in its new webspace, but ran clean out technical competence! Several of you tried to help with very good suggestions, but my good in Scouting Justin Dawson from Radio Scouting has come to the rescue, and the fruits of his labours can be seen at www.scoutingmilestones.co.uk. Wait a minute I hear you say what has that got to do with the Scout and Guide Historical Society. Well everything! The scoutingmilestones.co.uk site is not this one- this www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk- so now I have a working website in the new space. In the next few days we will have a copy of that under the new scoutguidehistoricalsociety.com domain- in the same webspace and from that I shall create the new open pages for the Society's webssite - and will contact all those that paid the £1 with the new password that will enable you to get pass the opening pages. It is all very exciting... At long last.

Now where have I been this time to avoid writing up the blog? Well I have spent three weeks in India and Nepal. - A wonderful eye opening and jaw dropping holiday it was too. As usual quite a lot of it was spent in the 'footsteps of the Founder', hard not to really it spent so much time travelling the world and of course he stationed in India. I was near to Simla were he was stationed but unfortunately not close enough to go and investigate, but we trod the same paths to the same historic sites in Delhi and Fathephur Sir and Agra, home of the Taj Majal. These sites are part of what is often called India's Golden Triangle- but when we went completely 'off route' up into Nepal where as far as I know Baden-Powell did not visit. That is definitely not to say there is no evidence of his passing! There is Nepalese Mountain Peak named after him (Nepal has eight of ten of the world's highest mountains) and a thriving Scout Association. By pure coincidence (a skill I share with Baden-Powell!) once again I managed to meet up Scouts - this time Nepalese Scouts Rover Scouts and Ranger Guides and attend a training meeting in the famous Hindu shrine town of Pashupatinath. It was here I met up with Sumit Kharel, a Scout Leader of two School Scout Groups. Sumit invited me to the meeting where I learned so much, not only about the facts of Nepalese Scouting but about the truism that people who don't have a lot themselves give a great deal. The community programmes run by these Nepalese Scouts would put some of our own to shame! I shall, you may be sure, writing more about Nepalese Scouting. Meanwhile if you have any old but reasonable condition Scout Books (does not matter at all if they are not the current flavour of the month as far current UK Scouting programme is concerned) I know a really good home for them -as all Nepalese Scouts not only want to live Scouting - but also to learn English! As soon as I have 'proven' that the Nepalese addresses I have been given 'work', I will be publishing them here- so what every you can find- will be used I can assure you.
>
The Scouting Milestones appointments diary is filling up. I shall be at Euroscout an event hosted by the Scout and Guide Stamp Club at Chelmsford Friday to Sunday 13th -14th -15thth - 15th May. Admission is free. So your not a stamp collector- so what - You are a Scout - and what you will see depicted through the medium of stamps and 'covers' is the history of Scouting across the world. Things you never knew and will amaze you - You know about the Polish Scout Postal System in war destroyed Warsaw? You know about how Scouts came the rescue in 1919 and ran the Czechoslovakianan Postal System in Praque, until order could be restored? You know about the India Rocket Mail at the All India Jamboree?- well, you will do if you come to this free event- and I will be pleased to have a chat.
On the 21st of May I will be talking to Scout Fellowships at a Hotel near Newcastle Airport, and the same again the following evening in Berwick on Tweed. These are ticket only events but the money is going to support really good International Scouting projects. - more of this later. In the longer term I will of course be attending the Gilwellll Re-union but then I travel to Helsinki as the guest of Finnish Scouts to help celebrate their centennial and almost immediately I shall be off to Dallas and Kansas to attend centennial celebrations there. Again more of this later.

I don't know if you every look at the comments on the visitors book for these pages but we don't get some very interestingng people drop by. Not long ago we had Alison Harper granddaughter of Hayden Dimmock Scouting Author and much revered editor of the Scout Magazine. The entry before hers is from Pamela Forcey Grandd aughter of Ernest Thompson Seton about whom there are several articles on this site- the first Chief Scout of America- and leaving aside whether he did or did not 'invent' Scouting he definitely was the leading pioneer conservationist, woodcraftsman and Scout of the highest order. Baden-Powel acknowledgeged his work over and over gain in his first edition of Scouting for Boys.
Since returning home I have contact with families who relatives fought alongside Baden-Powell at Mafeking - and a very welcome contact with a lady whose great Grandmother was a nurse in the Boer hospital just outside Mafekinh where'The Boy' McLaren was held prisoner. McLaren a lifelong friend of B-P was Assistant Scout Master on Brownsea (See the Brownsea Pages) and the first Secretary of the Scout Association. My correspondant Larramie Damstra tells me she has in her possession a letter sent to her Great Grandmother from Baden-Powell thanking her for her efforts in caring for the 'The Boy'. This set off my memorbecausese I have been lucky enough to study the letters that B-P sent the McLaren whilst he was in the hospital and I found a reference to B-P sending stamps from Mafeking to the Doctor and Nurse who were looking after 'The Boy' as a thank you to them. So after all these years I was able to pass on to Larramie these thoughts from Baden-Powell about her Great Grandmother!

Well things are beginning to settle down now after my return- two books being reprinted and working on another one about 'Scouting Collectibles'. No rest for the wicked. I have a Scouting Funeral to go to on Friday of a grand old Scout Eric Dawson, who attended the Northern Counties Rally of 1936 as a Rover Scout which Baden-Powell also attended. Eric was a member of Wakefield Scout Fellowship and will be sadly missed. Scout Fellowships as you know are being disbanded to be re-branded as Scout Active Support units. I have nothing against progress, but people like Eric spent his life in Scouting Service and as they grew old, thoroughly deserved the fellowship to which they were entitled withing Scouting. Scout Fellowship - with its tradition of service is/was ideally suited to providing an 'awning' to people who deserve our respect. I just hope that the such folk will not be 'thrown out with the bath water' when it comes to Active Support Units. Yes I know nobody is going to 'throw' anybody out- but the point us are the old and infirm going to be made welcome! If you have view on this I would be pleaed to publish it!Mistakes have been made before (See the History of the Rovers Page). History has little use if we don't learn from it. Which brings me nicely to

LI>As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use it to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Milestones February 26th 2010

Can it really be so long ago that I last posted an entry? A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then! To start with we are in a new year and so belatedly I wish all my readers good Scouting for the coming summer, if not a now a complete year. It is this year that marks the 100th anniversary of the formal start of Guiding - but GirlGuiding UK have wisely taken their starting date from the Windsor Rally on September 4th 1909- when 'girl scouts' turned up unannounced and demanded to be allowed to take part, and so their year of centennial activities starts from that date. Readers of my book - 'The Dawn of the World Scout Movement' will know that there were Girl Scouts officially sanctioned by Baden-Powell as early as May of 1908, but lets not be carping, the Girl Guiding Centennial is much nearer to the truth as far dates are concerned than the Scouting Centennial was! The Centennial Year of Girl Guiding activity was heralded by an excellent documentary on BBC TV, not marred by the usual carpings from the usual people who seem to delight in besmirching the Founder with their own ill-founded misguided prejudices. The chief perpetrator, Mr Tim Jeal, B-P's Biographer, however did trot out towards the end of the year with another his headline grabbing erroneous assertions, i.e. that Baden-Powell had "a fixation" about public executions! Jeal maintains that B-P had in order to feed his 'fixation' executed Chief Uwini in Matabeleland in 1886. This was given a great of public attention in December 2009 because an archivehad came to light in an Auction sale containing Maj.General (later Lord) Carrington papers who was then B-P commanding during the Matabele War. These same papers however (I have copies of them and was the underbidder at the auction) completely exonerated Baden-Powell as did a Court of Inquiry (not a trial) held to decide if the trial of the chief should have been a military trial or a civil court (not that the Chief should not have been tried!-The end result would, I suspect, have been the same, who ever held the trial. There is no doubr that Chief Urwina had murdered British settlers and was trying to rouse his men to kill Britishers, telling them that their God would turn British bullets to water! To be totally fair, history tells us now that Chief Urwini was a freedom fighter, a hero of his people and the British as most other European nations were colonialist oppressors, but that was not Baden-Powell's fault! He was a soldier of the Queen and his role in 'empire building' is no worse and a lot better than most! Mr Jeal knows these distinctions fine well, but there is no publicity in keeping quiet, or attacking anybody other than Baden-Powell who was around at the time who really were responsible for war crimes etc, as they of course do not have a reputation to destroy. There would be no profit in it, and no one would listen! Unfortunately those who don't take the trouble to independently search out the truth are sucked in by the hype. I have read comments in print and on line to the effect that having read Mr Jeal's inspired 'Baden-Powell was Murderer' headlined newspaper reports - some individuals regret even being associated with B-P by havibng been part of his Movement. Some people have a lot to answer for!

I have been involved in the production of the Guide Centennial Stamps for the Ascension Island which will be due out in May, there two different sets, one of four stamps concentrating on present day Guiding activities on the island, and another in which I have been closely involved,is a set of three stamps showing Scouting Milestones Artefacts, autographed portraits of B-P, Olave and B-Ps sister Agnes. The issue looks back to the Girl Scouts of 1908/09 who really forced, by sheer 'Girl Power', Baden-Powell to admit girls into Scouting. It was only because the churches and the Anti-suffragist movement were so vociferous in opposing 'mixed activities' that B-P was forced into sanctioning Girl Guides has a single sex independent but sister movement to the Scouts, led by his sister Agnes. I have written the press release for this issue and First Day Cover is adorned with Girl Scout items from the Scouting Milestones archive. I believe this may be the only set of Stamps celebrating the GG anniversary that depicts its proper Girl Power roots.

I have been off to foreign climes already this years on a Red Sea Cruise, spending time at the Pyramids and Petra Jordan- in lovely sunshine, this is as you will appreciate very hard work (big grin), but someone has to do it! In a few days I shall be off again to do more researching at Gilwell Park Scout Archives, and of course staying over the weekend for the AGM of the International Badgers Club. My diary from then on starts to look very full, a tour of Northern India and Tibet, attendance at the Euroscout event being held in Guilford by the Scout and Guide Stamp club on 15th/16th May (see their website, and amongst other activities will be talks in Newcastle and North Northumberland on May 21st and 22nd- more details later , a Baltic Cruise, attendance at various Traction Engine Rallies, not forgetting of course the Gilwell Reunion on the first weekend in September where I shall again be giving talks , and then, shortly after, I have had an invitation to visit the Scouts of Finland to give talks to mark their centennial. - A busy life but a happy one!
With all this activity I have regretfully had to turn down invitations to talk - even abroad- where dates have clashed with those already organised. The moral of the story is, if you would like a Scouting Milestones for your District/County/Organisation - BOOK EARLY!

With all the above going on your may think there would be not time for research/writing? Well you would be wrong - just today a second reprint of my book 'Jam Roll':Baden-Powell:The Man and his Motors was published - with all proceeds going to the charity B-P Jam Roll limited that have preserved the car for Scouting. It is not just a matter of pressing the reprint button, the book has to gone through and brought up-to-date. It now includes of the mystery of the its very special Scouting Mascot - depicted on the its front cover- press the link to see this, read the blurb and order the book.
My latest new book, well Volume I of it, is already half complete and will be published I hope before the Gilwell Re-union. It is to be called Scouting Collectibles it will look at all the different forms of Scouting collecting, postcards, cigarettes cards, historic badges, Baden-Powell related items, pottery, medals,scraps, toys, games, etc etc. The book is not meant to be a 'Stanley Gibbons' style catalogue but will attempt to show what is available and illustrates some of the rarer and more interesting items (in colour) and detail their significance. More details to come later.

So every thing is wonderful in the world of Scouting Milestones? Well no, no quite. The Scout and Guide Historical Society which I hoped by now would be up and running with its own website, is still floundering. The situation is this. We have appealed for a volunteer webmaster just to get the website up and running, I would happily maintain it when it is. In the absence of such of volunteer I thought, with my limited web-design skills, I would have a go myself , and so have purchased a very large block space and domain name, ScoutGuideHistoricalScoicety.com and uploaded the Scouting Milestones webpages to this new site to act as a template for the new society webpages. The problem is - for the technically minded- that using my FTP programme I can see the Milestones Pages on the new site - but not any of the images, though these are properly uploaded in their folders, and I can open these folders and see the images separately. I am desperately trying to get this sorted so I can write all those who have paid their £1 subscription (used to purchase the webspace) and get the 'show on the road'. I am afraid though that this is now going to have to wait until at least April because of the commitments I have outlined above. But if you are able to understand any of the above 'techno-babble'- and think you might be able offer some expertise, just to get us started, please do get in touch.

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

November 18th 2009

IMPORTANT NEWS! My 'negotiations' with BT reported on my last posting with regard to this website and the proposed Scout and Guide Historical Society new website have finally come to an end. The total count got up to 27 people consulted! The upshot is that despite paying £10 a month over the standard price for Broadband for 10 years to ensure sufficient webspace for the Scouting Milestones site, BT a few years discontinued webhosting for domestic customers. Obviously the website has not been withdrawn but they no longer 'support' webhosting. This means they will not answer any questions about the website - how big it is and how webspace is still available. Faced with the massive indifference to the problems this is going to cause, I have now contracted with an major US provider of webspace Bravehost.com to supply sufficient webspace for the continuance of the this website and the new Scout and Guide Historical Society Website.

The Scout and Guide Historical Society website not yet launched is now under construction HOORAY! It will be found on the web under the URL ScoutGuideHistoricalSoc.com When it is launched - and I will let you know when that is, all those members who have signed and paid one pound registration will be given the password to enter the main site- but of course anybody will be able to find our 'Home Page' Those intending members who have signed up but not paid their pound registration are asked to do so now please by sending cheque to Colin Walker Fern Dell Valley Road Darrington WF83BX, (The costs money will be used to defray the costs involved in providing the website and the new domain name. The next step in the process is to contact all members and have an election for the officers for this new Society. This will take a little time so please bear with us.

Scouting Milestones Scout History website (this one) will to continue to run on this URL and until notified, no changes should be made if you have the site stored in your 'favourite places' (and why wouldn't you?). Once the transfer is complete and everything is tested THEN via this blog I will let you know and you can store our new URL which will be ScoutingMilestones.co.uk These changes will provide the permanence and space for the site to continue to grow.

Updates Significant additions have been made to the Use of the Swastika in Scouting page , mainly with additional images of rare 'swastika' thanks badges courtesy of Kent County Commissioner and good friend to these pages, Kelvin Holford. The History of the Rover's Page, has again been added to this time with further details of the Mullet Scheme Training course particularly at Hedingham Castle - with new images.

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

November 10th 2009

Scout and Guide Historical Society. I am very sorry indeed that I although I can announce we have sufficient names to launch the new Society, I am unable yet to announce the new website that it will 'live' under. There are two problems:
Though I have had some interest from individuals who might take over the role of webmaster for the proposed new website, so far nothing is resolved other than if no one is forthcoming I will do the job myself. This though will still require a purpose-made website other than Scouting Milestones.

Problem 2 is that my current website is hosted by my provider British Telecom with whom I am an Option 3 customer which should provide me with unlimited webspace - thus allowing for a second site with a different name to be set up. Despite 4 days of calls and speaking to 21 different people in all sorts of different departments and two different continents, BT are unable to advise me on the very simple question of how much webspace I have currently used, and why it is that the BT remote computer is not allowing me upload any substantial new file without deleting information to make space for it. Until this question is resolved I am then unable to launch the new website, but I have the head of BT customer services (in India) phoning me back tomorrow and I shall keep you informed.

There have been minor updates to the Scout Marr and the Quest Page concerning Marr's family. I would very much like to have contact with any of his children or grandchildren. I am indebted to Milestone reader Terry Wiffen for forwarding a Marr Biography from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography- it has provided information that Marr had six children five of who survived, but is incorrect in its Scouting details.
A new image of a Senior Scouts Epaulette (Senior Scouts predating and precursors of Rovers) have been added to the Rover's Page, courtesy of Kent County Commissioner Kelvin Holford.

On November 3rd my wife and I travelled down to Kent in the camper and met its County Commissioner Kelvin Holford - and was privileged to look at and photograph some of his fine collection. We then travelled to the new Scout Barn, near Maidstone recently purchased by Kent County along with a 5 acre camping field, a very positive and forward thinking acquisition. Fifty or so people had travelled to hear me give talk which ranged over some of the Milestone's Pages that have perhaps the most personal meaning for me, i.e. Mafeking Cadets, Rovers, Bamboo Thumbsticks Brownsea and Jam Roll. This meant that the talk was far-ranging rather than a chronological attack on just one subject and this then was reflected in a lively question and answer session. The following day I gave a talk in Maidstone's Session House superb lecture theatre, on the Dawn of the World Scout Movement which had a large input on the Girl Scouts of 1908/09, the forerunners of the Girl Guides, as the talk was linked to next year's 100th anniversary of the Girl Guides. There are major errors in the information put out over the last 100 years by both the Scout and Guide Associations re the status of the Girl Scouts. I have researched area this thoroughly and my conclusions though not yet documented on this site, form a chapter in my book The Dawn of the World Scout Movement details of which can found on the Shop Pages on this site. (The Scouting Milestones Roadshow can roll to venue near you provide a talk in your county about any of the Milestones topics!)

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Milestones --> October 9th 2009

Though some time has elapsed since my last entry- I have feel I have every excuse, we have once again been on our travels. Let's start though where we left off. The Gilwell Reunion was remarkable, not only for the uncharacteristic beautiful weather throughout the whole event. As the embryonic Scout and Guide Historical Society we had booked the Gilwell Cabin, and this was definitely a wonderful place to be. We met many old friends and intending members. If you wish to be a founding member there is still chance, please send £1 only to me, Colin Walker at Fern Dell Valley Road Darrington Pontefract - the Society will be launched by the end of this month. Please don't forget to include your email address! Please scroll down through earlier blogs for information and links re this new Society.

From the Cabin I sallied out to give three different talks- all well attended and received but the talk in the White House after the campfire on Saturday evening was very special- both the Bar and the Long Room were packed such as I had take my place in gap between the two rooms rather than at front with the fireplace behind. My subject was 'The History of the Rovers', and it became a apparent that most of my audience were Rovers (notice I don't and never will say ex-Rovers) and with some of the content I had relate, emotions were for the speaker and audience alike quite vulnerable.

We left the Reunion on Sunday in the motorhome to spend nearly a month unwinding as we gently toured the Brittany coastline - where the most remarkable thing to happen was a sighting of a sacred-ibis. A holiday was a perfect wind-down to a very busy year with many talks and two books being published etc etc.

It did not take long to get back into the swing of things however and within 24 hours arriving home I was giving a talk at the South Yorkshire Scout County AGM, at a the packed centre on the Bradley Wood Camp site. I was pleased to meet David Worth, Manager of the Sheffield Scout and Guide Shop, one of the biggest in the UK. He was able to see the Scouting Milestones 'output' on display and immediately suggest that the Scout Shop should carry these items. A day later I visited him at the Trippet Lane shop behind the Cathedral, and within days Milestone books and postcards are all in the shop's on-line catalogue. That is what I like about the majority of people in Scouting, they get things done!

As you would expect the back log of emails was immense- and in working through them there were many useful leads concerning Scouting topics on Milestones Everybody should have had a reply by now and the Scout Marr Pages. have now been revised to include a new section on the Daily Mail competition run in conjunction with the selection of the boys to accompany Shackleton. This was an essay writing competition where the 50 winners went to London to stay on board Quest to meet Shackleton and Scouts Marr and Mooney who were to accompany him. This revision is due to the good work of Hertfordshire County Archivist Frank Brittain, an old friend of these pages, who in researching those Scouts who came from Hertfordshire contacted the family of one of the winners, Frank Sears. Shortly before he died in 1956, Frank Sears wrote an unpublished autobiography which Frank Brittain was privileged to borrow from the Sears's family, it contained six pages recounting Sears' experience in coming to London and sleeping on board the Quest etc. A wonderful find now documented on the Milestones Pages.

I have also had correspondence from Chris Ballard in Hobart Tasmania who was able to cast a little bit of light on the Milestones claim that it was Bill Shankley ex Gilwell Park staff Member who was responsible for naming the Woggle and formulating its Gilwell Wood badge Turks Head appearance. His contact was most welcome and the information and references he gave is now added to the Wood Badge Pages.

