History
A Brief History of Lonsdale District
Lonsdale District was formed at the time of Local Government reorganisation in 1974 re-uniting the two Scout Associations of Lancaster & District and Morecambe & Heysham & District.
The District now covers an area from Silverdale in the North, to Forton in the South and Hornby in the East. It is bounded on the West by Morecambe Bay.
The first President of the District was Lord Fraser of Lonsdale (1897-1974) the noted politician and campaigner for the blind. The first District Commissioner being Bob Sharrock . . .
For a list of local District Commissioners from 1911 to date, click here
Morecambe & Lancaster saw groups of Scouts forming in the first year of scouting 1908. Rev Harold Whittaker, Curate at St John’s Sandylands, received a warrant as Scoutmaster in November 1908 and presumably founded what later became the 1st Sandylands Troop. The group obviously took off with a vengeance as in a newspaper article dated 3 March 1909 it then embraced altogether over 50 boys, comprising 7 patrols, viz.: “Hounds,” “Peewit,” “Owl,” “Cuckoo,” “Kangaroo,” (cycle section) “Beaver,” and “Seal.” Each patrol had its own leader and corporal, and meetings were taking place twice weekly, Tuesdays and Fridays, in the Parochial Hall.
In Lancaster. Dick Erskine claimed to be the first Scoutmaster there and a photograph shows him with six scouts at Hornby at Easter 1909. Two brothers in this group kept connections with scouting locally until the 1970′s, Laurie Todd (born 1901) and his brother, Hector (born 1900) (District Commissioner 1949 -1961). Newspaper reports show that Dick was certainly the Scoutmaster of the 1st Lancaster Troop, which would seem to support his claim but, to date, I cannot find any reference to where the 1st were based.
National organisation was sketchy at first but soon Certificates of Registration were printed, and the earliest surviving was sent to two Patrols of what became the 4th Lancaster (Sulyard Street Methodist) Scout Group registered in November 1909. Read Bill Thompson’s account of the early days in a Guardian article published at the time of the 75th anniversary
R. E. Wright records in his log book that “The 4th Lancaster (Wesley) Troop was officially registered at Headquarters, London on October 9th 1909.”
Click here to view a photo of 4th Lancaster back in 1910. And here to see a photo of them at their first annual camp at Arnside in August 1910. (From R. E. Wright’s album. Captions read:- “Eleven to a Tent” and “One tent for all”). Another photo from the album, from 1922, illustrates how times have moved on.
And here they are in 1929 camping at Shap Abbey.
This photo of R. E. Wright, from his own album, was taken in August 1914.
Click here to see an Inspection at Derby Road Skerton in October 1910.
And here for a photo on Coronation Day June 22nd 1911. (with Chief Constable Harriss of Lancaster on the horse). At Giant Axe.
The first King’s Scout badge locally was gained in 1911 by Herbert Dobson M.M. (4th Lancaster) of Dundee Street, Moorlands who tragically became a war casualty on 9 August 1916 at the tender age of 21 serving as a sergeant with the 1st/5th Battalion King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. He is buried at Quarry Cemetery, Montauban, near Albert, France. It is recorded that some 130 former scouts in the district served their King and Country in the war.
Another former Scout who did not return from the war was Harold Slinger of Hornby.
Link here to a photograph of six members of the 4th Morecambe Scouts who enlisted in the 5th Battalion of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, for Imperial Service.
In 1910 the first seven Troops in Lancaster formed the Lancaster Local Association at a meeting on May 27 with R E Wright as Chairman. Troops were also recorded as formed in Morecambe (the earliest registered being 1st (Sandylands) Morecambe under Robert Bright on October 11, 1910) and in villages around such as Caton, Bolton le Sands, Halton (1911), Hornby ‘Castle’ and Wray.
Girl Guides started nationally in 1910 and there is an interesting insight into early organisation locally in the minutes of the Lancaster & Morecambe Boy Scouts Association.
The first District Commissioner for South Lonsdale was Alderman William Garnett. A photo from 1911 shows Ald. Garnett (seated centre), with Scout Masters Dick Erskine (1st Lancaster), Frederick Wiggans (6th Lancaster, Greaves Methodist) and Richard Price (2nd Lancaster, YMCA) at Halton Vicarage.
Scouts were in attendance when His Majesty King George V visited Lancaster in 1912.
This photo from 1917 shows the 5th Lancaster (St Peter’s) with their bugles and drums.
Tom Helme took over as DC in 1928 and was the first to wear uniform and to take the leader training course.
