2:17pm Friday 8th June 2007
By Hollye Blades
Unlike other areas in the Royal borough, Tolworth has successfully managed to maintain four scout groups through the years.
Known for their bright tangerine scarves and newsletter The Tangerine Dream, the scouts from 2nd Tolworth really stand out from the rest.
2nd Tolworth was founded in 1933 when a scout leader with 1st Tolworth, Tug Wilson, decided the group was no longer for him and created an entirely new scout group.
He remained group scout leader for several years before handing over the reins to "Skipper" Halfhead. The group used to meet regularly at the headquarters in Pine Road before purchasing a new plot of land in nearby Princes Avenue.
The planned move was delayed when war broke out, and 2nd Tolworth did not actually move into its new headquarters until years later in August 1957.
On March 18, 1952, 2nd Tolworth played host to a memorable visit by the Duke of Gloucester, who was at the time president of the Boy Scouts Association, as part of his national tour to visit a select number of scout groups.
The group now has a beaver colony, a cub pack and a scout group and still meets to this day in its headquarters in Princes Avenue, Tolworth. The group was officially registered as a charity in 1996.
Douglas Reynolds, 86, from Surbiton, has been a member of several scout groups in the borough. He was a cub scout with 1st Tolworth, a scout with 1st Surbiton and then moved to 2nd Tolworth as a rover scout.
He said: "I enrolled with 2nd Tolworth on November 22, 1939, and I've still got my certificate even now.
"I had been with 1st Tolworth but then I moved to secondary school in Surbiton and joined the group too.
"When I left school I lost touch with them and started to drift back towards my old friends in Tolworth so they asked me to join 2nd Tolworth.
"Rover scouts crews are for anyone over the age of 17. The problem was that I enrolled in the November of 1939 and then the war started and I volunteered the following August for the RAF. We didn't get to go camping or hiking or anything because of the war.
"We were required to go and do our duty however and help up at the hospital if needed in an emergency.
"When I was serving in Bari, Italy, during the war, I happened to notice a poster on the board advertising a rover scout crew for those serving in the forces. It was just a way of getting together and chatting I suppose.
"When I came back from the war, I was either going to go into politics or scouting. Politics got me in the end and I became a member of the council.
"I still stayed in touch with 2nd Tolworth though and am still on the executive committee for the group to this day.
"I am actually still also in touch with Tug Wilson - he's 95 and still going strong."
Next week: 4th Tolworth Air Scouts
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