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

August 22th 2009

It must be something of a record that I have been able to post two entries into the blog in the same week! This is the result of a emergency which I do hope you may be able to assist with for the benifit of some of our Finnish readers. If you have your not yet read the previous entry please make sure your scroll to read if after this.

My good friend in Scouting Joppe Ranta brings his Rover Scout friends from Finland every year to the Gilwell Reunion. Their visit to England is always with a purpose and has in the past focussed on the North East where they have visited sites connected with B-P's second great camp at in 1908. This year besides visiting the Reunion they would like to visit the site of B-P's 1909 camp at Beaulieu. In writing the article on the camp for these Pages I tried very hard to discover where the exact site of the land camp was (the boys spent one week on the Training Ship Mercury and another on land near Buckler's Hard) Various accounts state that the boys walked from the land camp into Buckler's Hard, so it cannot be very far way. Joppi and his Finish Rovers would like very much to visit the exact site of the camp, but time is now very short, so if you know - or know anybody that lives close to Beaulieu that is likely know the exact 1909 camping place please contact me on the link below. Milestones readers have never let us down yet, I look forward to hearing from you.

In the last few days I have been doing some updates on the site. Air Scouts who may be feeling a bit left out of things since Scouting generally celebabrated its centennial in 2007 and Sea Scouting this year - may feel they have a long way to wait intil 2041 to celebrate theirs. Well, no need! Scouting Milestones continued definative research into early Scout Air Activies can reveal that indisputedly Scouts (in Scout Uniform) were practising air activites as early as July 1909, and we have a photograph to prove it! So Air Scouts, no need to feel you are the new kids on the block, read all about it.

There is now for the first time a biography of Lord Strathcona who was a great supporter of Scouting since its inception here in the UK and also in Canada. B-P himself used his inspiring story as a role model for Scouts.

Now don't forget to carry one and read the last entry if your have not already done so!
As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

August 16th 2009

I am still getting mail for intending members of the Scout and Guide Historical Society, but worryingly some of them say they have visited this site and can find no mention of the Society. This blog is used to relay news of the Society and if you scroll down past entries you will find such details that Piet Kronenberg, World Scout Historian is now an Honourary Member, and that the Founder's Grandson Michael Baden-Powell has agreed to become our President etc. The Society has its own page on this site, our Scouting and Guiding Society Forum. You can express your intention of joining us by using the email link to me below. The Society will be formally initiated in October of this Year when all people who have expressed their intention of joining will be contacted by the Steering Committee of the new Society, and invited to elect our Working Committee.

Disappointingly the Milestones Road Show never got to attend the Sea Scout Centennial after all. Despite lots of pre-planning it transpired that my motor caravan under whose awning and adjacent 'pagodas' the Scouting Exhibition is arranged was just too heavy for the site, and programme had been arranged such that Scouting Milestones talks could only be of a 'drop in' nature, not part of the timetable of events. That was as I say disappointing, but I am sure all who were able to attend had a wonderful time. Scouting Milestones is though now looking forward to the Gilwell Reunion on the first weekend in September where there will be both a Scouting Milestone exhibition in the Gidney Cabin- with the opportunity to sign up for the Scout and Guide Historical Society as well as to see and maybe trade some great Scouting artifacts and collectables with John Ineson, Greg Cohen and Russel Grant, not to mention the increasing range Scouting Milestones books. I will be giving talks on Saturday in the bar Marquee at 11 a.m. on the Dawn of the World Scout Movement, and Saturday Evening after the Camp Fire in the White House on The History of Rovering. I will be talking again on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. again in the bar marquee on Scouting Milestones, with informal question and answer session on all Scout History topics. If you are going to the Reunion come across the Gidney Cabin for more details.

I am also now booked in to talk on the evening of November 4th, at the Lecture Theatre Sessions House Maidstone Kent arranged by Kent Museum Services to commemorate 100 years of Girl Guiding, the Talk will be of interest (I hope) to all members of the Scouting and Guiding Community and as far as I know is freely available to all who want to turn up, but please check first with Kent Museum Service.

Talking of the Guiding Centennial I have watched just this evening on BBC the very successful 100th Anniversary of Guiding TV documentary. It followed much the same format as the previous Scout Centennial Documentary with comedians, politicians and other famous celebrities who had been Brownies or Guides having an input, Unlike the Scout TV documentaries NONE of these found the need to make derogatory comments. The involvement of B-P was covered without one comment on his alleged sexuality, the traditional discordant voice of B-P's skewed biographer Tim Jeal being absent on this occasion. The whole thing was a very positive feel- a good advert for Guiding and Scouting. To crown that, it was followed by another documentary on a Grimsby Guide Company who took over 50 Guides to camp, following their progress for a week. Again no snide comments or picking up on negatives. The Guiders involved emerged as heroes. What a refreshing change- and well done Guiding and especially B-P's granddaughter Gillian Clay who came over as she always does, the voice of calm reason yet having unbounded enthusiam for Scouting and Guiding. B-R-A-V-O!!

Page Update. I came across an image of a swastika used a device in the large wheel-like table created for the 1933 Palanga Jamboree in Lithuania that welcomed the Cruises for the Calgaric Peace Cruise (see the Cruise of the Calgaric. I found this interesting as readers who have read the Use of the Swastika in Scouting Pages will know, that the symbol was used by Baden-Powell in Scouting on a very frequent basis until the 1930's. The cruisers from the Calgaric noted the presence of 'Nazis' officials in German ports at that time with some trepidation yet in Lithuania the association of the Scouting/good luck symbol with the badge of the German National Socialist Party had not apparently caused any concern. I have then added this image with explanation to the above page. br>

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Milestones July 17th 2009

I was delighted to attend Durham Scout County AGM last evening and in my talk highlight the crucial role that that County has played in our Scouting History, providing the first Scout Troop to be inspected by Baden-Powell and the first Scout Camp to be attended by him. I was to renew my aquaintancehip with Peter Nicol, the Deputy Chief Scout. After a very busy term of office Peter is to retire shortly. He must surely hold the record for a maximim number of Scouting events attented during a four year period. I can make no such claim myself but I can say that at every event I attended over this period, Peter seemed to be there, with a cheery greeting and time to stop and talk to everybdoy. He told the AGM audience that he hoped that now his 'tour of duty' as Depty Chief Scout is nearly over be hopes to get back to what called 'real scouting' in his beloved North East.

Most particular I was very pleased to make a presentation to David Potts who almost 80 years to the day saw Jam Roll being presented to Baden-Powell at the 1929 Coming of Age Jamboreee at Birkenhead. David is a grand old Scout with a fund of stories to tell. I was fortunate enough to meet and his wife earlier this and record his experiences my book. Jam Roll, Baden-Powell: The Man & his Motors. In case you are wondering David is now 90 years young.

I have been very busy of late updating many of the articles on Milestones Very rarely does a week go by without some new snippet of inforamtion coming that adds to the store of knowledge we have on the site. More often this new information comes from sharp-eyed Milestones readers responding to my frequent appeals for help. Sometimes I am able to make an immediate ammendment but sometimes I store the information for pending a major review of a particular page. One such major review has just taken place in the The History of Air Scouting. The information has come from a variety of sources all acknowledged on the page. Like all Milestones articles, thanks to our readers, the page offers a truly comprehensive history of the section and the crucial role of the Founder's brother, Baden Baden-Powell.

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

July 7th 2009

I cannot believe that nearly two months have gone by since I last wrote in my blog!. This has been due to a number of factors, firstly I thought I deserved a break after the long struggle get my book 'Jam Roll':Baden-Powell:The Man and his Motors launched. I did take a 'holiday' but that was quite brief and since that time I have spent an enjoyable few days in Scout Archives catching up with B-P's Diary. I have now transcribed over half The Founders life (since 1904 to 1939). Progress is slow, due to the fact that B-P never intended these diaries to read by anyone but himself, and that there only to be found in this country on a very poor microfiche probably produced in the late 1950's. The importance of putting these records into a computer database is of course that they then can be searched by single word search facility and products is this very accurate data can incorporate into these pages and my other researches. It is a very interesting times at Scout Archives under its the new Archivist Daniel Scott-Davies who is making good progress on his plans to systematically review the preservation of our precious archives and put as many as possible 'on-line'.

I have also taken the opportunity to upgrade some of pages on this website, notable Charterhouse and Air Scouting . The Charterhouse revision occurred in the light of artifacts recently obtaining including a letter from B-P's former Housemaster FK Girldlestone of June 1900 calling on 'Old Carthusians' to support a celebratory dinner for B-P and others who had served in foreign wars; and also a special membership 'booklet' for Charterhouse Scouts which must have been produced in the early 1960's. Regrettably the troop is no more. The Air Scouts revision was similarly brought about a new and important acquisition. The first Airman's Badge of 1911 was organised by the 'Young Aerial League', a part of the Women's Aerial League whose history is explained on the pages. One of the certificates they issued to a Scout who gained the badge is now illustrated. Of equal importance are memories shared by Milestones reader , Terence Hotstin now of Australia, a former member of a war-time Air Scout Patrol. I am also grateful to Chris Shaw, UK Air Scouts Specialist Advisor, who has updated information on Air Scouting at the 1933 World Scout Jamboree, the first to have Air Scout Contingents.

Scouting Milestones has been out 'on the road' with talks to West Yorkshire Scout County at their wonderful Bradley Wood County Camp Site, and Castleford and Pontefract (Central Yorkshire) AGM. On Thursday 16th July I as shall be giving a talk to Durham County Scout AGM. I am also looking forward to being at the 100th Anniversary of Sea Scouting at Holme Pierre Point, Nottingham from 1-8th August. The plan is to display the Scouting Milestones Exhibition and give talks throughout the Jamboree. The first weekend in September is always the Gilwell Re-union where I look forward to meeting many old friends and giving my now traditional talk in the White House. Negotiations are in hand talks to be given in the day time as part of the Reunion Programme. Later in year I am to travel to Kent to give a talk in the Museum Services Lecture Theatre in Maidstone on November, which help launch the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of Girl Guiding. More details of all these future events later.

Milestones readers are reminded of our special forum for the proposed Scout and Guide Historical Society - the plan is to launch the Society in October - and we are looking for 200 intending members to make this happen. As the society will be a 'creature of the Internet' costs will be kept to a minimum. Read our specialScouting and Guiding Society Forum- and express your intention of joining us by using the email link to me below. No money at all is required at this stage. Past 'issues' of this blog can be obtained be scrolling down - where there is much information about the proposed society including that the Hon. Michael Baden-Powell has agreed to become our President.

A very local thought! 76 years ago tomorrow (July 8th 1933) B-P recieved Freedom of Pontefract.

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

May 12th 2009

Important News! I am very pleased to announce that my latest book 'Jam Roll'. Baden-Powell: The Man and His motors was published today. It was inspired by the purchase in 2008, for Scouting, of Baden-Powell's Rolls-Royce, 'Jam Roll' and is the story of Baden-Powell's cars, from his 1908 18 h.p. Thornycroft, to the laying-up of Jam Roll in 1938, when its owner departed for Kenya.

This period exactly matches the Founder's active leadership of the Scout Movement. Using the vehicles as a focus, the author has been able to provide an insight into the lives of Baden-Powell and his family, and the changing social conditions they lived through.

The vehicle was sold into provate ownership in 1945 and its history is documented to present day having been purchased in 2008 on behalf of Scouting by B-P Jam Roll Ltd. The book in A5 format has 75 pages and contains over 40 historic images including recent colour photographs.

All profits relating to sales of this book are to be used for the preservation and display of Jam Roll, under the management of the charity B-P Jam Roll Ltd. The book is only available from the author (on this website) or via the B-P Jam Roll appeal.

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Visit our FORUM Page for intending members of The SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Write in our Visitors' Book.

Colin Walker(Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

April 28th 2009

It has twenty days since I last wrote in this 'Blog', even failing to wish all my readers a happy St George's Day. I celebrated in style with my local Scout Fellowship who last year started tradition of having a meal together on the day. St George's Cross was flying over the Scouting Milestones Domain, and it was an excellent day. I expect many of you will have been 'on parade' the following Sunday. I wrote a recent article of St George, Patron Scout of Scouting, for the Scout and Guide Stamp Club Magazine and how Scouting came to adopt the national Saint would I feel surprise many people. Anyway I have put up enough of smoke screen to hide my lack of a more recent entry. I have been very busy finishing my new book which will shortly be available for the shop pages on this site. The book is called . It is the story of all of Baden-Powell's motor cars, from 1908 to 1938 when he went to live in Kenya and so covers the years of his active leadership of the Scout Movement. Using the vehicles as a focus it provides insights into life of B-P and his family, set against a background vastly changing social conditions. The book prompted by the B-P Jam Roll appeal will be priced at £8 and will be available shortly.

The proposed Scout and Guide Historical Society continues to gather momentum and publicity for it is to be published in a range of Scouting literature in the comming weeks - any help you can give in publicising the Society would be appreciated - so the details below. We need 200 members before October and are nearly half way to our target
Pending the Society being formed when it will have its own website, I have decided in the interim to allow the Forum on these to given over to the exclusive us of intending members of the new Society- so please visit the new Scouting and Guiding Society Forum. and set up your thread promoting what you think the new society could achieve. All your ideas will be passed to the Committee which will be elected by ballot on the formation of the Society in October.
As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Write in our Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

April 8th 2009 The Scout and Guide Associations have now been formally appraised of our intention to form the Society. We await their response which will be reported on these pages, meanwhile please continue to make those amongst your friends who you feel would be receptive to joining our proposed Society aware of the information below.

SCOUT AND GUIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

THE GOOD NEWS IS THE SOCIETY IS ATTRACTING NEW INTENDING MEMBERS EVERY DAY, AND THE HON. MICHAEL BADEN-POWELL, GRANDSON OF THE FOUNDER, HAS AGREED TO BECOME OUR PRESIDENT.
The preservation of Scouting and Guiding history is important and MUST be preserved to keep alive, in real life terms, the legacy left to us by the founder. On this basis I would be delighted to support your efforts and would be very pleased to accept your kind suggestion of the Presidency of the proposed "Scout & Guide Historical Society."

Articles, introducing the new society, are being prepared for various Scouting magazines, and a statement of aims that could be adopted (or changed/added to) on our official launch - given that we achieve 200 intending members by October are being formulated - and will be added to this blog.

Daniel Scott-Davies
, Archivist, UK Scout Assocition, writes that he thinks the Society is a good idea. He is very supportive and would like become a member. As of today we now have 54 intending members - watch this space.

Original 'founding document' below
I have just returned from Gilwell Park from the Annual General Meeting of the International Badgers Club. The AGM is as always accompanied by couple of days of discussing, swopping, buying and selling Scout Badges (and all sorts of Scouting ephemera) in the International Centre in Gilwell Park. If you are interested in these activities you can do no better than visit their website. The club's prime purpose is the collecting of Scout Badges, and some of the members are extremely knowledgeable about historic and obsolete badges whilst others concentrate on current issues. As always I came away with items that in the fullness of time will appear on these pages and snippets of information which likewise will extend the available knowledge on some of the topics covered by these pages.

The other U.K. Scout collecting society of which I am a member is the Scout and Guide Stamp Club. This society has recently decided to extend it 'coverage' to all areas of Scout Paper Ephemera Collecting such cigarette cards, postcards, scraps etc and to this end I contribute a regular article to the club magazine. Again there are many members who have great knowledge of the historic Scouting events that have given rise to stamp issues, and yet others who enjoy collecting without being particularly engaged by Scouting history.

There is not and has never been a popular organisation that covers Scouting History in its entirety for its own sake. There have been individuals who have tried to set up such an organisation but they have never 'taken off'. People interested in Scout History such as myself (and presumably you - or you wouldn't be reading these Pages) have not had the advantage of belonging a club that can truly be said to represent our interest in Scout History. This is somewhat surprising as logically speaking it is the history which comes first, with artefacts such as stamps, postcards, books, badges, medals etc., etc. being a manifestation of some historical event or belonging to a period in our Scouting/Guiding History. It is strange to think for example that one of our fraternal organisations The Church Lads and Church Girls Brigade that has far far fewer members than our Scout and Guide Associations but they have had a Historical Society for many years.

It occurs to me (and several members of the Badgers Club who discussed this matter into the small hours of Friday evening) that there might now be interest in 'history based' club, particularly now the internet has drastically altered the way most organisations communicate with their members. There would seem to be little need for a published club magazine as so many members are on the internet and an on-line 'magazine' would suffice. Members of many clubs can choose to have their magazine delivered either conventionally through the post or 'on line'. The advantage of on-line delivery is of course that it costs very little - perhaps just a charge for webspace, and therefore a club that opted to communicate with its members solely by this means could keep it membership fee down to a minimum.

I have decided to use these pages to see if there is sufficient interest in such a club being formed i.e. The Scouts and Guides Historical Society or other similar name. It is envisaged that a one-off registration fee of £1.00 would be sufficient for life membership! It should only take a matter of months to see if there is sufficient interest and so the club will either be formed or the proposal dropped by October 2009. Once such a 'Historical Society' has been formed it will of course have an elected committee, its own website, and so the involvement of this website in its organisation will cease.

If you are interested in becoming a member please let me know by clicking the link activated by by my name at the end of this particular 'blog', and I will add you name to the a register. I would be interested to hear of any ideas or proposals for the club, and nominations for its future 'officers'. If the register produces enough names by October then you will be contacted individually. If there insufficient response then a general announcement to that effect will made here in my blog. I am suggesting that a minimum of 200 members would be required to support a viable organisation. Please pass on the contact details for this site to anyone you think might be interested. In the meantime there will be regular updates in on this blog as to progress with membership etc.

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

Visit our FORUM Page.
Write in our Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

February 24th 2009

Part of my absence from these pages over the last few weeks has been due to holiday with my wife in a cruise ship to Dakar in N.W. Africa, skilfully chosen at the exact time that most of England would be under snow, whilst we basked in African Sunshine. Well that part of forecast turned out to be true. What's this I hear you malcontents whisper- why should we be off to the sunshine why the rest of the population have to work in appalling weather conditions and depressing economic news? Yes I know, it hard work in the sun but somebody has to do, and just in case you thought I was shirking off, not a bit of it- every single planned port of call had all been visited by Baden-Powell himself. Yes, indeed, I was on a voyage of pure research. I knew that would make you feel better! First port of call was Madeira- where at Funchal B-P had breakfast at Reids before going up the mountain on a donkey, and toboganning down it on a wine sledge. We did it the other way round- up the mountain on the cable car, walked past the Scout Centre (unfortunately closed for winter) and down on the wine Sledge, (photos to prove it - down tarmac narrow streets not snow- when B-P did it, the streets were cobbled). To Reid's for afternoon tea- fortunately we were there an hour an half early for this treat which would have cost the two of us £58!!!!!! so we took the necessary photos, made our excuses and left. To Lanzerotte as B-P did, - weather just wonderful, from their to Teneriffe, on to noisy busy Dakar- and saw cammels in the sand dunes just as B-P had done- but we also played with 4X4 ex army lorries near the pink flamengo lake in the dunes and surf, and took in a wonderful native village of now settled Turag tribal people whom B-P had sketched (well, their predecessors!) Now this is where things started to go wrong - our next two ports of call were Cape Verde islands- B-P had called at Cape Vincent- but although we were tied up and alongside at one of the smaller islands before visiting Cape Vincent the island Medical Officer of Health barred our progress as one third of the ship's passangers (though not us) had or was still suffering from Noro-virus (S & D) So we were barred from there and from St Vincent. We called at Gran Canneria instead but this was poor compensation, as far as I know B-P had never visited this island. He had though been to Lanzerotti- a wounderful volcanic island, visited for my first time, and then to Lisbon- where B-P visited many times including on the Cruise of Calgaric.
So all in all a very relazing break- lots of good company on the ship including many 'Scouting' folk.

Now back home work has begun in earnsest on the Jam Roll - B-P's Rolls Royce on behalf B-P Jam Roll Appeal Ltd. Now then is the time to let me know of any stories or contact you might have had with this famous car. I am delighted to report that I am to meet Mr Jim Potts of County Durham who was there at Arrowe Park, 1929 when the car- paid for by penny subscription from the Scouts of the World was presented to B-P on Scouting's 21st Birthday. Jim was saw B-P at the Northern Counties Jamboree in 1933 at Darlington. Jim also attended the World Centennial Jamboree in 2007. B-R-A-V-O Jim, I look forward to meeting your and sharing your memories.