The Borough of Morecambe & Heysham was formed in 1928 and this perhaps prompted five Troops to set up the Morecambe & Heysham Local Association in 1930 as a separate section of South Lonsdale District under E Barrow as ADC. The Troops were the 1st, 2nd (Sea Scouts), 4th and 6th Morecambe and 1st Sandylands. The Secretary was George S Evenden, an optician, who went on to serve Morecambe for a further forty years. Chairman Mr Sly had been on B-P’s first Wood Badge course and had received one of the original beads from B-P’s African necklace.
Here is a photo of the Morecambe & Heysham Local Association officials in 1965.
This photo from 1938 shows the 13th Lancaster Scout Group outside Springfield Hall. Includes Tom Helme (middle of front row) and Maurice Sharpe (2nd left middle row). And this photo, in the same location, is of the 13th Lancaster Cub Pack and their leaders also in 1938.
The Official Handbook of the Morecambe and Heysham and District Boy Scouts Association – 1960 contains an article listing ‘the beginning’.
Several Groups that have a long history started in the 30′s; 1st Carnforth (1929), 4th Morecambe (1930-1995), 16th Lancaster (St Paul’s) (1931), 17th Lancaster (St Joseph’s) (1931, now 35th), 23rd Lancaster (Christ Church) (1936), 24th Lancaster (St Chad’s) (1937, now 34th), 11th Morecambe (Parish Church) (1939).
Here is a list of all Lancaster Association Groups compiled in the 1940′s.
List of Morecambe Groups 1939/40
Here, a list of Lancaster Groups in the Annual Report of 1950 – 1951.
And here, a list of Scout Group Registrations.
Here is a photograph from 1960 showing 4 Scouts from the 13th Morecambe Troop (St Mary’s) receiving Queen’s Scout Badge certificates from Max Melling (DC). This photo from around the same time shows the 13th Morecambe at the campsite behind the Globe Hotel in Overton, I think.
Four Scouts from the 3rd Lancaster (RGS) Troop also received their certificates for the highest training award in the summer of 1963. Seven Scouts from 13th Lancaster did it again in 1965.
Ronald Wild, an Assistant Scoutmaster at 23rd Lancaster, was leaving Lancaster for Australia in March 1963. This photo taken in the Gregson Institute shows the Group’s Scouts and Cubs together with a number of leaders – standing back left are Frank Hayton (13th Lcr), Roy Walker and Brian Ellwood, and back right Geoffrey Shackleton (ADC Scouts) and Ronald Wild (not in uniform). Also, seated – Dorothy Holden, Julia Beck, Rev. John Mullineaux, Arthur Wild, Gwen Gedge and Carol Lofthouse.
Here, from the District archives, is a design for a camp site pennant for Littledale drawn by a Senior Scout from 53rd Lancaster, D Parsonage.
Scouts took part in a cooking competition at SilverHelme camp site in 1963. This photo shows Senior Scouts from the 1st Slyne Troop being judged by Mrs Melling, the DC’s wife, and Mrs Dahl, the Field Commissioner’s wife.
The Scorpio Venture Scout Unit organised a novel regatta on Sandylands pool in 1969 for Troops from Morecambe. Events included a boat race for craft constructed from copies of the Morecambe Visitor, a balloon race, a raft race, slippery pole and log rolling. The boats had to be built from copies of the Visitor with suggestions to use a suitable former, such as a tin bath, and build up layers of paper with a wallpaper adhesive. No cardboard, wire or wooden reinforcement was allowed. The boats apparently stood up well to the severe test. This photo shows David Lister merrily paddling his way across the pool.
HRH Princess Alexandra honoured the District in 1981 when she officially opened the new headquarters building at 16th Morecambe in Torrisholme. Photo. Photo 2
The Chief Scout’s Challenge, (now sadly abandoned), was a special challenge from the Chief Scout, Major-General Michael J. H. Walsh, to all scouts aged 14 – 15 and a half. As one of a team of four to five scouts you were challenged to plan and take part in a three day expedition in unfamiliar country to carry out a project. Your team had to be be entirely self sufficient throughout the three days, carrying their own tents, food and being able to cope with their own first aid.
In 1983 the 16th Morecambe Troop was the first in the County and the District to achieve the award. Here is a photo and a copy of their certificate.
Lonsdale’s connection with the Cornwell Badge
(more to follow)
(For a full history see “Scouting in Lonsdale 1908 -1999″ – Peter Gedge/Peter Hunt)
Morecambe Bay District Rover Crew 1961 – 1967
Various Newspaper Reports 1908 – 1985
All photos © Lonsdale Scouts Archive Collection
