John was a member of the 23rd Croydon 1st South Norwood Troop. He was just over 12 years old at the beginning of the war but was soon caught up in the local scouting war effort.
“One of the things we did was collecting waste paper – it was quite a thing. It hadn't been done pre-war but with the war effort became somewhat of a priority”
John was also involved in working with teams of scouts erecting Morrison Shelters in people’s homes….
“I’d get home from school and there’d be a post card through the door (telephones weren't as common then) and it would say turn up at 6pm at 23 Grasmere Road. It would be from the current Scout Master. Our Scout Masters kept changing as they got called up. I’d go round to the house and there would be a great heap of iron – like a giant meccano set – sitting there. We’d set to and build the shelter. It was very heavy, very solid. It took about five scouts and the scout master to lift the big sheet of metal that went on the top”.
The Morrison shelters were big – 6’ X 4’. They’d act as a table in the dining room and people slept in them at night. If their house was bombed they’d be protected by the shelter – safe until they could be dug out of the rubble. They were particularly suitable for people who didn’t have a garden and so couldn’t have an Anderson Shelter.
The pictures below show scouts erecting a Morrison Shelter – they are from the Mary Evans collection held by the Scout Association Archive.
“One of the things we did was collecting waste paper – it was quite a thing. It hadn't been done pre-war but with the war effort became somewhat of a priority”
John was also involved in working with teams of scouts erecting Morrison Shelters in people’s homes….
“I’d get home from school and there’d be a post card through the door (telephones weren't as common then) and it would say turn up at 6pm at 23 Grasmere Road. It would be from the current Scout Master. Our Scout Masters kept changing as they got called up. I’d go round to the house and there would be a great heap of iron – like a giant meccano set – sitting there. We’d set to and build the shelter. It was very heavy, very solid. It took about five scouts and the scout master to lift the big sheet of metal that went on the top”.
The Morrison shelters were big – 6’ X 4’. They’d act as a table in the dining room and people slept in them at night. If their house was bombed they’d be protected by the shelter – safe until they could be dug out of the rubble. They were particularly suitable for people who didn’t have a garden and so couldn’t have an Anderson Shelter.
The pictures below show scouts erecting a Morrison Shelter – they are from the Mary Evans collection held by the Scout Association Archive.
John and his mother did have an Anderson Shelter in their garden in Holmesdale Road. These had a one small entrance with a brick blast wall in front. There was one night when things almost went badly wrong…
|
|
“Mum and I were in the shelter. Incendiary bombs were raining down. One fell between the blast wall and the entrance to the shelter but fortunately for us it didn't go off! As scouts we were taught how to extinguish incendiary bombs using a bucket of water and a stirrup pump”.
Between air raids and amidst all the disruption of war normal Scouting carried on. John and his colleagues spent a lot of time at the Rover Den in Harrington Road pictured here. Built on a site that had once been a sewage works the Den was surrounded by deep culverts. As well as providing opportunities for the Scouts to practice bridge building these had a wartime use.
“When we heard the doodlebugs coming over we’d jump down into one of these and wait until they’d gone over hoping the engine wouldn’t cut out when they were over us. On one occasion the doodlebug flying over us seemed to be following the line of the culvert we were watching from!”
And of course camping carried on – towards the latter part of the war in the absence of adult leaders John and his friend Brian Huggett found themselves in charge and took 14 of the younger lads off to camp.
"We went to Lullingstone Castle. We didn’t have much in the way of transport to get us there. Someone’s dad had a van and some petrol to put in it so he took the kit down and the rest of us cycled there.”
The photo below, from John’s personal collection shows him with fellow scouts at Frylands Wood c. 1942 (L-R: Alan Gould(?), John Ashe, Brian Huggett, Graham, Derek Jepp, ? and Gordon Symes)
Between air raids and amidst all the disruption of war normal Scouting carried on. John and his colleagues spent a lot of time at the Rover Den in Harrington Road pictured here. Built on a site that had once been a sewage works the Den was surrounded by deep culverts. As well as providing opportunities for the Scouts to practice bridge building these had a wartime use.
“When we heard the doodlebugs coming over we’d jump down into one of these and wait until they’d gone over hoping the engine wouldn’t cut out when they were over us. On one occasion the doodlebug flying over us seemed to be following the line of the culvert we were watching from!”
And of course camping carried on – towards the latter part of the war in the absence of adult leaders John and his friend Brian Huggett found themselves in charge and took 14 of the younger lads off to camp.
"We went to Lullingstone Castle. We didn’t have much in the way of transport to get us there. Someone’s dad had a van and some petrol to put in it so he took the kit down and the rest of us cycled there.”
The photo below, from John’s personal collection shows him with fellow scouts at Frylands Wood c. 1942 (L-R: Alan Gould(?), John Ashe, Brian Huggett, Graham, Derek Jepp, ? and Gordon Symes)
As the war finally drew towards a close John and his good friend Brian Huggett were awarded King’s Scout Badges
|
|
|