My Siege of Mafeking webpages have for some time, under separate index, been part of these main Scouting Milestones pages. It is not often that there is cause to ammend them as they are essentially a compendium of all known Mafeking Resources, but such an occasion has occured with the recent publishing of the diaries of Herbert Greener. Greener was a major figure throughout the Siege, being B-P's army paymaster he was much involved in the issue of the Mafeking siege stamps and banknotes. Whilst not separately listed in the shop pages on this site, its entry in Bold on the Resources list on to be found in the Siege of Mafeking Index denotes that I have copies for sale.

On a much sadder note I am sorry to have to report that John King, a member of the Badger's Club and a well known Scouter in the Bournemouth area. John's funeral was on Feb 13th. I was not able to attend but was sent a poem that was read by one of his ex-Scouts that showed the great affection in which he was held. He will be sadly missed

The Badgers Club holds its AGM over the weekend of March 7th/8th including the buying and selling and swopping of Scout Badges and artifacts on Friday night in the White House, Saturday and Sunday in the International Centre, Gilwell. I will be there, come and have a chat, and have a look at my latest blockboster - Mafeking Siege Slips
As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)

--> January 20th 2009

Congratulations to all our American friends on a new President inaugurated this very day. It seems like that vast majority of the population have swung behind what we all hope will be force the good in the present troubled times.

I have returned from period of research looking at varying topics:
The Flax harvests of the First World War (1914-18) were occasioned by the need of the Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) for linen to cover the wooden frames of their aircraft. All able men were at the front and so Scouts were organised in systematic way at a number of centers in the UK to attend summer camps harvesting the flax. It is not until you read I started this research that I came to understand just what an enormous scale this was on through the last three years of the war. Coast Watching was of course more glamorous and as a result is fairly well known - flax harvesting was a lot harder work! I now have sufficient material for a new web-page and it is on the job list.

have begun work on the 'Jam Roll' as commissioned by the B-P Jam Roll Appeal Ltd; who currently own the car which was rescued from private sale for Scouting. The Charity is working to ensure that the car cab be been seen by as many Scouts as possible, a tangible reminder of the Founder and regard that he was held in. The car given to him by the Scouts of the world on the 21st birthday of Scouting in 1929. Again, I have now assembled enough material including photographs to make a start on the small book which will be sold at events throughout the coming years that the Jam Roll will attend - with all proceeds going to the charity. If you should have photographs or memories of the famous car now is the time to share them with the Scouting World.

Research into B-P's Diary continues on a day by day. It involves sitting in front of the microfiche manually transcribing the handwritten diaries that are in some place illegible as B-P never envisaged that anybody other than himself would ever read them. Over a day of hard work resulted in less than of year of B-P's long life being added to the database - but that is another period of time that result in facts being recorded that were previously unknown or unsubstantiated, to the benefit of the Milestones articles which are frequently updated as new knowledge is acquired.
I know have nearly half of B_P's long adult life on a day by day basis documented on my hard drive. As the 'undone period' gets shorter, the certainty with which questions can be answered like. 'Did B-P ever go to .....?', or 'Did he ever meet .....?' gets greater. I have been this work doing it for eight years now- so it is not a short term job for the faint hearted!

While in the vicinity, I was fortunate enough to be taken by friend in Scouting Greg Cohen who runs a Cub Pack in N.E. London to see the Roland House Chapel which was transferred from the original Roland House to the New Roland Scout HQ in the East End- the sale of the old house enabling the new premises to be acquired. It was quite a thrill to be amongst the artifacts and see the sanctuary light still burning all these years after Roland's death in 1916. I first started researching the life of this great man in 2001,- and my recent visit has resulted in new photographs and facts being added to the Roland Philipps:Roland House Pages Whilst in the Roland House Centre we were shown to the chapel by GSL Colin Devlin , who I think must run the only group of Air Scouts in the East End of London using the centre as their HQ.
Despite the fact that the night was dark and cold we made stop out outside the original Roland House (still called by the same name)on Stepney Green, which appears completely unchanged from the outside, except perhaps for the green fleur de lys that used to be in the glasswork above the door.
If you have no idea why I am writing in such hushed tones and using phrases like 'great man', press the link and read the inspirational history of a great Scouter, about whom it is not too fanciful to say might, had he lived become B-P's successor as Chief Scout.

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)
December 12th 2008

I thought I would share with you this bizarre little tale- which though not directly related to Scouting or these pages, has over the past few months caused me great concern. Those of you who have read the shop pages will know that I have now published six different titles, all to do with Scout History and or The Siege of Mafeking. These books except for the last one, The Mafeking Siege Slips, have all been published with ISBN and therefore can be ordered though any book company that wants to sell them via the ISBN book ordering system. I was very disconcerted about a year a go to find that one of my titles was on sale on many places over the internet at a cheaper price than I sell for! This was absolutely amazing as I held all the stocks of the book, and do sell at any less the my 'reccommended retail price'. The only way I figured that the book could be on sale, especially at a cheaper price, was if there had been a illegal reprint! I then wasted a lot of time and money trying to stop the adverts of these 'fraudulent' sales- and the problem was solved or so I thought.
Last week the same problem resurrected itself with a different book, my Brownsea B-P's Acorn. Again, it was all over the net- and even for sale on eBay at a cheaper price than I would ever sell if for. So I appealed for help to the people who maintain the publishers' ISBN database where the 'fraudulent' adverts had been sourced. I was very fortunate in that I was put in contact with a representative who had previously worked for a big book selling company such as those who were currently advertising my book. He reassured me that my book had not been reprinted and that he could explain exactly what was happening ... and he did.

There are many booksellers who advertise over the internet who do not hold any stocks - they rely on being able to go to the book distributor named on the ISBN database and get the book from them. They list thousands of books a week - so many that it is done completely by computer- and amazingly the price they charge is set by the computer that also analyses and if possible beats opposition book sellers. This creates a downward spiral in book prices resulting in them being sold for less than the reccommended retail - the company hoping to make a profit from the difference between the trade price and the reccommended retail. But I do not have a trade price - and do not sell below my reccommended retail! So if any one orders on of my books from anyone other than me, the book would still be sourced from me as I am the only stock holder. On hearing my price the enquirer belonging to the cheap book company (presuming it isn't another machine) is then faced with either selling the book at a loss - or telling the client some tale such as it is out of print! (that happens a lot - just look at the feedback for online book sellers)

So, I stopped worrying about my book being reprinted but went 'to town' on those companies selling it on eBay (in competition with me!) and went through eBay's long winded but effective way of reporting copyright infringement (their VeRo programme) The auctions for my books were removed.

I then had a very telling email from one of these companies asking me why it was that their auctions had been removed - telling me I must be a very strange author if I did not want to sell books! I outlined the situation as above, and the firm had the good grace to admit that if a customer had ordered my books from them they would end up making a loss if they completed the order, and that the customer would be told the book was out of stock. The saw this waste of everybody's time as a malfunction of their computer's book listing programme! (well it is not only their system making this error!>

I thought I would share this bizarre little story, you are now warned that if you see my books advertised, as new, other than in adverts/auctions that eminate from me -(and the Brownsea Baden-Powell Outdoor Centre) - then what ever the price quoted - the book will have to be ordered from me and if the quoted price is cheaper than I would sell it you directly- as listed on the shop pages - then you will NOT end up with the book-but be told it is 'out of stock'. Morale of the story is don't mess with the rest, - buy direct from the author!

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.)
December 4th 2008

Well winter has certainly arrived here in Yorkshire, but life is its usual hectic self. Last week I talked to the Yorkshire Historical Society on Scout involvement in the war effort during the First World War- I was requested to do this as they had been looking at this war prompted by the fact that November was the ninetieth anniversary of the armistice, and as we know, the number of men that actually served in the 'great war to end all wars' are down to the number of fingers on one hand. Of course I am always pleased to talk about Scout History to anybody who is pleased to listen and the Historical Society. were as always very appreciative as we ranged over the Scout Huts and Ambulance Scout Huts and Ambulance B-P fundraised for and led, the Scouts Defence Corps and the Scout - Coast Watchers and the vital Scout involvement in the Flax Harvest, which enabled the Royal Flying Corp to have sufficient aeroplanes, as the linen was used to cover the wooden airframes.
I couldn't help wondering though just how many people in our Movement know about these things and that we were only Youth Organisation allowed to march in the 1919 Victory Parade because of our unique contribution to the war effort. As it says at the end of each of my blog contributions 'Scout History is inspirational- Let's us to inspire'. The message is simple, we are all, like the soldiers of the First World War getting older by the day. If we don't pass on our Scouting History- there will come a time when it may all be too late!

I not only sell the books I publish, and dispose of my surplus Scouting artefacts on eBay, but what are 'profits' accrue are usually spent in buying from that site the many treasures that you see illustrating these pages. Just this evening I was the winner of a very rare artifact connected with the Cruise of the Adriatic Fortunately big bucks were not required, basically because the tin button badge, for that is what it was did not mention 'SS Adriatic' but it did have the word Nice and the date that the Adriatic called at that port (I wonder how many people read n-ice?. The badge also carried the signature of 'Baden-Powell', but it isn't that of the founder of the Scout Movement- it is though his wife's who as you will know was Chief Guide of the world and inspired the three Peace Cruises.

Scouting Radio, 'The Station that loves to talk Scouting' tell me that they are to continue with the popular series 'Ask Colin', so if you want to catch me out live on Scouting Radio, - press the link and send your question in the Scouting Radio team- I do NOT guarantee I will be able to the right answer to your question but I am bound at least to come up with some interesting waffle!

I have over the last few months been writing a series of articles for the Scout and Guide Stamp Club who are keen to expand their sphere of interest to other paper Scouting ephemera other the past few months I have been considering postcards, cigarette cards scraps, and my latest contribution is poster stamps. So if you are a collector of Scouting ephemera but always though the Scout and Guide Stamp Club a little to purist for your sort of collecting they would be pleased to hear from you.

Michael Baden-Powell (Grandson of the Founder) writes to me from Australia to say that the Jam Roll, B-P's Rolls Royce motor car is going on show in the House of Friendship at the 100th Rotary International Convention being held at the NEC in Birmingham in 2009. The charity has produced some limited issue cloth badges in two parts that show Jam Roll and Eccles Caravan and can these found on the charity's own website which are link from our Jam Roll pages. There will be in image of the badges and a direct link from our pages in the near future.

As always I leave you with this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.) November 22th 2007

Well at last, the long awaited (well by me anyway) Mafeking Siege Slips , my transcript of the originals enlivened with contemporary images and additional commentary, has finally been published! In all 146 Slips, with 52 photographs and additional text, making a total of 516 14 pages. I accord myself a faint 'B-R-A-V-O'. This major work has now been added to the Milestones Shop but as the PayPal buttons are no longer operative (I have no idea why), please contact me for my postal address, on the link below if in the UK or how pay via your paypal account once you have postal costs if abroad. This epic book is only on sale through me and in a limited, signed and numbered, edition of 30 copies costing £35 plus postage. Now this major, long-standing, millstone (seven years in the making) has finally been put to bed, and its successful conclusion should hopefully 'free me up' to get on to doing much-needed revision of some these Milestonespages.

One page that is not often added to and is possibly the least interesting to the greatest number of people, is that in which I recount my own Scouting Experiences . As the author of the pages I take time off from trying to enthuse the world with Scout History, to indulge myself with a little of my own. And it pays off. As a result of this page I was able to meet up with Scout from my old School who because were year apart in age, did not know each other but had such very similarly experiences. I was finally able to meet up with Peter Denston in New Zealand three of or four years ago now and we shared some very happy reminiscing. Recently I was able to contact another Scout from my old troop, David Foxley through Friends Reunited, and I was amazed to find he had memories of me that I didn't even have of myself! Even better, he was able to share a photograph of our Scout Group, the 10th Soke of Peterborough (Deacon's School) taken in 1960. He had had the foresight at that time to write down the names of those involved. So, coming soon to my own personal section of the Website will be this very photograph, the only one of me as a Scout in Scout uniform, with most of the former Scouts named in the hope that it will drag even more memories out of the ether. Thanks Dave.

My very good friend in Scouting, John Ineson, whose name often appears in these pages as the owner of the some amazing artifacts we use to illustrate our articles, has done it again! He has recently acquired a major collection which will take many months I suspect to document fully, but such is John's generosity that I have already made a start with those more important items that have a bearing on these pages. The first of these is an illustration that appears on the Wolf Cub Pages Wolf Cub Pages showing a B-P sketch that demonstrates that the Cub Scout Salute derived from the head of the wolf! This illustration was already on the pages, scanned from its inclusion in Sir Percy Everett's The First Ten Years. Now John has the original, I have been able to add a scan of the real thing, which of course, is so much better.
As always I leave you this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.) November 7th 2008

Well, another three weeks have gone by since I last wrote an entry in this blog- and I thought I was going to make up for all that time away. The truth of the matter is that I have been busy, very busy (well there's a surprise) When I first started writing this website in 2000- yes as long ago as that!) one of my first projects was to write an article on the Mafeking Cadets the research involved the reading of the Mafeking Mail Siege slips (Published Daily-Shells Permitting). To do this you need a bound volume. - In loose form- you will never find all the issues- and as many were printed on tissue paper which 108 years disintegrate before your very eyes. In bound form -completed in 1900 using the same paper stocks, you stand some chance but need a very deep purse indeed. Having paid a fair fortune for a copy I started to use it for research and realised just how much better it would be if it could typed into a 'Word'document for instant answers using single word search; without the wear and tear on a precious asset. Unfortunately the only way this could be achieved was for me to type it out ........ all 540 A4 pages. So in true nurd fashion I set out to do it and only recently did I succeed in finishing the task. Some people had asked if they can purchase a copy of this mammoth undertaking, so these last three weeks I have been readying the volume for publication. By utilising the space when an issue finished half way down the A4 page- I have inserted over 50 comtemporary photographs of the Siege with my own commentary which draws upon the 'Mafeking Siege Register' - but that is another story- see the shop page. If you are interested in the Seige of Mafeking- this 'Mafeking Mail Siege Slips, is a must have book- unless you have already lashed on the original- but then like me you might not want to turn those fragile pages over very often? The new book will aslo be added to the 'Shop' but if you are interesting in the Seige of Mafeking- and why wouldn't you be- there hadn't have been a siege there wouldn't have been a Scout Movement.- then have a look at www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/mafeking/ for a complete list of Mafeking Resorces or go to separate index just under B-P's painting on the opening page.
So, I have finally got rid of another millstone, I mean milestone, so I have bags of time right? Well no acualy I Monday I set off on a round of further research, some of the time at the Gilwell, Happy Land, to tackle such diverse topics as the Scout Gatherers of the 1916 Flax harvest What!- I hear you say- well its another topic in the Milestone tradition- A truly studpendous Scout effort that you will hardly be able to credit! Then- there's information gathering on the B-P's Jam Roll for the proposed book for the B-P Jam Roll appeal; and last but not least I back to that other nurdy project that is even bigger than the Mafeking Siege Slips: THE B-P Chronology- the transcription of the entire run of Baden-Powell's Diaries onto a Database - over thirty years of the Founder's life- well, I ave been at for eight years and on a tad more than half way through: wish me luck.
I will be in touch when I get back, but meanwhile if you need to buy a Christmas Present for a friend in Scouting, why not have a look at the shop on these pages. I know, I know, the paypal buttons don't work - why I dont' know- they did- but you if want delivery by Christmas just write to me via the links- I will send my snail mail addres and you can send a cheque or pay via PayPal- and I will be glad to add a dedication and Christmas Cheer.
As its after Bonfire Night, let me be the first? to wish you Good Camping and a Happy Chrismas!
As always I leave you this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.) October 10th 2008

Time flies by when you are enjoying yourself! Apologies for not having written an entry in this blog for over a month, but you will see that I have been busy, very busy.
Shortly after the last entry, I was on my way to the Gilwell Re-union. It was not the best weather I had ever experienced but as usual a great time was had by all. The B-P Jam Roll, B-P's Rolls Royce, presented to him by the Scouts of the world on a penny per Scout subscription, was proudly present, parked once again outside the White House alongside the Eccles Caravan presented to B-P at the same time, and the Heroes of Day, the Hon Michael Baden-Powell and the other Directors of Jam-Roll Ltd, the registered charity whose initiative have helped save the car for Scouting- were on hand to point out its significance and explain that this is only the very first step in its preservation. What is needed now is long maintenance and a place where it can be give public viewing. In the short time this will be provided by the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust Museum in Derby, but in the long term what is required is that the car becomes part of a Scout Museum in Gilwell Park and to do that the trustees of the charity require your help, so please click on the link above and see how you can help. I am proud to be one of the sponsors of the project and know that a great many more of us will understand the significance of this car, and why it needs to be preserved. I am delighted that the directors of the Charity have asked me to write a book on its history - which I hope will help explain, those who don't yet know, just what we are about.
The Re-union was a roller-coaster ride of meeting old friends. I was delighted to find myself in the White House after the camp-fire on the Saturday night giving a talk to a packed house on the 'Dawn of the World Scout Movement'. (A Scouting Milestones Inspirational Talk can come to a Scout event near you!) I explained to them that though I am not normally known to be a nervous public speaker this was a very special occasion. In front of me to the right was Carlos's painting 'The Pathfinder', behind me his, "I wish I was a boy again" - two awe-inspiring Scouting icons. Directly in front of me was Michael Baden-Powell, the grandson's founder and his wife Joan, also in the room were Scouting friends, expects all in their particular fields, and to cap it all my Rover Scout Leader was also present, and I had to talk on Scout History in front of that audience. But I need not of worried, I was amongst friends, as Scouts in Scout company always are.
The magic of Scouting was further exhibited in my 'stall' in the Badger's village where I sell my books that I have written and Scouting ephemera. A young man arrived - and began looking through some of the older books I had for sale. Suddenly he asked me the price of the Eagle Comic Baden-Powell Biography. I explained to him that it was relatively expensive because there are many collectors of the Eagle who consider this to be part of their collecting field as well as the obvious Scouting interest. " I will have it", said the young man without hesitation- "I don't care how much it costs". It transpired that publication carried the name of its first owner, Sid Andrews, a former Scout Master of the 14th Ipswich. One of his Scouts was Colin Chaston, father of Richard, the young man who bought the book.

Richard told me that his father had found Sid an inspirational Scout Master and how he had used the Eagle Biography to teach his Scouts about B-P.( Colin Chaston in later years after the death of Sid in 1983 had tried to track down his old Scout Master's Scouting books and especially this copy of the Eagle Biography because he had been so inspired by it. Naturally he had told his son about his old Scout Master - and how he had tried to track down the Sid's copy of the booklet. On speaking to Colin it transpired that Sid often gave talks in his neighbourhood and often used the book as a part of his talk.

So, on a rainy day at Gilwell, Richard, Colin's son, comes under my awning and sees the cover of the Eagle Biography- thinking that if he could not find Sid's original, any copy would please his Dad, - he looks inside and finds, ..... that it was THE copy. After telling crowd in the tent and myself the story, there was more than one or two of us with a tear in our eye. The magic of this story is NOT that the book should turn up on my stall after all of these years, but that one wise Scout Master in the 1960's so inspired his Scouts that they remembered his message all their lives. A piece of magic that as happens, is quite common in Scouting. (If you knew Sid or Colin- please let me know. Colin would be pleased to hear from you.)
Well, that explains what I was doing at Gilwell Re-union - you'll have to wait for the next blog (not so long this time I promise) to find out what I have been doing since the Re-union. We bid a fond farewell to Paul Moynihan who has stepped down after many service as Archivist to the Scout Association. He was a great friend to these pages, and a cheery hello to the new Archivist Mr. Daniel Scott-Davies.
As always I leave you this final thought, remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.) August 28th 2008

We are now in the exact anniversary week of the 1908 Humshaugh Camp, and I am very proud that I have written articles on the camp in last Thursday's Hexham Courant and in the current edition of Scouting magazine. Just for the record an article of mine on Scouting Scraps (of the scrapbook variety) can be found in the current issue of the Scout and Guide Stamp Club Bulletin.
Milestone readers will know that I have carried out extensive research on the Humshaugh Camp for this site, but subsequently enlarged on that for my book Dawn of the World Scout Movement which you can read and order by going to our online shop Shop (Unfortunately the PayPal buttons are very temperamental but you can contact me directly on the link at the bottom of this Blog entry). Websites however are for more forgiving than books in that any errors in a book can never be put right, only corrected in a new edition, and this is also the only way of adding new information. This website however as Milestone's readers will know can and does respond almost immediately to new information.
The Assistant Commandant of the Humshaugh Camp was Dennis Colbron Pearce who life was documented on the Humshaugh Pages to the point where DCP was awarded his Silver Wolf in 1911. Despite my best endeavours I could not trace him after that, but did find an illustrator of the same name working for the Tasmanian Museum sometime in the 1930s. Milestone's reader Russell Malham kindly wrote in the Visitor's Book that he had found further information on DCB at the Tasmanian Scout Heritage Centre where he (Russell) is a voluntary assistant. Russell kindly sent me details of DCP time in Tasmania including a wonderful book, The History of Scouting in Tasmania 1909-1985 by Ray Jeffery and it is from these sources that I have now been able to add a full-blown biog. to the Biography Pages So now, for the first time, we have an almost full account of the life one of Scouting's most important pioneers - however, we still lack details of DCB's life from the time he resigned from Scouting in 1911 to his establishing a farm in Tasmania in 1922. Can we, dear readers, work the usual miracle?

