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 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.

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.

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.

'Boy Scouts on Imperial Service'  This photograph is of six members of the 4th Morecambe Boy 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 June 24 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. The first District Commissioner for South Lonsdale was Alderman William Garnett.

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.

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 Lancaster Association Groups compiled in the 1940's.

And here, a list of Scout Group Registrations.

(more to follow)

(For a full history see "Scouting in Lonsdale 1908 -1999" - Peter Gedge/Peter Hunt)

Newspaper Reports