I joined the Scouts in the autumn of 1950 and remained in the troop for three years. The Scoutmaster was E F Collander Brown, a very fit if to my mind a rather elderly looking member of staff. He was younger than I thought. 30 odd years later in life when I returned to Nottingham I rang him in his retirement.  He instantly remembered me with obvious delight. ”  I think he was a church Lay Reader and he may have taught us RI (Religious Instruction) in the school curriculum.

He was a very caring man who I later found was extremely kind and I suspect saw his scouting activities in Christian life terms - the encouraging of boys to follow the very principled Scout Promise and Scout Law, then “Trusty Loyal, Helpful.  Brotherly, Courteous, Kind.  Obedient, Cheerful,  Thrifty, Clean in Body and Mind

For the new comers, there was the working towards their Investiture in the Troop, a solemn occasion which involved promises and a declared loyalty to the monarch.  In my case this was to the King, George V1 being very much on the Throne. I joined the Squirrel Patrol, starting as a Sixer and eventually becoming its Patrol Leader.

I remember we met weekly after school in the old gym where we were occupied in preparing for the award of scout badges which involved some modest skills appropriate for young teenagers.  Then there was the mastering of rope knots and how to whip the end of a rope and ultimately its splicing

The end of each Scouting meeting always involved energetic games which had to include “British Bulldog”.  Here one of two teams had to prevent the other from getting from one end of the gym to the other, those boys prevented from doing so being eliminated. This went on until finally the bigger boys were brought down by a clutch of smaller boys clinging on until sheer weight of numbers prevailed.

Away from School there were evenings in the city suburbs learning Scout Craft and intricate trail finding and tracking, and there were camp competitions lasting a full weekend. The 34th HS Troop entered the John Boot Trophy more than once, held at Walesby quite close to Ollerton. I was fortunate to lead the patrol to success, probably in 1953, and brought The Trophy to school for the privilege of taking it up to the Head at the end of morning assembly. The Head wasn’t there that morning so I had the 2nd Master, Albert Duddel, who looked pleased.

There were formal parades about the town, civic, church and others, and the Scouts often provided a contingent.  The local press would mostly photograph the larger parades which gave news for the Nottingham Evening Post, pride for the boys and perhaps satisfaction for the parents who often lined the route.

Annual Scout Camps were the event of each summer and Colly-Bee took possibly 30 boys for a week to established scout camp sites well away from Nottingham.  In those days not many parents had cars, or at least the cost of petrol and the distances involved meant transport not only of boys, but tents and all the related equipment for a week under canvass was by train.  We went to Brynbach in Wales, in uncertain weather conditions, to Kidbblestone in Staffordshire and an unremembered named site in the Lake District.

At Brynbach, there were two heavy fabric tents (dark and rather dank), probably ex-Army, WWll , and not completely weatherproof. One tent by chance had pitched on a slight hump while the other on a slight hollow and also in the line of the flow of surface rain water. Those occupying the second tent had a rather watery time of their week in Wales, but those in the first tent counted it as useful experience.

Scouting for Boys was and still is an enjoyable and worthwhile pursuit for young growing people.  Nottingham 34th HS Troop was a great experience and several boys later became Queen Scouts.