The weather over the last few weeks has been atrocious and many summer camps will have suffered. The bad weather seems to have followed me around starting with my weekend in Dublin Ireland where I gave a talk at Collin's Barracks and saw the absolutely wonderful Centennial Scout Exhibition. I am delighted to report that the talk was attended by John Scally who had flown to Ireland from his home in England to visit relatives and be at the talk. John has met Baden-Powell who visited his school in Kenya and was able to tell Scouts in the audience about this experience, but what is very special is that John's father, also called John Scally, was with the Cape Police in Mafeking under B-P's command. Many thanks indeed to the Scouting Radio, 'The Station that loves to talk Scouting' for organising the 'seminar', a good time was had by all. Unfortunately however, while the talk was ongoing, 12,000+ Scouts from Scouts Ireland were very nearly washed out of their Centennial Jamboree in a deluge that flooded roads and cellars and blew off manhole covers. The follow day the main motorway to the airport was closed necessitating our chauffeuse, Rachael, who fortunately had good local knowledge and was able create her own detour. Many thanks.

In Northumberland last week Baden-Powell Scouts were camped very close to the Humshaugh monument and the weather was so bad that the entire Jamboree was transhipped to Hexham Abbey where the Scouts spent the night on the floor! Not even Baden-Powell had to endure such weather though his camp was very nearly as wet and he did manage to loose his nephew Donald for several hours. I was very pleased to meet and give Scouting Milestones talks to the Scouts who showed great spirit in the face of such appalling conditions. I must particularly mention a large contingent from Portugal whose singing was world class, TV Look Northviewers in the Newcastle region will I am sure agree whole-heartedly.

I am now preparing for my annual visit to the Gilwell Re-union where the hot news is that I am to give a talk on The Dawn of the World Scout Movement in the White House on Saturday evening immediately after the Camp Fire. The talk is free, though a collection will be held for Scout Fellowship. Tickets however are required and these can be freely obtained from myself John or Greg in the 'Badger's Village'. If you are going to the Re-union (and where else could be better?) please come across and have a chat and we will try to keep the bad weather at bay! There is also every possibility that you will be able to see the Jam Roll, now once again in Scout Ownership. If you have yet to read the B-P Jam Roll Appeal Brochure please do so.
Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.) August 8th 2008

As the song would have it 'I'm off to Dublin in the green!'- I shall be in Collin's Barracks , Dublin, from 2 p.m. this Saturday, Saturday 9th August, to give a talk at the Scouting Exhibition in the Ante Room on, guess what, 'The Dawn of the World Scout Movement'.Weather is Ireland this week has not been so great Scouting Ireland have terrible conditions at their Jamb leading to the cancellation of Visitors Day. We hope however to have a room full of very sunny people at Collin's Barracks and if you live in Dublin, you would be very welcome. Full details of this talk can be found on Scouting Radio's Website. 'The Station that loves to talk Scouting'

'Jam' roll (see blog entry below for June 11th) is now safe in the hands of the Scouting charity formed to preserve and the 87 year old vehicle has passed its latest MOT test with flying colours. The car will be on public exhibition next year and taken to attend major Scouting events. If you have not already done so please read the B-P Jam Roll Appeal Brochure and if you think, as I am sure you will, the project worthwhile, please add your support no matter how little to help preserve this most precious Scouting item for posterity. For what ever you feel able to contribute you will have played your part in preserving Scouting History.

It is not often that my passion for the History of the Siege of Mafeking gets a direct mention in this blog, though the Siege of Mafeking website is integral in these pages. This is not mere accident- without his fame as the Hero of Mafeking B-P would not have had the necessary 'clout' to start the world's largest youth organisation. The longest running Siege of the Boer War happened 108/9 years ago, and you might be forgiven for thinking that by now everything possible to be known about it has long since been written down. Not a bit of it. My weekly mailbag always contains letters about the Siege, sometimes from relatives of the besieged who are often able to contribute information that I can add to my 'Siege Register'(see 'SHOP' link above index). Phil Beattie an New Zealand Boer War historian has been in touch and been able to forward to me the letters of Sgt Major Jollie to his mother back home in NZ. These taken the form of an ongoing diary, and though preserved in a library in Wellington New Zealand they have never before been linked to any database of Mafeking diaries etc. This then is a major find. Phil's interest in New Zealanders who were with B-P in Mafeking prompted me to dig out my copy of a diary by New Zealander Sgt Hosking to send to Phil in return for his kindness. Glancing through it I find that Sgt Hosking and his men were told of the effectiveness of the 'The Wolf' - a cannon made in Mafeking's railway workshops and named after B-P by John Scally of the Cape Police. Now it happens that John Scally's son, is still alive and well, and is travelling from his home the south of England to be with us in Collin's Barracks on Saturday. Even with my enthusiasm for all matters relating to the Siege I have to regard it as History- to John Scally jnr it a part of his dad's life!

So dear readers, we are back where we started with the talk in Collin's Barracks this Saturday, having gone all around the world, and back in time 108 years. Scouting Milestones - the most informative of all Scout History sites
Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our new 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.) July 11th 2008

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD!

Baden-Powell's Rolls Royce, the 'Jam Roll', was presented to him at the 1929 World Jamboree at Birkenhead after a penny per head subscription from the Scouts of World. It was sold into private ownership and recently it was in grave danger of being lost to these shores completely.

Scouting Milestones had some small hand in suggesting that the car and the Eccles Caravan be exhibited together at the Centennial World Jamboree as they had been at the 'Coming of Age Jamboree' in 1929 and again in 1957 at the 'Jubilee Jamboree'. My original suggestion of the vehicle being involved in the opening ceremony, and that the model of the car, already made by the toy making firm Lledo, be coupled with one of the caravan as a souvenir item did not come to pass, but car and caravan were exhibited on the lawns of the White House at Gilwell for the duration of the World Jamboree.

The owner advised that he was thinking of selling the car and of course there would have been many interested buyers from across the world. A small group of like minded people were quick to respond, and the Founder's grandson, the Hon Michael Baden-Powell negotiated the purchase, with garantees and loans put up by the group. Things needed to move apace and some of this money has been recouped by generous donations from a number of people enabling the car to transfer to the possession of 'B-P Jam Roll Ltd' which has now been granted charitable status by the UK Charity Commission. Registered Charity No: 1124591.

Acquiring the car, I am sure you will agree, is fantastic achievement, however this is only the start! The UK Scout Association whilst applauding our initiative is not allowed, under the terms of its own charitable status, to donate money to the project and of course the car is need of some restoration and will require museum garaging and long-term care. 'B-P Jam Roll Ltd' are then promoting an appeal to ensure the long-term security of this most precious of Scouting artefacts, and to that end 'Scouting Milestones' has added the B-P Jam Roll Appeal Brochure in its entirety to the website.

As you know Scouting Milestones is a totally independent website. We applaud this initiative which is a wonderful example of what can achieved by 'independent' thinking when for whatever reasons larger bodies cannot act, and we have been very proud to have been involved in this project. As you know many websites offering a service, as we feel we do on Milestones, have a paypal button enabling donations from readers, who value the service and feel they would like to make a contribution towards the costs involved. We don't do that and will not do that but if you think our service is valuable then please make a contribution to ensure the preservation of the 'Jam Roll'.. Whether or not you want to make your donation linked to Scouting Milestones, - make it anyway! We have a duty to protect our heritage! Full details will posted in the Jam Roll Ltd Brochure. Watch this space

I was very pleased to be present at Northallerton Scout Council's AGM this week and give a Scouting Milestone's talk to some of North Yorkshire's finest. I am now preparing for the talk at the Scouting Centennial Exhibition at Collin's Barracks, Dublin, on Saturday 9th August which promises to be a wonderful event. Full details of this talk can be found on Scouting Radio's Website. 'The Station that loves to talk Scouting'.

Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our new 'Mission Statement',

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me.) June 29th 2008

The Use of the Swastika in Scouting' pages whilst offering good coverage of the actual 'swastika' Thanks Badges and Medal of Merit, did not have an image of the even rarer 'Salute' Thanks Badge which replaced the B-P's/Kipling's good luck charm after it was adopted by the German Socialist Party in 1935. Not until now that is. Thanks to my very good friend in Scouting, Greg Cohen, I have been able to acquire an example of this badge in tie pin format in its original presentation box. An image of this rare item is now to be found on the 'Swastika' pages. Many thanks Greg.

Welcome news comes from Russell Malham in Tasmania re Coblbon-Pierce who was one of the Assistant Scout Masters at Humshaugh, 100 years ago next month. I had been able to deduce that a man of the same name had worked as an illustrator for Tasmanian Museum Services, but could not be sure if it was 'our' Colbron-Pearse, or perhaps his son. Russel offers his services at the Tasmanian Scout and Guide Heritage Centre, (I know also of the Victoria S & G Heritage Centre- do all Oz states have these? If so we in the UK are lagging a long way behind!), and has offered to 'fill me in', on Colbron-Pearse's later life in Tasmania. Good on you Russell!

Judith Ireland's father was the Scouter in Charge of the Hedingham Castle Training Centre in Essex, Part of the Mullet Scheme - when as in many things Rover Scouts were instrumental in helping change the world in which they lived. At the time of the depression Rovers Scouts set up centres, documented on the Page, for training unemployed Rovers in skills that would make them employable. This scheme was so successful that the Goverment expanded it using the centres and others for training the unemployed who were not in Scouting. Judith's father, George Greenwell, was the Rover Mate at Hedingham between 1931-39, and she has loanded me a trememdous archive of photographs and letters, some of which will better illustrate the work of the 'Mullet' scheme on the Rover pages later this year. It coincidental that I have been approached by the editor of Canada's Scouting Life magazine to ask permission for the 'puzzle' I have been unable to solve of the letters printed on the font of the Mullet training notebooks- as illustrated on the page. I welcome Scouts Canada and you to see if you can succeed where I have failed!

Regular readers might want to keep an eye out for the next edition of the UK Scouting Magazine where it there may well be that a Milestones artical will be in their next issue. There was another such in the last issue of the Scout and Guides Stamp Club magazine. This club has been running successfully since 1957, and with the Badgers Club form the two main arenas for the conservation of Scouting artifacts and information relating to Scouting. It has been noticable that over the last few years both clubs have been willilng to consider materials which at first sight might be consderered outside their remit i.e. Stamps and Badges. The Scout and Guide Stamp Club have now formally adopted a policy to include other forms of 'paper' scouting ephemera, and that opens up hugh collecting fields of Scouts on Cigarette Cards, Postcards, Scraps, Matchbox covers, cigarbands, trade cards, letters etc etc. For my sins I now write a regular feature in the magazine, Colin's Corner, where I explore these themes in general and some specific items of interest. My first contribition covered the postcards from the 1908 Humshaugh Camp- a Centennial event! The next issue will contain images of Scouting Scraps and 'cut outs'. If you have an interest any of these topics, including the very wide field covered by the Badgers Club, both clubs run their own website and are very well worth supporting.

COMING SOON! News of the most amazing and important piece of Scouting 'conservation' ever undertaken! WATCH THIS SPACE!
Remember, here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread our new 'Mission Statement,

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me) June 22nd 2008

I have spent some of the last week away researching at Gilwell, but was there when Essex Scout County were having their massive 'Mega Sleep Over' for 3000 of their cubs the weekend before last. What an event. Brilliant weather and many activities including a captive fun fair made sure everybody had a great time. Also present that weekend were the Gilwell's 'Activity' team who invited me to their Bar-b-que- these unsung heros from all quarters of including my homeland of Yorkshire - perform miracles to order, and having built a nature walk bridge to professional standards on the edge of the 'bomb' holes had constructed a sets of giant shear legs to enable Beavers at last weeks event to have great fun on 6 'zip' lines down 'The Quick'- the hillside overlooking the Enfield Reservoir. The Rover Spirit of Service is still very much in evidence at Gilwell.
Thanks very much to Milestone's reader Steve Bobrowicz in Canada who responded to my appeal for copies of B-P letters. Steve had a scan of letter sent by B-P to Arthur Poysner who was the Scout Master of the 1st London (Lord Mayor's Own) It just happens that I am in touch with the group who are in the throws of writing a centennial history and this letter is very important to them as shows that Poysner's very famous Scout Choir - with members of the troop, performed at B-P's wedding in 1912. How would you like to find out, out of the blue, that your group had such a close connection with the founder on his wedding day? On behalf of the 1st London, many thanks Steve.
Of late Milestones readers have had great success in locating important artefacts that have for a long time eluded me. One of the most important was the plague from the YMCA.

building in Birkenhead where Baden-Powell 'publicly inaugurated Scouting' in Jan 1898. This showed up in photograph form at Birkenhead's wonderful centennial exhibition, and is safely located in the new YMCA premises though several years of me trying to contact them did not result any admission that they still had it.
Steve, the same correspondent mentioned above from Canada sent me a cutting that showed the Scouts had in the 1960's, at least, the name plate from the Hyacinth the boat that took the Brownsea boys to camp in 1907. This much was known already but the cutting had a photograph of the nameplate. Repeated requests for information from Scouts Canada have failed to confirm that they still have this item. They do however still maintain on their website, despite my best endeavours, that B-P visited the country in 1908 which he certainly did not - and they have a charter that proves the existance of a 1907 Scout Troop which they won't let have a scan of, despite my incredibility that one of worlds major Scouting Countries should be proposing that your can have a Scout troop before there were Scouts i.e. to be Scout it is necessary to take the law and promise which were not of course published until January 1908. I digress however and perhaps we better move on to the next success. In the moving pages on Bamboo Thumbsticks. you will read that a brass plaque was sent by Australian Rovers to Changi Jail, now a museum to mark the sacrifice of Allied Rovers there during the war. On my visit to jail I was told that the original chapel had been moved (as it had) and many of the former memorials had been moved (as they had) but I could not however located this particular monument that is portrayed on the Bamboo Thumbsticks pages. You can imagine my delight then to receive a email from Rover Wan M from Singapore who very kindly sent image of the plaque that he had taken on a visit to Singapore Scout HQ in Bisham Street where the memorial is given pride of place over a central doorway. So thank you, Milestones readers, three important artefacts located, you never fail to amaze me and you truly make Scouting History on these pages - the history of Scouts .... by Scouts. B-R-A-V-O These items are not merely important to me, they are, or should be, important to World Scouting!
One the talks front, the news is that I am to travel, to Dublin Ireland to give a talk to Dublin Scouts who are currently holding a wonderful centennial exhibition in Collins Barracks, Dublin. (Appropriately named, of course). The talk is timed for Saturday 9th August at around 2.30 p.m. and is being sponsored by Scouting Radio. The Station that loves to talk Scouting. More on this later. Coming up soon is my talk to Northallerton Scouts AGM on July 7th at the Cricket Club.
Dr Stuart Murray, who is writting the Milestones article on Ralph Reader and the Gang Show, has been beavering away in numerous archives and reports that his article is 'on its way'. Dr Stu I am sure will provide us with a work well up to the Milestones tradition of providing a definitive document with its share of 'well I never knew that' scoops.
It is rumored that there are some people in the Scout Association who having got the Centennial Year out of the way have reverted to their former stance- 'Look to future now' - with its less public utterance of "forget the past". Yes really! Well here on Scouting Milestones we invite you to spread a counter message,

Scouting History is inspirational. Let's use to inspire!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me) June 7th 2008

AN APPEAL!
I am preparing for a visit to Gilwell for yet another assault on Baden-Powell's Diaries. I have been very privileged to transcribe B-Ps original diaries, which were left by his widow, Lady Olave, to the Boy Scouts of America. They arranged for the UK Scout Association (in the 1950's I think) to have microfiche copies. The work is tedious as B-P never expected his diaries ever to be read and the handwriting at times is indecipherable even to those who have familiarity with his handwriting and the ageing microfiche itself is not an ideal medium. I have been doing this work for about eight years now and have completed about two thirds of the diary's held. A three day visit may yield 2 years of diary entries! Without labouring the point I guess a twenty minute session in front of the microfiche would be enough eyestrain for the day for most people!
I transcribe the entries into a computer database which means of course that names and places can be found by 'single word search' - a real boon as previously all that could be done was to look at the entries day by day. Into this database I have added all other known B-P activity, where it can be ascribed to a particular date, this includes letters of which I have had access to many hundreds! dated photographs- booklets, books, programmes etc. The database so far has nearly 55OO daily entries! This work, when it is finished, will of course be lodged (as all my work is) with Scout Archives and should make the life of future Scout Historians a lot easier. On a personal level the database is used to inform Scouting Milestones articles and my books so that you can be sure that as far as dates, names and places are concerned that they have been checked with the database and are correct.
One of the good things about B-P is that he is nobody's 'property', and whilst archives, museums, private collectors and even his family (all of whom have been very supportive in my quest) cannot ever claim to have anything a anything like a complete inventory of these artefacts. Many letters etc are in still in the hands of individual families and Scout Groups with whom B-P corresponded or had some association with.

MY APPEAL TO YOU THEN, DEAR MILESTONES READERS, IS THAT IF YOU HAVE SHOULD HAVE ACCESS TO ANY DATED B-P MATERIAL I WOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL FOR A SCAN OF THE SAME - OR TO BE PUT INTO CONTACT WITH THE OWNER/CURATOR OF SUCH ITEMS.

In this way the database, already unique, will become as definitive as it possibly can be and 100 years after Scouting began we will have a better factual basis for examining the life and times of a very great man than was ever available previously.
In the meantime I am always glad to try and answer any queries that you think might be resolved by my research.

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
May 28th 2008

We had a very successful time at Northumberland's Look Wide Marra camp in Gosforth Park, celebrating the centennial of the-should-be-famous Humshaugh Camp. 'Marra' is a Northumbrian/Geordie dialect word meaning friend. The weather was very kind and an enormous range of quality activities were available to the 1000+ campers, including talks on Northumberland's important contribution to World Scout History by yours truly. Canpers visited the Scouting Milestone's 'Look Wide' Exhibition, and were able to see very rare artifacts from the Humshaugh Camp. Points were then awarded towards their bronze silver or gold Camp badge after answering a few questions that could be gleaned from the exhibits- the difficulty of which was dependant upon the age of the camper. Other County Event organisers take note. This is how it should be done! Congratulations to Northumberland Scout County Team especially Camp Chief Richard Brown.
Sunday was Visitor's Day and several old friends came over to the exhibtion including Deputy Chief Scout Peter Nichol and Look Wide Walk organiser Lois Robdrup. The Deputy Chief Scout certainly gets about - I had bumped into him last year at Central Yorkshire's Centennial Event as well as on Brownsea on Sunrise Day. The 'Look Wide Marra' event must have been the nearest major Scouting event he had every attended, as he lives only a few miles from Gosforth Park near Morpeth.
In honour of the 'Look Wide' I have updated the Train Cruises Pages. to show a postcard image of Sir Percy Deputy Chief Scout at the Humshaugh Camp site in 1935. He is pointing out the 'Look Wide' inscription carved into the bare rock. The Train Cruisers then proceeded to Golsforth Park where, like me, they were royally entertained by Northumberland Scout County. No wonder the county motto is (or should be!)Northumberland for Ever.

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
May 23rd 2008

Later today the Milestone's Show will be heading North to my favourite county, Northumberland, where we will be active at the 'Look Wide' Marra Camp which celebrates the centennial of B-P's Humshaugh Camp I shall be giving five talks over the three days of the camp, - on two themes:

Mafeking to Brownsea
The Dawn of the world Scout Movement 1908- including the Humshaugh Camp.

