My brother and I joined the 34th Nottingham High School troop in 1959 having started with our local  Bramcote scout group. The new Scout Leaders were Messrs. Usher and Locke and our headquarters were the old Dr. Turpin’s house. I had been exposed to what a Jamboree was when in 1957 our troop made a one-day trip to Sutton Coldfield which was holding  the Jubilee Jamboree for 50 years since the Brownsea Island camp.

I became a Senior Scout in 1961 and was well aware of the 1963 World Jamboree planned to be held on the Plain of Marathon. For NHS the 450th Anniversary celebrations were a major focus anyway so there was no guarantee that everything could fit in a three-month time frame of activities. I was lucky to be selected as one of the twenty Scouts from Nottinghamshire that were part of the group of about 1200 representing the UK in a total attendance of 10394  participants from 89 countries.

We assembled at Midland Station to take a train to London before we flew on a charter Comet to Athens, which was a first for nearly all of us. We all had extra uniforms so a tremendous amount of sewing of badges on to the extra shirts was required but that was just one example of the advanced planning and actions to prepare for a camping activity over 2000 miles away using our own camping and cooking facilities. All the participating Scouts and three Scouters were involved in the choice of equipment in some way or other since it meant “borrowing “  from the normal troop inventories which would be stretched with normal summer camps! So the equipment was packed and, on its way, long before most of the normal arrangements for a camp would be planned. We just had to hope everything would arrive safely and it did!

The Jamboree was held from Thursday, August 1st to 11th  and the Scouters had a tough job keeping us under control once we had the daily duty rosters in our heads. The weather was hot and cases of sunburn in about 15% of our party were quite frightening for those who never seen it before. The site was large and maps were not easily accessible so exploration was very rewarding when the language barrier was overcome, often with some simple trading like woggles or scarves from our own troops rather than the official uniform. The Scouters were worried about us eating food not prepared on our site so it was some time before unofficial dining became a good facilitator for meeting others.

One thing we learned pretty quickly was that Scouts had a wide range of skills and interests and they weren’t shy of organising gatherings that showed their physical or mental abilities, musical skills or pursue the ubiquitous trading interests. The ”technical” display highlight was the USA’s Sigma 7 space capsule (in which Walter Schirra had orbited the Earth six times in just over 9 hours) which also pointed out that 15 out of the 16 US astronauts were Scouts.

From a personal view, the Chief Scout Lord Maclean visited our “troop” and stood around talking and asking questions. He also told a couple of us that we were going to get our Queen Scout certificates from the Duke of Gloucester, at St James’ Palace in October and not at the Jamboree which had been hinted. That was a memorable moment since it was three months away and I was the only one from Nottingham.

After the closure of the Jamboree by Lady Baden Powell (with a message read out to us though she had intended to travel) we then had a bus tour of a week that enabled us to photograph all the points of interest we were expected to visit. As we passed a couple of US camp sites on the way out, we noted that they had left all their camping equipment (brand new for the occasion) on the ground as gifts to the Greek scouts. The British Scouts had carefully packed the kit ready for shipment back home!

We visited Delphi, Olympia, Sparta, Mystra, Mycenae, the Corinth Canal and of course the Acropolis so we had a wonderful introduction to Greece as simple tourists. The flight home was uneventful since we were all too tired to stay awake.

The story is completed by the experience of my mother who had been sewing on badges on scout uniforms (including the Jamboree shirts) ever since I was a Wolf Cub. In November 1963 I was notified that I had to go to Buckingham Palace to be presented with my  Gold Award by the Duke of Edinburgh and I was allowed to bring one person with me. It seemed highly appropriate that my mother should be acknowledged for her contribution. She enjoyed the trip and her pupils in primary school were very impressed.

At the beginning of the ‘63-64 School Year, Dennis Usher approached me with a request to become a Scout leader for my final two years of my school career. It was somewhat of a surprise but a good excuse not to attend the last hour of the Debating Society on a Friday! I received my certification in February 1964 and for 18 months did my best under Dennis Usher to pay back some of the debts I had accrued with the 34th Nottingham (High School) Troop.  

Tony Eltringham (ON 1957-1965)