Besides the talks I shall manning the 'Look Wide Experience' where participants will be able to see an exhibition on Milestone's Scout History Topics, including of course the Humshaugh Camp.

There will be important Scouting artefacts on display including B-P's Cine Camera, other items that belonged to B-P - some of his letters etc.
There will an opportunity to look at and purchase my new book The Dawn of the World Scout Movement and the promotional postcards as well as all the books/booklets I have written, as well very wide range of Scout Books and artefacts that besides being exhibits in their own right are also for sale!
If you are going to the Look Wide Marra camp- you are in for a treat! Having seen all the organisatonal details I can vouch that it is fantastically well organised! The Grandson of the Founder, Michael Baden-Powell send's Northumberland Scouts his congratulations on their Centennial.
If you are going to the camp either as a participant or day visit, come and have a chat. I look forward to meeting many old friends!

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
May 17th 2008

Today is Mafeking Day! If you don't know why the Union Flag is flying over 'Fern Dell'-today- than you don't know your Scouting History! One hundred and eight years ago today, after a siege of 217 days (the longest in the Boer War) Mafeking was eventually relieved, and its Gallant Commander Col RSS Baden-Powell was catapulted in World Wide fame. It was this public acclaim that allowed him to have the ear 'of the great and the good' and eventually to gain patronage and support to enable him to found the World Greatest Youth Organisation - one hundred years ago THIS YEAR!. In fact this month is the centennial of the world-famous Book 'Scouting for Boys' - (published in hard cover) that helped him achieve this tremendous feet. Scouts across the world over should be celebrating Mafeking Day- and we can shout as countless numbers did on May 17th 1900, 'Good old B-P!. Read all about it on the Mafeking Cadets pages

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
May 10th 2008

A very late arrival at the Lead Jamboree, but just in time for 2008 Centennial Celebrations at the Northumberland Marra camp is a German Troop made by Heide These wonderful models have arrived with their Troop Leader carrying a St George's Pennant.
Have you visited our Online Shop - this is a facility, originally for readers who might wish to puchase my traditionally published books and postcards, but now I have added specially designed and signed first day covers celebrating last year's Scouting Centennial. I was involved in the production of these official covers as they use images of artifacts that were first published on these pages. I have recently visited the two countries concerned, Falkand Islands and South Georgia and was able to purchased a stock of these covers, complete with the official trifold inserts written by me, based on the information on the Scout Marr and Discovery Pages.

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
May 7th 2008

Additional details have been added about Birmingham Scouter Ivan Yoxall on the Train Cruises Pages thanks to Milestone's Reader Jim Wignall. More information still required!

Scout and Cub Scout Leaders everywhere are given notice that May 17th, Mafeking Day is is only 10 days away. Now is the time to let your Cubs/Scouts know of the significance of this event to Scouting. What's that, you are not too sure yourself? Well, stay a step ahead and read the Mafeking Cadets pages

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
May 5th 2008

What was just a thought two days ago, that I should add a paypal button to those books that I have written to on the 'other books' pages has turned into a far more radical idea. Scouting Milestones is proud to announce the openning of its Online Shop - this is a facility for readers who wish to puchase my traditionally published books and postcards. As these are only available to from the author- and are specifically about Scouting Matters often relating to items on the webpages it seems a good idea to keep these altogether on one page with PayPal buttons for UK buyers. I could think of nothing more imaganative that the word 'Shop', we always used to have a 'providore' at camp - perhaps that would have been better- but would foriegn Milestone readers understand that term?
I already preparing to visit one of my favourite places in earth - The Wall Country Northumberland to join Northumberland Scouts in the 'Like Wide' Marra Camp, being held on 24th/25th May. The camp celebrates Northumberland pre-eminent place in Scouting as the site of the first National camp held at neary by Humshaugh in 1908. If you a going be sure to come and have a chat.

Our new FORUM Page.
Our new Visitors' Book.
                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
May 3th 2008

I trust that your St George's Day celebrations went well. Several friends of mine were deservedly honoured - none more so than brothers Ken and Brian Beardsley who left their beloved Yorkshire to go down to Windsor to receive their award. B-R-A-V-O to them and all other award winners.
My new book The Dawn of the World Scout Movement- is receiving excellent reviews and is now featured on Scouting Radio's website and also at a new website just dedicated to the book, where you can purchase directly through a PayPal 'Buy it Now' button should you so wish.I am condsidering adding this facility to all of my books on the 'Other Books' pages
The long-promised set of twelve postcards made from images in the book, are finally available. The postcards came from an idea by Ian Leonard, my long-time and proof reader after he had Brownsea:B-P's Acorn. It seem the cards for that book were well appreciated and I know that they were used to make 'instant' displays in may a Scout hut. Well if I say so myself the 12 cards again in two parks A and B are just good - though as everybody bought both packs from the other book I sell these two pack together at £8 plus £1 postage - press the link below if you are interested. If want to see the card before you buy then go to the book's own website after Tuesday 5th May - and you will be able to see and buy the cards using a PayPal link.- or use the email link to me below.
I now have another email address though of course the one you have will continue to work. The new one is Colin@ScoutingMiletones.co.uk and it will be useful if only that it will fit on the Scouting Miletones business card!
Both Scouting Milestones and myself now have a presence on facebook though I have to say we are feeling a bit lonely there. Drop by and become a 'friend'.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
April 16th 2008

The 'Scouting Milestones' road show hits the road again this weekend when I give a talk to Selby District Scouts at the Thorpe Willoughby Hall at 7.30 p.m. I know, I know, what's the point of telling so close to the event- especially when you live so far away and couldn't possible get there. Well- arrange a talk that I can give somewhere near you!
A significant change has been made to the 'Other Books' pages. This is the page where I review all those books which I have found helpful in compiling Scouting Milestones. It occurred to me a couple of years ago,in my ever so slightly self-opinionated way that the books that I have written on Scouting are just as interesting/useful as some of those I have reviewed by other people! (Well I hope so anyway) So I added those titles to the page that I thought our readership might be interested in i.e. Mafeking Artillery', JT Cornwell and the Scout's Badge of Courage, last year's Brownsea:B-P's Acorn and this year's new book, tra la la,The Dawn of the World Scout Movement.
Besides adding the new book I have also added a little 'gizmo' designed by the EBay bankers PayPal. I know many of you, like me find that the only practical way of feeding our addiction to Scout History is to collect by buying in the World Wide Marketplace i.e. on eBay - and perhaps even to offset a little of the financial deficit incurred by selling the odd thing or two.(If you want to see what I am selling use eBay's facilty to search for vendor using my 'screen name' ScoutingMilestones.)

This all made so much simple by PayPal, particularly when vendors or sales are abroad. The last time I looked I think their 'header' proclains they have 150 million accounts world wide! I am not here however to promote internet banks - but my own books- for which I make little apology! In the real world I have to recognise that if I did not publish them - it is unlikely that they would be published. I do not have the time or inclination to go round finding out if I am right or not- but I suspect that I am - and so I publish them myself and therefore I am my own 'Marketing Manager'. It seems sensible then to take up PayPal's inovation of a 'Buy it now' button on the webpage next to the books mentioned above. So if you want to buy a copy of one of my books directly from me - the only way -other than those copies I list from time to time on eBay- and you use PayPal, nothing could be simpler. Well nearly. If you do not live in the UK I have to ask that you do NOT use the button- as it is geared to UK postal expenses. You can however, if you are resident abroad, write to me on the link below and I will send postage details based on your address, and then you can send payment via PayPal, but using the facility from your own PayPal account. I hope this 'latest inovation' is helpful.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
April 10th 2007

Scouting Milestone's Golden Mike Award, is now proudly displayed with our other 'accolades' which can be viewed by pressing the link to the 'forum' page below.
Regular readers will know that the index page - contains greyed references to future pages yet to be written. One of these is provisionally called Gang Shows and the Role of Ralph Reader. As I announced some time ago I am delighted to say that Dr Stuart Murray- who has a special interst in the Gang Show, has agreed to become a 'guest writer' for and his has been beavering away at his task for some time now. The time as come to enlist the help of the Milestone's readership (which has never yet disapointed.)

Dr Stu writes,
When I first started to research Scout Entertainment I had little idea that not only would I find quite so much material,meet such remarkable and generous people but also see some fantastic and entertaining Gang Shows.I would however still like to find some more Wilcock and Rutherford Gang Show Scripts from the 1950's and 1960's. Photographs of early Troop and Group Shows again 1950's and 1960's. Copies of Scripts and Programmes from around this period.Contacts with past Gang Show and Scout Troop Shows Producers and Directors.An actual contact with someone from Chester and The London Gang Show Fellowship.Gang Shows are 'alive and well'and give the chance to perform to 1000's of young people.As it was expressed to me the other day.'That Gang Show makes a run down Hall on a run down Housing Estate into a Special and Magic place'.I saw it I was there.

And of course he his right! There is no arguement about that old B-P/Ralph Reader magic here on Milestones. To Contact Dr Stu press the link to me below and he will reply.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
April 7th 2007

Hot Press! Scouting Milestones website has been awarded a Gold Award by Scouting Radio- and we are in possession of its wonderful badge/award which will be displayed with pride once it has been publicly announced on Scouting Radio. Scouting Radio is one of the most innovative Scouting projects in the communications arena. Like Scouting Milestones it is produced by Scouts - for the free use of the Scouts of the World and is not tied to any one association or country. It is just pure Scouting enthusiasm for today's Scouts using today's technology. Scouting Milestones is proud to have been chosen as the first Gold Award Website recipient. Check out Scouting Radio, the station that loves to talk Scouting on, Scouting Radio
In the last few days I had the good fortune to take my grandchildren - Harry aged 10 a sixer, and his Brownie sister India to London for a few days holiday. We visited the Natural History Museum and naturally called in on B-P House for the photo opportunity with the youngsters posing alongside the Don Potter's famous statue of Baden-Powell (for details of Don Potter and his Scouting history go to the Biography Pages). Perhaps it would have been better though if we had stayed at the door! This may be old news to some of you, but the Scout Association have come to some arrangement with the German Hostel/City Hotel firm Meininger. The offices above the ground floor have long been let off, as UK Scouting has centralized its administration on the Gilwell Park site, but for some time the hostel continued to run by the Scout Association. The reception area of the House contained a small Scouting display and visitors coming from other countries etc could still buy souvenirs and feel that they were in Scout-owned premises. The situation now is that the displays have been removed - and apart from few dispointing scouting 'souvenirs' on sale at the counter- the place has lost its Scouting Character and I feel Scouting visitors who travel from any distance are going to be disappointed, though I understand that there will be a small Scouting photographic exhibtion mounted at some time in the future.
I have just checked the hostel/hotel's website and single rooms per night are available at £110, which may not be bad against other hotel accommodation in Central London but will totally alter the hostel's (or hotel as it now likes to be called) clientele. This is very along way from the hopes expressed for the way the House would be a focus for visiting Scouts from across the world when the foundation stone was laid by Lady Olave Baden-Powell in 1959 and when the House was opened by the Queen in 1961 - the money for its construction being raised not only from large corporate sponsorship but also from many individual members of the Association.

You know the old maxim things either get better or they get worse - nothing stays the same. That's wrong however, the Scout Spirit is always the same but it does takes some dints from time to time! Perhaps one of most worrying aspects of these recent changes is that fact that it is clear from the comments that you can leave on line about any London Hotel that some of the Hostel/Hotel's Company's guests are critical of the accommodation but are unaware that the Scout Association is no longer responsible for it.
As always Scouting Milestones continues to attract the most interesting correspondence re the articles we have on the site. There has been much recent correspondence with families who had ancestors at the Siege of Mafeking, and my Mafeking Siege Register has been working overtime and is all the while being updated. A much awaited contact however has been to do with a later war. I delayed for a long time putting the story of the Sea Scout and Dunkirk 'Little Ship' on the Minotaur, as I was aware that I really I had more questions than answers, but decided to add the piece once I found out for sure that the historic vessel had been scrapped. I finished the Page with a plea for readers to contact me if they had any further information. I knew this was long shot and that only people who were likely to have such information would be family of the boat's Skipper and Mortlake Sea Scouts GSL Tom Towndrow. Well, once again, the miracle has been wrought and I have been contacted by Jim Towndrow and his brother John, who are brothers of the new deceased Tom. John accompanied his brother Jim and the Minotaur down river to the assembly point to cross the channel to pick up the troops at Dunkirk, and Jim two years after the war went with Minotaur to the World Jamboree at Moisson, France. They thankfully confirm that my amateur detective work concerning the amazing history of the vessel is correct but have of course further details and memories which they have promised to share. This is indeed a wonderful revelation and important Scout History event - which as I say on the Minotaur pages - is also part of the history of this nation.
I was very pleased to talk to members of the Yorkshire Studies Group at Shepley, and receive a gift from its organisor of historic images and video footage of Scouting events locally and at the 1929 World Jamboree. I look forward to meeting Scouting friends in North Yorkshire at forthcoming talks in that Scout County- the first being on 19th April at Thorpe Willoughby.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
March 25th 2008

Right! I am reporting back for duty after having being away in the Antarctic for nearly a month. What an experience! For those of you interested in knowing the details, the cruise was on a Norwegian Ship, the Nordnorge, which is owned by Hurtigruten. I cannot recommend them highly enough. We visited all of the historical sites that I had an interest in e.g. Operation Tabarin's Hut B on Deception Island and Hut A (Port Lockroy) 0peration Tabarin was set up by Scout Marr - you can read all about this on Scout Marr Pages Scout Marr was with Shackleton when he died on South Georgia which was another of the places we visited. It was with great satisfaction that I was able to buy the Scout Marr stamps and first day cover that I had helped produce from the South Georgia Post Office - Scouting Milestones provided some of the artifacts used in the design, and I wrote the official press release, used as the 'stiffener' inside the First Day Cover.
I was then a great thrill to call at Port Lockroy, which is still manned. and meet with ex Scout Rick Atkinson who was in charge of the base. Rick has now finished his tour of duty in Antarctica and by now will be back home in Scotland. I hope to be in touch with him soon.
The ship also called in on the Falkland islands where my involvement in their Scout issue stamps is recorded on RRS Discovery Pages Again it was a great thrill to go to the post office and meet the lady Post Master- who also oversees the South Georgia post office. It was also very pleased indeed to meet up with Phil Middleton who is the GSL of the Stanley Scout Group on the island and had attended the World Jamb and Brownsea sunrise last year- - where we might have rubbed shoulders as I was at both events. The Falklands was also of special interest as my brother Keith was amongst the Marine Commandos who 'yomped' across the island to help liberate it in the Falklands war now 26 years ago. Of course the expedition had a lot more to offer then history- though there were two history lecturers on board. The wildlife sites visited and the amazing scenary especially of the Lemaire Channel can hardly be imagined.
It was also an vert great co-incidence that amongst the passengers there should be another Scout Historian- who had like myself published books on Scout History- there aren't too many of us per square mile so for two Scout Historians to be on the same ship in one the most remote areas of the world was, to use the word yet again, amazing. Jacqmin Leon was from Belgium and his 'Le Scoutisme en Belgique Autrefois' was published last year.
So now home, I can begin to think again about all those things which need doing- not least bringing my latest book, The Dawn of the World Scout Movement, to the attention of all those who would like to read it. Published in exactly the same format as my last book, the successful 'Brownsea B-P's Acorn', it is the same price £14.99 plus £2.50 post and packing within the UK. Should you be interested in obtaining a copy please you the contact details at the end of this blog.
On Thursday of this Week - at 2 pm at the Methodist Hall in Shepley near Huddersfield Yorkshire. I will talking to the Yorkshire Historical Group on 'The Siege of Mafeking' with of course special reference to the Yorkshire Folk who were present. (As you will see from the above we get everywhere - big grin-. I am sure the Society would not object if you are able to get along. Regular readers to this blog will know that I give quite a few talks - on all matters relating to Scouting encompassed on these pages. They (and you) will not be surprised to learn that 'Scouting Antarctica'- is now added to the repertoire- if you would like to arrange for 'Scouting Milestones' talk, please make contact.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me) February 15th 2008

I always seem to be apologising for not having updated the Blog more recenty! What is the excuse this time? Well I have been working flat out to complete the latest book 2008- The Dawn of the World Scout Movement in time for its official launch of Founder's Day (February 22nd)/ I am pleased to say that all is complete and the first box of books arrived yesterday and have been sent off to all those folks who made an advance order. If you would like the latest work, the cost is £14.99 plus £2.50 post and packing if you are in the UK- if not in the UK please advise and I will supply postage details to where ever you live. The new book is exactly the same format as Brownsea:B-P's Acorn i.e. A4 format- lots of colour pics, 162 pages - and Scout History as you have never read it before! Please email for my home address to send cheques if in the UK- if abroad PayPal is permissible.

The new book has an analysis of Baden-Powell's 1908 Diaries, and an account of the major factors influencing his writings in 1908, i.e. The 'Brother Organisations, i.e. the BB, CLB and YMCA, The Legion of Frontiersmen and Ernest Thompson- Seton. The is a chapter on the 'Writing of a Best Seller' ie. Scouting for Boys which also details the introduction in 1908 of the Scout Magazine. The introduction of the Scout Movement and the 1908 Badges are documented and the largest chapter is a definitive account of the 1908 first National Camp with B-P in Northumberland. There is Chapter on the First UK Scouts and the introduction in 1908 in all countries abroad- with information which will certainly surprise some people. Obviously one chapter is not enough to go into all 1908 UK Scout Groups so an appendix database detailing nearly 300 UK 1908 starts, the large listing ever published. The book is written by a Scout for Scouts - in an entertaining style that will be of interest to the general reader but at the same time serious Scout Historians will find something of interest on every page!

Last year was of course quite eventful as far as Scouting was concerned and I gave a number of talks up and down the Country - the most memorable one for me (not that they weren't all memorable(Big Grin) was in Brownsea Castle, on the 100th anniversary of the day the founder stayed there, two days before the start of the Experimental Camp. I am now taking bookings for talks from May onwards,and will inform/entertain any a bonafida Scout Audiences where numbers are in excess of 60 for expenses only. A Charge will be made for non Scouting groups or where the audience is smaller that 60. I look forward to attending the Northunberland Humshaugh Centenial Camp and will have exciing news later in the year above other interesting projects.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
January 17th 2007

Barely a week goes by that I don't have an enquiry, in some form or another, about one of the webpage articles. Often these are from people who have a direct association with the subject matter. A good example of that would be the mail I had this very day from Tony Chowles, a direct descendant of Mafeking Cadet C Choles. The information that Tony supplied will form a welcome revision ot the Mafeking Cadet pages. The total number of contacts I have now had from descendants of Cadets is five. Of course, it is not possible to get much closer to core Scouting History than to be studying the history of the Mafeking Cadets

Some pages however generate more contact than others, Bamboo Thumsticks the inspirational story of Japanese Thumbsticks written now over five years ago, whilst proving very popular, if that is the right word for such moving testimony, has up to very recently failed to yeild any personal contacts. I say 'up to recently' because in space of the last two weeks, like the proverbial buses, contacts have come flooding in - well it feels like after having none for so many years, as now I have three. Thanks to a reader of my Brownsea:B-P's Acorn book who was wanting to place an order for the new, 1908 The Dawn of the World Scout Movement, I became aware that in his county of Bedfordshire there lives Alec Brown who helped to start the Rover Crew in the notorious Changi POW camp in Singapore in 1942. Contact with County Officials in Bedfordshire brought links with Scouters who know Alec (Bedfordshire feartured Alec wearing his Changi neckeer (see web artical) in its 2007 calander presentation. It wasn't long before I had been introduced to Alec's son- and I am shortly to visit them both and will I am sure have many more tales to add to the Changi story. Alec has already indicated that he has memories of many of the Rovers mentioned on the site.)

A few days later I had a contact from Cliff Phillips who wrote to tell me that his father. now deceased, had been a Rover in Changi and Shirakaw (Formosa) and sent me a copy of his Rover Membership Certificate, made in the camp, to prove it. Cliff has promised to supply me with details of his father's life and Scouting Activities.

I think that Cliff must have been responsible for introducing for my next contact to Milestones, Michael Hurst MBE, who is the director of the Taiwan (Formosa) POW Camps Memorial Society Michael had been alerted to the Bamboo Thumbsticks page which he has now read for the first time. He writes that he has been in Scouting most of his life and with his interest in the POW Camps found the Milestonespage very helpful containing, as it does, information about many of the people on his database - and also providing fresh names to add it. He tells he spent most of the day reading the site and I am sure that we will have a most fruitful relationship assisting each other.

One contact to assist in adding information to my Bamboo Thumbstick pages would have been very rewarding, - three, is absolutely astounding and will, of course, result much fresh information to add to the Scouting Milestone's memorial to the Rover Scout POWs. Michael knew though correspondance, the Rev Fred Stallard whom I had worked for when younger as a Youth Leader in his parish. I was aware that he had been a POW but it was not until I started to research the history of the Changi and Formosa camps that I realised what an amazing Scouting career that he had had - and then even more amazingly discovered that I also knew another ex Peterborough Rover, Wally Hammond, who was part of the Changi story. (If you have not yet read the insprational story, let me reccomend that you do it now!)
As always there is far more to tell, but too little time to tell it in. I have been very busy these last few weeks with the new book which very near now to being printed. Many thanks to those of you that have sent orders- thanks your your patience, I assure you the book is worth waiting for!

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
January 2nd 2008

One again- but the first time this year let me wish Scouting Milestones readers a HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2007 and was a truly fantastic year for Scouting and for once that overworked word is being correctly applied! No doubt you, as did Scouts across the world, celebrated our centential, in your own District and/or County. There was one, and only one organisation that took it upon itself to record these events as they unfolded, across the world and then to play back as they happened, live to every Scouting nation.

They started off with live coverage from a large Scout gathering observing the sunset, the evening before the great day, off The Needles on the Isle of Wight, and moved in real time, again live, to the sunrise of August 1st 1907 in South Island New Zealand. They took in reports and interviews from Scouts across the world as sun travelled over the face of the globe until at last we were ready to meet it on Brownsea Island where it all started on that very day 100 years previously. I tried to describe, with emotion breaking into my voice just what I was seeing and feeling as Peter Duncan the Chief Scout blew Baden-Powell's Kudu Horn three times across the original camping ground. I was fortunate to be a small part of the team that been involved in creating the re-enactment camp on Brownsea and was close to them as they stood in their 1907 costumes wearing the copies of the Scout badge that Baden Powell made for the original Brownsea Campers. They reaffirmed their promise with the Chief Scout which echoed out back across the world from my microphone 100 years and 29 million Scouts later than when the 22 original boys they represented, first heard about Scouting first hand from the Founder on that very spot.

Throughout the day live coverage came from across the globe with a link to the International World Scout Guide Centre at Kandersteg in Switzerland. Scouts from all nations contacted the studios to bring their own stories of the day and these were interspersed with the voices of famous Scouts fromm the past including the inspirational voice of the Founder himself- which then leapt the generations in the form of his Grandson Michael Baden-Powell from Scouting Australia as he addressed listeners on the importance of the event.

The organisation that did all was not one of the large world-famous companies, such as the BBC ITV CBN etc etc that enjoyed the hospitality of the media centre on Brownsea island because, no matter how big they were, THEY WERE JUST NOT BIG ENOUGH! No, - in the true traditions of Scouting the one organisation that managed 36 hours of continuous live reporting from every part of the globe, were a small but hard-working group of Scout volunteers, who call them Scouting Radio, The station that loves to talk Scouting, and if you have not listened to them yet, then its time that you did!

There have been many Scouting souvenirs produced over the last year and some of them will, if previous experience is anything to go buy, in future years be worth a lot of money. There is one such however that I am proud to own, and is in my view is priceless, but of course I am very very biased. The Scouting Radio Team has sweated blood to bring down the 36 hours of live reportage to just one hour on a specially produced C-D and that is available now to Scouts Worldwide by visiting the station's Website.

Every Scout Archive and Scout Collection should of course have a copy. There is truly nothing else that can begin to capture the enormity of the Sunrise Event across the world.

To listen to it, will I promise, impress upon you, perhaps as never before just how grand and widespread was the Founder's vision; what it means to young people across the world today. Above all, it will make you proud to call yourself a Scout. - Oh, and just in case you ever doubted - amy monies made from the sale of this disc will not swell the coffers of Scouting Radio's shareholders, - it hasn't got any! It will though help it to carry on doing the job it set itself, bringing Scouting programmes made by Scouts, to Scouts, around the world 24 hours a day!

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
December 31th 2007

Apologies to Milestones readers who regularly check these update/blog pages expecting to see something new! The problem has been trying reinstate my Macromedia Homesite Programme after a computer crash. My copy was paid for and downloaded on line- but it has taken this long for me to get the programme up and running again - and this in the end was only achievable by buying an upgrade! But enough- we are back in business again.
So, belated Christmas Greeting and Happy New Year to all Milestones Readers.
To those of you that are eagerly anticipating my latest book. 1908: The Dawn of the World's Scout Movement the good news is that it is very nearly finished now. I can promise that it will be a worthy successor to the last book Brownsea:B-P's Acorn. The bad news is that it might just take a little longer to get published than I expected. I hoped that it would be out by 15th January which is the 100th anniversary of Scouting for Boys part edition Scouting For Boys, The Parts, but the publishers say it may have to be bit later, but definitely before (I hope a long time before) the 100th anniversary of the Complete Edition which was May 1st 1908. In any event I hope you agree that it will worth waiting for.
The purpose of this blog was just reestablish contact- much has happened in the last month- and I will be in touch shortly. In the meantime remember that 2008 is our true centennial. Brownsea was an experimental camp. A troop near started up in 1908. Let me know about! Happy Christmas,

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
November 29th 2007

I am indebted to many corespondents who written to me with information regarding 1908 Scout Troops at home and abroad. Many thanks for this, every lead is being followed. Birkenhead who were in at the very start of Scouting have at least two 1908 troops have written to invite me, (and you) to a free exhibition, The Birkenhead Centenary Exhibition which opens at the Wirral Museum 1st. Dec. 2007 and will I understand be open till Easter. Great! A Scouting Exhibition in our actual Centennial Year.
The famous plaque that B-P unveiled in the YMCA Building Birkenhead, to say that he inaugurated Scouting in that Building in January 1908 has gone missing! Don't worry it has been 'missing' for some years now. I had a correspondents who said it was in the staff canteen of the shop that took over the building, but I have been unable to trace it. I have written to the YMCA Birkenhead several times without response but in a few day's time I am to visit YMCA archives in Birmingham so hopefully I will learn more. Meanwhile if you have any information regarding the whereabouts of the famous Birkenhead YMCA plaque, please let me know.
Unfortunately I was unable to go to the Live07 Scouting Celebrations at the 02 Dome, but I have a friend who did and he brought me back a Programme. The spirit of the Ralph Reader lives! Congratulations to the producer Howard Bentley and to all the Gang who came from so many districts that I can really afford the time to count them all!
Regular readers will know that one (well one of many) of the 'anorak' things that I do is to maintain a Baden-Powell chronology, a day by day diary of B-P's Scouting life. Really? Indeed, his diaries on microfiche are just a start to this mammoth ongoing task, onto that, I 'graft' all known B-P references where they can be dated and authenticated. B-P letters and sketches are of particular interested to me and so if you are lucky own one or more, or your group/distinct/county proudly have one on a wall somewhere I would like to know it. All this information I squirrel away on computer databases that is available to you through the medium of the pages on this site and the books that I write, but also I am happy to correspond to short genuine enquiries. I do NOT however have the time to write other people's articles or homework for them (yes, it happens!) I am too busy with my own!

Happy Christmas,

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
November 20th 2008

Last week was spent researching, using my camper as a base. Much useful work was done in transcribing Baden-Powell's diaries which, in this country, are only to be found on Microfiche. The originals belong to the Boy Scouts of America. These diaries were mainly kept by B-P as a record of appointments and do not go into his innermost thoughts, except perhaps when he went on foreign tours. I doubt that he ever believed that they would read by anyone other than himself and so his handwriting is on occasion almost indecipherable (I should complain! as those of you that have ever seen mine can testify!). Transcribing these diaries is an arduous and painstaking long-term project. On average it takes three days to complete two years! The advantage of putting this information on a computer database is self-evident. Whereas previously the only way of seeking information was to know the date of a particular event, and that day could then be checked to see what the diary contained. With the single word search facility of the computer database I am now able to find very quickly when B-P visited a particular location or met individuals. Of course the project will really only have complete validity, i.e. we will be able to say with some certainty then that a place or individual was or was not mentioned in totality of B-P's Scouting life, when the diaries have been completely transcribed. On the present rate of progress that will be some time yet.

Milestones readers have come up trumps yet again! In response to my plea for information on 1908 Scout Troops at home and abroad I have had very helpful correspondence from Steve Bobrowicz of Canada who has given me contact details for the three - yes three Canadian Scout Groups who all claim to be the first in what was then the Dominion of Canada. Stephen Rowley, Assistant Chief Commissioner, Scouts Australia has also been most helpful in supplying details and contacts for Scout Groups formed in New South Wales and Victoria during 1908. If you believe your Scout Group, or any Group that you have had contact with was formed in 1908 please let me know. My new book The Dawn of the World Scout Movement' comes out in early 1908, the one hundredth anniversary of many Scouts Groups, yours, if not already immortalized in a Scout History text, could easily be so!

Just prior to going away on my researches I was contacted by Stephen Wilson from Australia who writes with information about his grandfather the revered Francis Gidney, first Camp Chief at Gilwell. Stephen has been very helpful and his information will add to the store of knowledge contained in the lengthy biography of Gidney which can be found on these pages. These will be brought up to day when Stephen has been able to contact his father, aged 93 who will I am sure be able to give further insight into one of our greatest Scouting Pioneers,Francis 'Skipper' Gidney whose influence spread far beyond the UK.

There are plans at long last to do something about the some of the 'greyed-out' titles in theIndex. The greying out signifys a future article yet to be written. I hope that in the new year a Ralph Reader and the Gangshow page, a long standing project will be contributed by a guest author, more details in a later milestone, and thanks to Frank Brittain the very active archivist of Hertfordshire, I can no longer use lack of info as an excuse for not writing about the SIRS (Scout International Service) who did such astonshing work in Displaced Persons Camps in the closiing months of the second world war. Another Nilestone that will amaze you. Kent's County Commisssioner, Kelvin Holford, is a great friend of these pages has provided allowed me to borrow two very rare books written by early Scouting Pioneer Major Crumm, a name that should be better known and is now destined to appear on our Biography pages. 2008 is going to be a very busy year!

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
November 10th 2007

The power of the website, as I have said so many times, before never fails to amaze me. The latest response to the Visitors' Book is from granddaughter of Charles Tug Wilson who was one of the leading light in the Changi Rover Group, who were prisoners of the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1941. This group was in turn was responsible for Rover Groups being set up in all Japanese POW camps. Clare tells us that her grandfather only died last year. Anybody who wants to be reminded of which what heroic work these Rover Groups did in such terrible circumstances should read Bamboo Thumbsticks . Clare's message come very near to Remembrance Sunday- the whole purpose of the Bamboo Thumbsticks website is 'Lest We Forget'. If you have never read this amazing story, you should.

I received an email from a Lithuanian Vytas Slipus, he now lives in America and had been trying to contact me for some time but failed. So Vytas emailed his son who was able to pass on his email. If your have read the Calgaric Pages you will know that the whole of the 'Piece Cruises' pages came about because of the 'detective work' that was necessary to explain the existance of a little silver badge given to me by a friend. The badge had 'B-P' in one corner 'AS' in another and the word Palanga below. I was able to find the badge was given to all the 'cruisers' when SS Calgaric visited Lithuania in 1933, the fist of the Peace Cruises with 400 or so Guiders, Scouters, B-P and Lady B-P aboard. I discovered that 'AS' was Antanas Smetona the then President of Lithania. I found an photo,now on the page, of B-P opening a street in Palanga- a port in Lithania. It transpired that the most striking personage on this image, a tall elderly gentlemen, with white flowing beard and frock coat was Vytas's father. The webpage goes on to detail how the cruisers joined with the Lithuanian Scouts at their camp in the pines next to the sea. They sat down for feast at the worlds' biggest table made up of a trench for the feet, the earth as a beautiful table, covered in designs made out of stones, moss and shells. Vytas tells me that he himself sat at that table with B-P and the other 'cruisers' a staggering 74 years ago. This info will go now into the next upstate of that page.

B-P's whole life was punctuated with the most amazing co-incidences. If you want an example of just one; B-P, his wife and his daughter Heather all shared the same birthday. ummmm, you are not impressed? Well his other daughter Betty her husband Gervais and their daughter Gillian - all share the same birthday, you still think that just sort of thing happens all the time, well ponder on this. B-P's son, his wife Carine, and their son Robert(now the present Lord Baden-Powell) all share the same birthday. B-P called that 'the triple coincidence of the twin birthdays', as my son would say, "what are the chances?" Well I don't have anything so dramatic to report but yesterday I was in Northumberland doing research on my new book (see below) which incudes a major rewrite of the Humshaugh 1908 pages on this site. The Scouts came by train to Fourstones and walked up to the camp, so I was at Fourstones to see what still survived of the station today, and the answer is not a lot. Whilst checking this out with the Landlord of the local pub, one of the onlu two other customers, on hearing my mention of the 1908 Camp, told me that he was a Scout and had attended a 1957 'memorial' Camp at Humshaugh, - mentioning that a bugle that was blown at the original camp- had been sent by its owner John Cattermole, to be blown again at the anniverseary camp.

You can read all about John Cattermole on theHumshaugh pages so I knew the story to be true. However, what are the chances of bumping into someone who was actually at the anniversasry camp, fifty years ago, to hear John Cattermole's trumpet being blown?

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
November 8th 2007

Again far too long has elapsed since my last update. Again I have been 'out and about', but have also experienced a very severe computer crash that has been only just been remedied by a friend with far more computer savy than I possess! Apologies however to my regular readers.

My problems have not stopped me from being very busy, and there is a lot to report(Too much for one update I am afraid. Writing is going on in earnest for my new book, a sequel to Brownsea:B-P's Acorn.The new book is to be called 'The Dawn of the Scout Movement:1908', and will cover the introduction of Scouting for Boys, The Scout magazine, The Uniform and badges, The Humshaugh Camp etc, with an important chapter on 1908 Scout Groups at home and abroad. That, dear reader. is where you come in. If you are member of a 1908 group, or know of one in your district than please can write to me on the link below so I can establish contact. I have access to many forms of official records, however as far as Scouting in 1908 is concerned it local information that is vital. Patrols and Groups were active in districts before the District Committees were set up, and group registrations sometimes took over a year to be notified to the Scout Office in London. So, any help would be appreciated and of course acknowledged in the new book.
I will be off on my travels again next week, further research for the new book, but sincerely hope to be able to add at least one more update before I do.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
October 15th 2007

It is just over a month ago since I wrote the last update. During the intervening time I have been out and about - a three week holiday in the Motor Caravan taken us through France across the Pyrenees to Barcelona, and north up that wonderful coastline back into France. The crowds had all left, the weather was wonderful, and scenery superb. And how did I spend the evenings as they shortened to pitch black by around 8 p.m.? Was I sampling the high life, testing out the vino, etc. No I was not. I was in the motor-caravan, in front of the laptop transcribing the Mafeking Siege Slips! Sometimes, just sometimes, I worry about me!
The Siege Slips, 'published daily shells permitting' were issued on most days of the Siege, and as newsprint began to run out, tissue paper, and even ledger paper was pressed into service. As soon as the Siege ended, bound copies of the Siege Slips were produced and these as you might expect are worth a considerable amount of money, and, being now 107 years old, are extremely fragile. The tissue pages can crumble before your eyes at the least provocation. The fragility ought to make any sensible owner extremely careful about how often the book is opened. In my researches however for my Mafeking's Artillery and the now published Mafeking Siege Register, as well as magazine articles etc, I tend to use it more frequently than is good for it. So, some time ago I resolved in a rash moment to type the whole thing out- all 170 slips into 'Word'.( Can you believe it?) This I thought would save wear and tear in future years but above all enable me to search the entire document using the single word search facility. That would be wonderful. That was about five years ago! I am however now within sight of the winning post. I have only about 30 issues left to go- each one takes me about two hours to type (what an anorak!) so sometime in the next year I expect to be proudly announcing a new publication. Should you want to read all the Mafeking Siege Slips instead of paying around £1000 for a copy you will be able to order up one from me at around £25. Order yours now! No money required just let me know if you are interested. And, when on some future winter evening, you are snug in front of the fire reading about B-P in Mafeking 107 years ago, you can look up from your glass and spare a thought for that idiot who sat in balmy evenings in Spain and other far flung corners over the world crouched over his lap top, typing, typing, typing .......
Some of you I am sure will be able to imagine the size of my mailbox on my return after so long away. I am pleased to inform you that I have had additional information sent re Sir Percy Everett which will be added to the Biography pages and also to Scout Marr and the Quest. These pages will be amended in the near future.
Now safely back home, the work continues, and my new book to be published in the the new year, - 1908, The dawn of the World Scout Movement, which will also include a full account of the first 'proper' Scout Camp at Humshaugh in Northumberland in 1908, the true centennial year for the start of the Scout Association. The book will of course include all the Scouting happenings of that portentous year including the writing of Scouting for Boys and The Scout Magazine, the first Scout Troops, badges etc etc etc. The Scout County of Northumberland are going to hold a Centennial Camp close to the original site, and I hope to be involved in the festivities. Watch this space!

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
September 11th 2007

Back safe and sound from one of the best Gilwell Reunions I can remember. The weather throughout the whole event was absolutely perfect and, as usual, it was wonderful to meet so many old friends and find new ones amongst the Milestone's readers who came across to the International Badger's Club village to introduce themselves.
In the trading village amongst all the badge swapping and buying and selling of Scout artifacts there was much to be found that was of interest and that will benefit future Milestone Pages. The 'Minotaur' Sea Scout 'Little Ship'Pages have already been revised since my return to include a new image of the boat at the 1947 World Jamboree, and the exact location of one of the existing photographs on the page. Other acquisitions will appear on the 'History of the Rover's Page', and the projected 'Scouts in World War 1' and 'Ralph Reader and the Gang Shows' pages, as I have acquired very rare recordings of the 1934/35/36 Gang Shows. Hopefully by the time that Page is written I will be able to offer background sound from the recordings.
For me, as every year, the highlight of the whole Reunion is the campfire and this year was no exception. Modern head-mikes make sure that all the 'presenters' can be clearly heard and an excellent 'stunt' was always performed by the Gilwell Camp team, but it is the humour and the harmonious singing of the huge crowd that leaves the lasting impression in that magic campfire hollow where B-P himself sat and sang along that revives the soul - especially when some the old faithfuls are sung from the heart by so many, this year joined by the founder's two grandchildren Michael B-P and Gill Clay.
Walking back from the fire with weird and ancient campfire blankets in every direction it is not long before you hear the counter attractions of one of the country's best Scout Bands and at least three different discos going full-blast, not to mention the various bars. Truly something for everyone. Those of you that have never experienced a Reunion - believe me you are missing out! These days it is not an event just for Wood Badge holders, it is for everybody and one of the best events in the Scouting calender.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
September 2nd 2007

It may come as a surprise to some Milestones readers to know that not everybody views these articles from the convenience of a PC or laptop. There are still those who prefer to read from hardcopy even when they have a PC - and for a variety of reasons some folks don't have access to a machine in their homes. For these reasons I am asked occassionally to provide a hardcopy of a Milestones article. Those of you that understand the technicalities of webpage design will appreciate that this is not an easy operation. Webpages are not 'paginated', they are designed to 'scroll'. If you force a webpage on to A4, you will invariably end up with images being split or missed out altogether. To produce a proper 'book', it is necessary to take the coded webpage and virtually rewrite it specifically for A4 pages. Such is the demand now for these 'print outs' that I try to have some copies of each to hand. The forthcoming 'Gilwell Reunion' (next weekend 8th/9th September) is one of the places where friends and frequent attenders of the event know that they can be obtained - along with copies of my 'properly published' books such as 'Brownsea: B-P's Acorn', and 'JT Cornwell VC and the Scouts' Badge of Courage' etc. There are a few (very few it must be admitted) aficionados of Milestones that have a print out of every single article! These are 'comb-bound' and are produced with hard covers protected by clear acetate sheets.
So that should explain why I have spent the last week or so slaving in front of a hot printer manufacturing Scout History books. One book had already been ordered called 'Lead' Jamboree and as this is very specialist Page concerning itself with lead Scouting Models, it was some long time ago since I had last produced a booklet. I was amazed to find that it was in fact that it was first printed out in 2001. Because collecting Lead Scouting Models is a long-standing hobby of mine - it was one of the first articles to be included in Milestones being transferred from an earlier site I ran on Toy Collecting.
The real shock came when I actually looked at the page as it is displayed on the website. OH DEAR, it was one of the few that had escaped serious revision since it was written. (Most Milestones articles are amended several times a year- if you want to check there is always a revision date at the end of each article.) It wasn't so much what I had written that appalled it was the quality of the photographs! In the year 2000 digital photography was in its infancy and my brand new camera that then cost £600 would now be outshone by those attached to most modern phones! Since that time I have had three generations of digital camera and for those that are interested, I now use Canon 400D's. The quality of today's images compared with those created in 2000 is just amazing. So, what could I do, send my customer very old hat, or start again? Fortunately in the intervening the years the Lead Jamboree has its fair share of new and interesting acquisitions, so the decision was easy. Go to the < A href="jamboree.htm" target="parent" title="Lead Jamboree">'Lead' Jamboreeand see the 'new' page in all its glory. I promise you that even if you are not a Toy Collector as a Scouting enthusiast you will find something of interest and, as with all Milestones articles, aspects of our history that you have never encountered before.
Should you like to have any of the Milestones articles printed as a booklet, but are not fortunate enough to be attending the Gilwell Reunion please write to me on the link provided. If you are going to Gilwell I will be in the 'Badgers' Village' close to the new climbing wall. Look for the Scouting Milestones banner. Come and have a chat!

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
August 23 2007

Through the my actual rather than virtual mailbox this week came a First Day Cover of our Scouting Centenary Stamps with a special Brownsea Island Postmark and a very striking cachet showing the cover of the The Boy Scouts Role of Honour/i> by Eric Wood. The cover of this book appears the History of the Sea Scouts Pages and it had attracted the attention of the 'Cover Co-ordinator' of the Association of Great Britain First Day Cover Collectors who wrote to me and requested my help in providing the image for the purposes of a 'cachet' on their First Day Cover of the Scout Issue. Of course I was delighted to help. Though there was no need to ask anyone else's permission as the book is way out of copyright, the 'Cover Co-ordinator' then requested and received permission to use my image from the UK Scout Association. A model of how to proceed when using what could be the copyright of others! If I say so myself the cover is very striking and can, I believe, be purchased by writing to the Cover Co-ordinator, CBFDC, 40 Mill Lane, Houghton Green, Warrington WA2 OSU.
There is on our opening pages, an invitation to use Scouting Milestones for any bona fide Scouting Purpose. As our Founder reminds us that a Scout should take nothing but photographs and leave only thanks, I would hope and expect that anybody taking us up on that invitation would still acquaint us with the intended use our material is going to be put and to and send us a copy if it is to be published in physical way. There should also of course always be a properly constructed acknowledgement. A Google search on our internet address will reveal many such acknowledgements, but of course there are always the 'cowboys'! The amazing thing is that they think nobody will ever notice.

During our Centenary there has been much use of the Milestones pages for many articles about the Brownsea Sunrise etc. - and again we do not mind, given the briefest of acknowledgement. We would far rather somebody takes the time to get things right. Even Scouting Milestones however can make mistakes! We do however work very hard to eliminate them as soon as possible. Most of our mistakes are 'typos' and thesr often provide the clue that out work is being copied without permission. In an early version of the Milestones Brownsea Article' I mistakenly typed that Brownsea Instructor Coastguard Stevens came from Sandown on the Isle of Wight. This was because I had misread Sandown for nearby (to Brownsea) Sandbanks in a handwritten census return. You will see that mistake is now put right on Milestones in the . However the spelling of Stevens I got right from the Cencus return whereas previously this had almost universally been written as Stephens. So when you see an article about Brownsea and it mentions Coastguard Stevens from Sandown, Isle of Wight you can be sure that it was copied from Milestones. Equally certain is that it we will not have been informed else we would have put them right, and almost as certain is that there will not be a reference to your favorite Scouting History Website! Shall I tell you who the latest perpetrator of this crime? - There have been plenty- but this one was paid money for copying my research for his article in a 'County' magazine. No, its not Scouting is it?

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
August 14th 2007

I guess that most of the people who attended the World Jamboree have now returned home and are busy sewing badges onto campfire blankets and sticking photos into albums to remind them of what will probably be the most amazing event in their Scouting lives. For those of us who were able to visit Hylands Park, Gilwell Park or Brownsea Island during the celebrations, memories will also abound and my mailbox is full messages from people whom I am happy to say just had to write and share their wonderful experiences. One visitor to Brownsea, already mentioned on these pages, has sparked off an amazing set of coincidences and, like B-P himself, here on Scouting Milestones we just love coincidences. Wim Doms from Belgium (see July 28th entry below) was waiting at Sandbanks to cross to Brownsea when he was approached by a gentleman who introduced himself as a relative of one of the original Brownsea Boys. The relative turned out to be one the boys whose life history is least known because he died very young. Thanks to Wim I now know more about this boy and will be able to add the details to the next edition of my book Brownsea: B-P's Acorn. The coincidence does not stop there. On the same day as Wim wrote to me I received an email from Australia from a lady Scouter who tells me that her family emigrated from the Bournemouth area and that she is related to the same Brownsea Boy! Naturally I will put the two branches of the family in contact with each other. The details of this boy will of course also be added to the Brownsea pages on this site in due course. Throughout my Brownsea researches for the book it has never failed to amaze me that it is possible to discover fresh information about the camp and its participants 100 years after the event! Whilst on the subject of Brownsea those of you who recieve the official Scout Associatin's Scouting magazine August edition will be able to read my article on Brownsea and discover the advert for the Brownsea book.

Another of the pages on this site that attracts great interest is The History of the Rover Scouts . I get mail from Rovers from all over the world, some of whom get too impatient to read to the end of the article and have to write to me at the point I suggest Rovering was abolished in 1968 with the Advanced Party Report. If they waited till the end of the article to write they would have found that I am very aware that many countries still have Rovers who are part of the WOSM (the mainstream World Scout Movement) as do the 'breakaway' Scout Associations here in the UK such as the Baden-Powell Scouts. I list the WOSM organised World Rover Moots which still occur every four years. More patient readers of the Rover Scout pages have written to me recently to remind me that there are a number of Rover Scout Crews still active in the UK that, though unofficial, function within their mainstream UK Scout Association Districts and Counties. Indeed I know of one such that does a considerable amount of work at Gilwell Park. And why not? More power to their elbows. If you should belong to any such Crew please write and tell me of your existance and I will if you wish put you in touch with like-minded fellow Rovers.

I am now starting to prepare for my annual visit to the Gilwell Reunion, which of course will be very special in this Centennial Year. As always I will be located in the Badgers 'Village' behind the climbing wall. Look for the Scouting Milestones banner and come and make yourself known.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
August 7th 2007

Since the my last 'Blog', my daughter Heather was married on August 4th - another wonderful day. The weather which has been so terrible in the previous two months was great. The event was very much a Scout Wedding and the bride and groom accompanied the Wakefield Scout Fellowship on our visit to the World Jamboree at Hylands Park on August 6th.
Hylands Park is about four and a half hours away from Wakefield by coach - and despite leaving at 6 a.m. with a stop and a very heavy traffic we did not get to Weald Airfield until gone eleven. The transfer arrangements to the Shuttle Bus were very efficient and we were soon walking up the aisle of World Flags from the visitors entrance. It was soon very apparent that the participants were having the time of their lives and the number, variety and quality of the things for visitors to do and see was very impressive. The jamboree site with 40,000 campers and 15,000 day visitors has become the second largest town in Essex!
We had in our party three generations of the family and all of them felt well entertained and catered for. Our Cub Scout Sixer (and his Granddad) had a great time in the Badgers Club marquee and the every spreading aisles of badge swappers outside. The spirit of Scouting was such that Harry and the other young people in our group who started out with very few badges came back with enough to make a campfire blanket! Scouts and Scouters across the Jamb went out of their way to make our day a success- and they particularly concentrated on our youngsters which made a great impression on them which I am sure will last them all their lives - as indeed my visit to the Jubilee Jamboree in 1957 had on me. The Swedish contingent for example had created out of poineering materials a special fairground complete with Ferris Wheel for younger visitors which was much appreciated by them and gave grandparents a welcome chance to sit down whilst they enjoyed the fun. Truly a family day out!
I was delighted to meet many Scouting Milestones readers from across the world, and make lot of new friends. The spirit of the Jamboree was all pervading! The closing ceremony of the Jamboree is today and I wish all the participants from distant shores pleasant times whilst they remain in our country and that their next destinations where they will enjoy the ho ho (Home Hospitality) of their fellow scouts, in what every country, cements long lasting friendships.
So home again now after a pretty intensive period of Scouting Activity what with Michael's B-P's visit, The Brownsea Sunrise event, The Wedding, and the World Jamboree. Time to recuperate and get ready for the Gilwell Reunion!

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
August 2nd 2007

WE DID IT! CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE! Scouting is now 100 years old and entering its second century. I have been very fortunate to be down on Brownsea to witness the Sunrise Event, the event of our Scouting Lifetime, but the fun did not just start there. I was in Brownsea Castle on July 31st giving a talk to invited guests on the very day that B-P arrived on the island. He too was entertained in the Castle with Brownsea Boys the brothers Evans-Lombe and his nephew Donald before the other campers arrived, - probably on the very room we were in. Can you imagine what a thrill and a privilege that was?
I was able to re-establish contact with the replica Campers and their leaders- and I have to say their efforts surpassed even my historical scrutiny. The flag flying over the camp was I suggested handmade - wind frayed and as the original was the one that had flown over Mafeking with bullet holes. Such was the attention to detail that having got the all details of the flag correct the team then took the flag down to a rifle range where it was punctured totally authentically!
The Campers were in their Edwardian costumes - the Bournemouth BB boys in authentic BB pill box hats and Sam Brown belts made for wonderful photographs amongst the replica bell tents and they all wore copies of the first and second class badges designed and made by B-P. No living person has ever seen one these badge but from my researches for the Brownsea pages on this site and my book Brownsea:B-P's Acorn I was able to supply what I think is a very reasonable drawing of the real thing from which the team had the 'replica' badges made up. Again no effort was spared to make these look totally authentic and I am very fortunate to have an example now as a souvenir and no, it will mot be going on eBay! I would very very surprised if any of the others - all made for the participants with very few spares - every come to that end!
The evening before the Sunrise event found me back in Poole with Scouting's Great and Good in the RNLI Hotel in Poole where three of Scouting's Young Spokesperson made impressive contributions with recent DVDs of the previous day's activities on Brownsea. The highlight for me was a very tboughtful and impressive contribution made by Michael B-P, produced, he tells me, by two Aussie Queen's Scouts.
One thing that was very apparent was the very hard work that had been put into the whole of the Brownsea 2007 events by a great number of people, some of whom had given up their entire summer holidays to make the everything work - but others had been involved in its organisation of the last seven years! All I can say is that their should be much appreciated!
Any of you that were able to listen to the output of Scouting Radio on the day, will have heard my reports sent out live by telephone of the event, those of you that know me will recognise the my voice on occasion was cracking with emotion for which I make no apology.
This blog is not meant to be a web-page article and so is not the vehicle for a more detailed record, but the Sunrise Event with my experiences before and after need, I feel, if only for my own satisfaction to be more properly recorded. I propose then to add a new page to the website under the My Personal Milestones as soon as time allows! My reports where just some of the hundreds sent into the studio form across the world as the sunrise reached every Scouting Country. There were major contributions from New Zealand, Australia- and the Scouting County of the Isle of Wight who held their Centennial event as near as they could get to the famous 'Needles' on that island. Justing Dawson, the station's manager tells me the number of 'Hits' received during the stations coverage of the Sunrise Event neared a quarter of a million! Well indeed Scouting Radio's team of dedicated volunteers for providing a vehicle where Scouts could hear events unfold across the world live, produced by Scouts. Thankfully all of the coverage I have heard and read from other communicators is very positive though attention to the correctness of some of the 'facts' reported is a little open to question!
On leaving Brownsea I went to a Jamboree at Southamptons's Cricket Wood Scout Camp Site near Southampton where I found Scouts from Denmark, Germany, Canada, Ireland Scotland Wales as well as England. They were having a great time and their camping standards were very high. Their response to my brief talk on the lead up to the Brownsea Camp proved yet again that youngsters are very very interested in our Scouting History- if it is told with some enthusiasm! Cricket Wood is one of the few Local Association sites where cooking over real fires is still permitted.
Time does not permit me to write any any more - tomorrow I depart for my daughter's wedding but then on Monday - with much of the family including the Bride and Groom along with members of the Wakefield and Castleford and Pontefract's Scout Fellowship we depart for the World Jamboree at Hyland's Park on which I will have, no doubt, more to say in the next edition of this blog - and also on Scouting Radio , the station that loves to talk Scouting!

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
July 28th 2007

Today is the opening of the World Centennial Jamboree at Hylands Park Essex. Congratulations to all those who have worked so hard to make the planning a reality, to those who at their own (not inconsiderable) expense have volunteered to support the event by their service throughout the Jamboree and of course to the 40,000 participants. A particular welcome to all those Scouts of the world who are visiting our shores for the first time. Pray for sunshine!
The BBC throughout the day has carried headline news about the opening and the coverage is going to get bigger and better throughout the Jamboree, not forgetting the Brownsea Sunrise Event on August 1st. If you want to hear exciting live coverage for Scouts by Scouts then visit Scouting Radio - The No 1 Scout podcasting station.

With just days before the Browsnea Sunrise Event, I have had an email from Wim Doms of Belgium who orignally contacted me sometime ago with news of a project inspired by our Brownsea Pages

On learning that at least four of the original Brownsea Boys were buried in the Somme Battlefields he set about, with his friends Bert Jeurissen and Danny Vliers to find the graves and mark them with a special Scouting wreath- and of course photograph and document them. As you will know if you have read my book Brownsea:B-P's Acorn. I have a particular'hobby horse' that the Brownsea Boys were never given the accord they deserved - and that is even more true for the seven that died as a result of the First World War. That their graves should be marked in time for the Brownsea Cenentennial which is being taking as the anniversary is both appropriate and wonderful! That it should be inspired by 'Milestones' is of course also gratifying but every credit goes to Wim who in a total private capacity set out to do the long over-due task of honouring these Brownsea Pioneers in time for our Centennial. B-R-A-V-O-! The photographs supplied by Wim will be added to the Milestones Brownsea Page in due course.

Milestones has been approached by TSPA (The Scout Patch Auction) website who also sell a deal on eBay. They were concerned to authentic one the rarest items in Scouting Collectables, a complete set of the original Scouting for Boys part series issued in January 1908. The are to be congratulated on checking out the item as so many eBay sellers, it has to be said, either knowingly or from a lack of knowledge mislead would be purchasers. This particular item is in a sense easy to authentic because five or the original six parts are larger that the original issue of Part 1. The replicas are all the same size. However Part I of the 1908 is the same size as the replicas, so other ways have to found authenticating that. Having documented the Part series for TSPA I decided that Milestone readers should have the same access to this knowledge and so have added it to the B-P Books Pages

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
July 24th 2007

Well it is all now nearly upon us! The long awaited 100th anniversary of Scouting is only a few days away on Aug 1st. I shall be on Brownsea to see the kudu horn blown at the Sunrise event and to give a talk in the castle. The World Jamboree at Hyland's Park near Chelmsford will have already started and the Set of 6 special Scouting Centennial stamps to commemorate our centennial will be issued in the UK this Thursday. All very very exciting. Log on to Scouting Radio on the internet for reportd of Sunrise events as they happen across the world including my reports as to what is happening on Brownsea itself.For those of you who get see Scouting Magazine, look out for my article on Brownsea in the Aug 1st Centennial Edition and not forgetting the advert in the back for my book Brownsea:B-P's Acorn If you should see me at the Brownsea Sunrise or World Jamb- please come and make your self known.- how will you know me? I will be wearing a Scouting Radio Gillette (body warmer)

I heard an interesting programme on BBC Radio 4 today on how wonderful Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia is. Well to be fair the presenter Clive Anderson did point out some of its failings. As regular readers of these pages know Milestones is also fairly encyclopedic when it comes to Scouting History. Many many Wikipedia references have been taken straight off Milestones pages. Of course I don't mind this if they are properly credited. But they are not! Usually there follows a list of references, some of which hardly skim the subject, and the Scouting Milestones article from which most of the text is often taken- can be up to 20A4 pages bang on the topic. If our definitive articles on which we spend many many hours are just going to be precised and copied it makes you wonder if the effort is all worthwhile.

Maybe imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but I would hope that those seeking info on Scouting History come to the horse's mouth and not a very pale imitation. Am I though 'just peeing in the wind'? As good as our visitor's book contributors say we are, my precised and un-attributed work on Wikipeadia gets thousands of hits per day- whereas we battle on with a comparatively small but enthusiastic band dedicated readers. If you ever get a chance to add Scouting Milestones as a link to the many Wikipeadia Scouting Topics that use our material, please do, but better still tell your friends/scouts/cubs etc to come visit the best researched Scout History Website there is. (I do not under-estimate the very excellent Pine Tree Web-we are very complimentary as Lou Orans provides very useful copies of first hand resources whereas we publish researched articles. Let's leave Wikipeadia to the those who enjoy dull and bland. That can we confidently state, we (and Pine Tree Web) will never will be!

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
July 18th 2007

For the last few days, the Hon. Michael Baden-Powell and his wife Joan have been visiting Yorkshire. Michael has lived in Australia for many years now where he is a committed Scouter and involved in many Scouting projects not least the Victorian Scout and Guide Heritage Centre. He and his wife are in the UK in order to be able to make a contribution to Centennial Events and have had busy programme meeting Scouts at many events across the country. They will of course be attending the Brownsea Sunrise Event and the World Jamboree.

During their time in Yorkshire, the B-P's have been very keen to visit those sites that have had a direct connection with the Founder (Michael's Grandfather). I was fortunate to be with them on these occasions and our first destination was the Regimental Museum of the 13/18 Hussars at Cannon Hall near Barnsley. The Founder first joined the 13th Hussars from school and maintained his connection with them for over 50 years so, not surprisingly, the excellent museum has a corner specially dedicated to B-P, containing letters, art work and a silver plated tobacco pouch that B-P specially commissioned in 1926 to give to the men of the 13th, to mark his long association with the regiment.

The B-P's were specially impressed with a wonderful life-sized scene between bell tents that included a video screen showing an actor 'in role' giving a moving eyewitness account of his life a lancer in the 13th during the Crimean War and particularly the Charge of the Life Brigade. Robert Baden-Powell himself had also been very moved by real eyewitness accounts of the charge and wrote a little known history of his regiment at this time. Barnsley Museum Services arranged for us to visit when the museum is normally closed to visitors (Mondays and Tuesdays) which was most helpful as these were only days the B-P's could have visited.

We then travelled across country to the heart of the City of York where, adjacent to the famous Clifford's Tower, is the Regimental Museum of the Royal Dragoons which records the history of the 5th Dragoons, another of B-P's old regiments. Again there is a special section for B-P alongside that of Captain Oates of Antarctic fame and other famous figures. Our visitors were able to see B-P letters and artefacts including a beautiful signed original of a B-P watercolour showing trees in the Canadian Rockies. I am most grateful to Capt Alan Henshaw, Curator of the Museum for his help in arranging this visit.

Further north lay the Garrison Town of Catterick, now the largest British Army Base in the UK, which was (again a little known fact) originally laid out by B-P. We were met by the Garrison's C.O., Col Nick Millan who was very well aware of the role that B-P had played in the history of the place. He proudly showed us them magnificent portrait of B-P in his South African Constabulary Uniform by Harold Speed (of which he also had a copy in pride of place in his own office). The original is be loaned to the Scout Association for the Centennial.

Our last 'port of call' was only three miles away in the town of Richmond where we were most warmly welcomed by the Mayor, John Robison, whose Mayoral Parlour contains some interesting B-P memorabilia including another painting of the founder by Harold Speed. Of considerable interest was a copy of a letter to B-P whilst he was living at Richmond Castle (1907-1909) from President Roosevelt. The letter acknowledged the gift of a special edition of 'Scouting for Boys' that B-P has sent to him early in 1908 - which as the letter was dated August 1st 1908 must have been a very early copy. Roosevelt replies in glowing terms about the message contained in the book but divulged that he had already obtained a first edition, but the presentation copy with B-P's personal measure would be most treasured. The parlour also contained a special album with details of correspondence between Lady Olave Baden-Powell and the town council. Lady B-P presented the council with pages that she had taken from B-P's diary concerning his time at the Castle. This was followed up in 1953, when Lady B-P herself visited the castle and unveiled a stone plaque commemorating B-P. The magnificent view from that point across Richmondshire looks towards the Catterick camp. Michael B-P was pleased make a presentation to Richard Good, a local Scouter, who had achieved the magnificent record of 43 years service. The B-P's were also pleased to meet other N.Yorks Scouters including the N Yorks ACC John McGrath and Richmond's D.C and town councillor Mike McGarry and his two sons Reuben and Nathan. These two went on to do a special interview with Tyne Tees Television about the B-P's visit and our Scouting Centennial at the site of the 1953 plaque.

All in all a very eventful but rewarding day. Despite the distances covered and the trying nature of the weather, our two visitors were 'on the trail' again the following day when, in a private capacity, we visited Castle Howard and the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington (Michael has a great interest in the history of aviation.)

It is true to say that the B-P's were very impressed with our traditional Yorkshire Hospitality, shown to them where ever we went, - and the state of Scouting in the County. They will be taking back to Australia treasured memories supported by hundreds of photographs and 'movie' film, as Michael like his grandfather is most interested this media.

Before they left Micheal B-P recorded a message for the Scouts of the World to be broadcast on August 1st (Sunrise Day) and passed on a special message to Milestones Readers, 'Good Scouting', and that "... we should continue spread the knowledge that our interest in Scout History gives us to future generations of Scouts".

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
July 14th 2007

After seemingly weeks of rain, it was a fine day here in Yorkshire. A grand day in fact to conclude the annual festival in our town of Pontefract. To many people Pontefract is famous for one thing, Pontefract Cakes. These are not cakes at all, but flat black 'medalions' of Licorice stamped with an imprint of Pontefract's ancient but ruined castle. It should not be a surprise then to learn that our festival is called the Licorice Festival. Today was 'Victorian Day'. I was called upon to impersonate B-P and give talks on Pontefract's most famous Freeman. B-P visited the town on July 1st 1933 when he addressed 10,000 Scouts from all over Yorkshire on the Racecourse. His words were carried to the boys by loudspeaker, and to the nation by BBC outside broadcast - rare in 1933. The Mayor and Corporation then made B-P a Freeman of the town.
The second of my talks was attended by no lesser personage than her Royal Highness Queen Victoria - who very much added to the proceedings. The talks were received very well by a mainly non-Scouting audience, who demonstrated the affection and regard the general public still have for Baden-Powell and his creation, The World Scout Movement.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
July 11th 2007

Those of you of have read the Brownsea pages on the site, or even better, my book Brownsea:B-P's Acorn will know of the central part Sir Saxton Noble played in the camp. Not only did he provide two of the campers, his sons Humphrey and Mark Noble, but also underwrite the financial deficit of the camp incurred because B-P mis-calulated the cost of the many activities he wanted to provide. In 1907 the Noble family were resident at Chillingham Castle Northumberland. B-P visited their home before and soon after the Brownsea camp when he camped in the Great Park with the Noble children- one of whom, Veronica, was his Godchild. As his diary states he was careful to camp well away from the famous Chillingham Wild Beasts- and rare species of totally wild white cattle that have been enclosed in the Great Park for nearly eight centuries! The role of the Castle and its inhabitants in the birth of the Scout Movement is very interesting.

I have recently returned from the castle where I have mounted a small display in the museum of the present owner Sir Humphrey Wakefield (Bart.)that explains fully its significance. The castle is well worth visiting and is a wonderful part of Northumberland between the Cheviots and the wonderful Northumberland coastline. Let me know if you visit?
On my return journey I stopped off, as I have often done before, at Cragside (owned by the National Trust) the home of Sir William Armstrong, the inventive genius responsible for one of the biggest armaments firms in Britain. His partner was Andrew, Saxton Noble's father- which explains the Noble's castle life style. In a corridor away from the 'posher' parts of the house I found a series of photographs relating to a boy who was the son of Sir William Armstrong's heir- he had no children so his fortune went to a nephew. The nephew's son went to Eton and by total coincidence was in the same class as Humphrey Noble - one of the 'Brownsea Boys'. The class photo was taken in 1907 the year of Brownsea. So what you might say? Well I can now indentify Humphry Noble - and know exactly what he looked like in 1907 and can therefore recognise him on the 1907 Brownsea photographs. This is quite a step forward because up to the present time positive identification of the Brownsea boys on the 20 or so photographs known to exist has not been very easy. B-P's nephew Donald, a nine year old boy with fair hair, is easy to spot but other than that has been impossible to be certain about the identify of all but two or three of the boys in the photographs. Now however we now one more! As Humphrey Noble was, besides Donald, the only boy to go on to B-P's second camp at Humshaugh his visual identification is doubly important.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
July 2nd 2007

As previously disclosed Scouting Milestones has been involved in several projects closely connected with the Centennial Celebrations and some of them have had to do with the issue of postage stamps. The Falkland Islands are to issue as set of four stamps on the 23rd July depicting the hand-over of the ex polar ship RRS Discovery to the Scout Association in 1937. This event has been well documented on the Discovery Pages which are well known to the stamps' designers. Naturally then they turned to Milestones to provide the material for a press release, entitled 'Our Ship', concerning the new issues. The release, which has also been printed as an enclosure to the First Day Covers, features several images from the Milestones site.

The new very fine stamps can be seen as an 'Update' at the conclusion of the Discovery Pages

The thought occurs to me that in a very minor way Milestones has not only records the past Scouting history of some of the topics it covers (for example this one and Brownsea)but itself becomes part of the subject's continuing Scout history!

There will further updates on new issues and other projects to which Scouting Milestones has contributed in the near future.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
June 26th 2007

We have just returned from a very wet touring holiday of the west coast of the UK travelling in our camper. We started in Southampton - not on the west coast I know - and then to Plymouth for a talk I gave in Plymouth Museum that complemented the excellent exhibition, mainly the collection of my friend in Scouting Graham Brooks - and from there across Dartmoor - over the Seven Bridge to West Wales and then up into Scotland intending to visit Skye. Our tour ended at the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge when we decided we had battled with the weather and the midges for long enough and set off to return home a few days earlier than we intended. We did though have a wonderful time and memorable experiences. At the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge for example we arrived by total coincidence at the exact time the Royal Marine Association were holding an annual service of commemoration. As the brother of a Marine who yomped across the Falklands later to die on an Arctic Warfare exercise in Norway, and having been the friend of one of the original Commandos trained at Spean Bridge - a Rock Climbing instructor, Bob Shaw- who I had the good fortune knowing and being with him on climbing weekends - you can imagine that this was a very emotive experience - the skirl of the pipes against the racing clouds in that totally isolated land of sky mountain and sea, with the kilts and colours, the medals of those, now aging but proud members of the Corps, that still survive the Second World War - the more recent veterans of the Falklands, and current members of 3rd/5th Commando who have only just returned from a tour of active duty in Afghanistan. After the service we went to to see Commando Museum maintained by the association in a room at the Spean Bridge Hotel.

As is always the case on my travels I seem to bump into Scout History where ever I go. An example of this would be our campsite at the Neptune Locks, Banavie where the Caledonian Canal begins its climb from the sea. We were within a hundred yards or so of where the camping coaches of the Scout Train Cruises were sited to enable the 'cruisers' to ascend Ben Nevis on each of the pre-war Cruises. The siding has now been cut through by the 'new' road that goes over the swing bridge just below the bottom lock, and it is totally overgrown - so much so that even I didn't recognise what I was looking at until it was pointed out to me by a British Waterways employee on the canal, who very helpfully rang his cousin working in the 'new' railway signal box just 50 yards away at Barnavie Railway station confirm the location.
If you have not read about the Scout Train Cruises I think you will find their story quite amazing. I was hopeful that I would be able to take a good photograph of the siding with Ben Nevis in the background - but the weather just gave no view of the mountain at all but through the courtesy of local Tornevis B&B Guest House I have at last been able to add an image of the actual view the traincruisers would have seen from their camping carriage windows. The weather though shielding Scotland's highest mountain during my stay reminded me that all the boys on the train cruises made the quite perilous ascent - sometimes through snow - without training or proper equipment. It wouldn't do today!

We spent a wonderful day on Mull and so were able to visit the home of 'my' Chief Scout, 'Chips' or Sir Charles Maclean. Duart Castle (I was admonished for my pronunciation of Du-art, apparently the clan members call it Du-irt). It is has one of the most impressive isolated sites in the country - and yes I know and have seen a great many contenders. The top floor of castle is given over to displays and there is much of interest to Scouts. Visiting the home of a former Chief Scout reminded me that I have in preparation a mini-series of articles on our Chief Scouts - that will probable be found on a link from the biography pages . I really must get on with that particularly now as I have any amount of impressive photographs of Duart Castle.

You could say that the contact with Scout History at Duart must have been planed- and you would be right but not the contact with Scout History found at Mull's other famous castle/house Torosay. This was the home of David James- whose amazing family scrapbooks are on public display in one of the rooms. I was thrilled to read of his ancestor's experiences in the Boer War- and though I did not find any direct connection with Baden-Powell- my deep researches on the Seige of Mafeking were sufficient to recognise many names and even faces of the some of the Besieged such as Lady Sarah Wilson (aunt of Winston Churchill) from photographs taken on the 'Castle Boats' going to or from South Africa. The real discovery however was to find that David James was an member of Operation Tabarin- a top secret and still amazingly classified piece of Antarctic History - led by Scout Marr or Commander James Slessor Marr ashe was then. This covert operation had only 16 members in total and so it wondeful for me having previously tried to unravel its history to read of David James connection with Marr and see newspaper cuttings (censored) and photographs taken at the time. You may be sure this will cause the Marr pages to be updated shortly.

Perhaps the most poignant Scouting memory of the holiday was to stand next to the grave of B-Ps best friend and 'Assistant Scout Master' on Brownsea. 'The Boy' Kenneth McLaren DSO . His isolated grave is in a small family plot- and took a great deal of research to find. It stands on a windswept hillside on the mainland overlooking the sea- sheilded by four yew trees that have totally overgrown the plot- shielding totally any evidence of it being a graveyard from the eyes of even those a hundred yards away. Penetrating the yew canopy I found the Celtic Cross commemorating 'The Boy'- to be totally 'strangled' by one of the yews- lifting the cross off its granite base is quite a bizare way. In this year of our centennial the Brownsea Camp is taken to be the anniversary of Scouting. You would think the lives of its participants would be well docmented, but as I found when working on my definative book on Brownsea Brownsea:B-P's Acorn the exact opposite is unfortunately the case. I have done my best to uncover and publicise the history of our 'Scouting Pioneers' and will continue to do so.
Readers of Milestones will in due course, see my photos of 'The Boy's grave and be able to learn more of his sad end.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
June 6th 2007

Everybody I know in Scouting seems to be incredibly busy and fired up more than I ever thought possible with the Centennial Events. There is so much going on in Scouting! My postbag is stuffed full of special events - etc etc- but there is always room for your story! I am gearing myself up for the Brownsea Sunrise event- what a thrill that will be - please pray for fine weather. I am giving talks now on an almost daily basis - one today- will be at a Camp in Southampton on Sunday- talking at Plymouth Museum on Tuesday - all very exciting. Watch this space
Today is the June 6th - D Day alway springs to my mind on hearing that date. The contribution of Scouts in World War 2 was truly amazing and if you haven't already read the true story of 'Jay' in war torn Holland then may I recommend do you. It is the largest article on Milestones by far but is in novel form, written by World Scout Historian Piet Kroonenberg. I have always said it would make a first rate film- see if you agree. My own efforts in Bamboo Thumbsticks about Rover Scouts in Japanese Prisoner of War Camps are if I say so myself very emotive -if you can read them without feeling a lump in your throat - you'll be the first. Scouts today don't know about the role the members of Movement played in the war- though they learn about the conflict at school- no doubt thinking they are as remote from it as we did about our History lesssons. Why not read up on one or the other of these pages - and make it into a bit of a story on troop night. I don't think they would forget it! Come to that, do your Scouts know that Scouting Milestones exists? They have computers don't they? What about a quiz based on the Milestones pages? Don't forget we have our own search engine on the entrance page to the site.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
May 30th 2007

Centennial Camps Like many Scouts I spent last week end at a Centennial Camp. I was with Central Yorkshire in beautiful but wet Bramham Park. County Commissioner Ian Chappell opened the event in the traditional way by attacking a boom across a wonderful gateway with a hand axe. He said he believed that this was the biggest centennial camp that weekend in the UK. Sunday brought even more Cubs and Beavers and the bad weather- but were we downhearted? The organisation was wonderful and with sufficiently large marquees to have everybody undercover with an enormous range of activities (including my talks). The camp was able to function despite the weather. I gather we were luckier than some Scout Counties in the South East of the country who were forced to abandon their camps in the face of really atrocious weather. Whatever the circumstances, the Scout Spirit showed through in spades - and you were able to see this very worthwhile news on your televisions and local newspapers when you returned home? No? Me neither- what was reported was at the Chief Scout could not attend because his helicopter delayed by the bad weather could not get him back in time for his scheduled Shakespearean performance. Fair enough - but what of the young people and their indomitable spirit despite the weather? That was the real news.
Boys' Brigades Role in the Birth of Scouting. Later in the week I pleased to be talking Scout History again, this time to my own Scout Fellowship in Wakefield on the Birth of the Scout Movement (naturally) I was delighted that representatives of the local Ossett Boys' Brigade Company had been invited along and could hear me tell the audience how the Boys Brigade and the Church Lads Brigades were the first youth organisations to take up Baden-Powell's teachings when they acted on extracts from his book Aids to Scouting which was published whilst B-P himself was besieged in Mafeking in 1899/1900. In 1904 the Founder of the Boy's Brigade, William Smith, suggested to B-P that he should rewrite his army book on Scouting - this time for boys!. Which of course he did. When it came to trying out his ideas with boys from all classes, the Founder turned to the Boys' Brigade to provide 10 of the 21 Brownsea participants. Not suprisingly B-P planned that the Boys Brigade were to the one of he 'host' organisations that would have patrols of Scouts and that continued to be the case until as late as the 1920's. I was delighted then at the conclusion of my talk to present Captain Hallas with a special tankard that had been commissioned by the Scout Association to present to the Boys' Brigade in 1983 on their centennial. The tankard had somehow come into the possession of my friend in Scouting David Jeffries,Chief Commissioner for Scotland, who died some years ago. I was delighted to see it back in the hands of the Boys' Brigade on the occasion of our Centennial. If you have have centennialnial events yet to run, why not invite your local BB with fraternal greetings? We have a lot to thank them for!

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)
May 22 2007

The Lyke Wake Walk Pagesare not often 'updated' as they are part of my personal 'milestones' and appear under that heading on the index pages. They have though now been updated for very three significant reasons.
a. After enormous good fortune (read all about it on the page) I have managed to prove that the founder of this famous challange walk was himself a Rover Scout and one of some distinction. An appreciation of Bill Cowley now appears on the page and tells his interesting story and connection with the Tara Devi- the Indian equivilant of Gilwell Park. b. Many people know the distinctive badge of the Lyke Wake Club, I seem to see it in every Scout hut I go in. Talk with any group of Scouters over a 'a jar' and the chat enevitable gets round to when we did the Lyke Wake. Well the original club which no doubt issued the badge in the hut has now closed and has after some 'interesting times' been superceeded by the New Lyke Wake Club - what it does and links to its webpage are to be found on the update. c. I was greatly honoured in 2006 to recieve the highest honour in Lyke Waking- that of Past Master- and a a very smiley picture-(regrettably as all Witches and Dirgers should be mournful-especailly at a wake!) of in me Wake atire is also to be found on the update. I also attended the club Wake this year when the kudu horn was blown in a appreciation of the 'Chief Dirger's Scouting background.
The Toys and Games Pages. has had a new addition on the form of documentation and an image relating to the very rare 'Youlten's Observation Hydroscope' or periscope, a tin toy that relates to B-P's time in Mafeking and also his Scouting Career. A fascinating addition.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)

May 19th 2007

Scouting for Boys. The promised considered review of the recent Ian Hislop BBC Television programme is now completed and placed on the The Scouting for Boys Page.
The History of the Sea Scouts Pages have, as a result of my recent 'research trip' have been updated to include new postcard images of the Leysdown and the River Waveney tradgedies. My thanks are due to my good friend in Scouting John Ineson for allowing me to scan these rare artefacts.
I have for some long time now wanted to include a Forum Page as part of the website to give readers an opportunity of making their views known to me but also to the rest of the readership. I was then very pleased to add this feature in March of this year. To be honest the reader response has been somewhat under-whelming but that may well be due to the fact that it had to be accessed through a screen of adverts which were not at all in keeping with our Milestones traditions. The adverts were there however because the coding required for such a page is far too complicated for most web users (definitely me!) and providers will only give their coding away 'free' if the webmaster agrees to hosting adverts.... or pay a fee. Well, I have now payed the fee, and the adverts are now gone. I do hope the Forum Page can now reflect the views of our wide readership. Over to you. (Why not post your own views on the Hyslop programme?)

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)

May 15TH 2007

It's the early hours of May 15th and I write this prior to undertaking another of my research trips starting later on this morning, so have no time to write a considered review of last night's TV Programme on Baden-Powell and 'Scouting for Boys'. And considered it needs to be! My immediate reaction was that Ian Hyslop had done Scouting proud. The man who spends his life knocking the establishment had a better insight into the importance of Scouting for Boys than all the professional pundits that the BBC had wheeled out in its previous three knocking broadcasts on Scouting this year. In his forthright and disarming way he managed to recognise the importance, even to today's society, of the 1908 version of Scouting for Boys. BRAVO! Yet a careful review is necessary and will I promise be forthcoming on my return.

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                                                                                     Colin Walker (Johnny)
(Use my name as a link to write to me)

May 13th 2007

The Lyke Wake Walk has been done for decades now by groups of Scouts. I was a Venture Scout Leader in three different areas - and each year the lads wanted to better the record of the previous year's walk. As I moved around the country - the previous VSU's wanted to join in with the present lot - I did rather a lot of Walks (40 miles to be done in 24 hours across the North York Moors.) So, in one of my more personal 'Milestones', my ex-webmaster Mike and myself tell the story of the walk and its founder Bill Cowley's connection with Scouting. The New Lyke Wake Club- the original now being defunct - seek to uphold the traditions of Bill Cowley and at a Wake, as their meetings are called a year ago they did me the honour giving me their highest award - I was made a Past Master of the club. On Saturday I attended another Wake at the Lord Stones Cafe which is actually on the LWW route (it wasn't there in my VS days), and I realised that to my shame I have not updated the LWW pages to complete the history of the walk to modern times and explain what has been happening as far as the two clubs and Bill Cowley's memory is concerned. I hope to remedy that with a revision of the page over the next few weeks. If you have any memories of Bill Cowley or accounts or recent or past crossings by Scouts then I would be pleased to hear from you - please press the link below.
The day after the Wake (see above) I motored down from the heights of Cringle Moore to the Market town of Thirsk also in North Yorks where I addressed the North Yorkshire County Team and DCs on the the history leading up to the formation of the world's greatest youth organisation. I was much assisted in this by my grandson Harry - who did what his grandfather could not do and that is to get a sound out of a Kudu horn. (see The Brownsea Pages for the significance of the Kudu horn in Scouting). I am grateful for the kind hospitality of the North Yorks Scouts who gave me a very enthusiastic reception.
Milestone's reader Roger Taylor wrote to tell us of his father Alban Taylor's activities at the 1939 Monzie Castle Rover Moot and of other early jamboree's he visited. Alban was a Rover with the 4th St Albans before the war. Included in his interesting account was a picture of a rare souvineer from the 1939 Moot and this will soon be put up on the History of the Rovers Page. with a dedication to Roger's father. <

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