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All ship shape and Bristol fashion
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| The current Leander Explorer Scout Group |
With their headquarters on the river in Lower Ham Road, Kingston, Leander Sea Scouts is one of only two sea scout groups in the borough and one of only 100 "Royal Navy recognised" groups in the country.
Within Leander, there is a beaver colony for six to eight year olds, a cub pack for eight to 10 year olds, a scout group for 10 to 14 year olds and an explorer scout group for those aged between 14 and 18. Leander owns a admirable fleet of boats and canoes which provide training in seamanship and sailing for all the scouts involved.
Leander Sea Scouts is one of many scout groups in the borough which has evolved from an entirely different group over the years. It was first recorded as the original 2nd Kingston Scout group which came into existence in 1908 and held its first meetings in the Spring Grove area of Kingston. On April 3, 1909, 2nd Kingston was officially registered as scout group number 3424.
The very first scout leader was Erik Robinson, son of Mark Robinson, a well-known marine engineer which may well have had an influence on the group later becoming sea scouts. Erik Robinson was scout leader of the group until 1921, when he was succeeded by another Eric, Eric Ebbage who went on to lead until he retired in 1968.
In November 1912, the group began its sea scouting activities when it was presented with its first boat - an ex-Navy 32ft 12 oared cutter - by the great grandson of Captain Francis Grove. The group took its name from the HMS Leander, commanded by Captain Francis Grove in the Royal Navy.
In 1913, the group obtained its first riverside headquarters below Clattern Bridge next to the Hogs Mill River in what had formerly been Burgoine's, a well-known firm of boatbuilders. When these premises were taken over for war work in 1915, the group moved to an old stable and hay loft at the back of the Druid's Head pub in Kingston Market Place and then, in 1921, to the headquarters in Lower Ham Road where they are still based today.
In 1981, following a serious fire that destroyed two of the boathouses, the decision was taken to rebuild a brand-new two-storey headquarters. The building was officially opened by the Chief Scout in 1987.
Memories
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| One of the earliest known pictures of Leander Sea Scouts, thought to have been taken in 1910 |
Gordon Biden, 78, remembers going with his father Bert as a small boy to fundraising activities organised by the Leander Sea Scouts in the 1930s. Bert was among the founder members of the scout group 2nd Kingston in 1908.
"He went to school at St John's and a number of him and his friends used to get together at Marsh Lane as small boys at around 1908 after the publication of "Scouting for Boys" every fortnight and it just snowballed from there into a scout group. He was a scout with Leander until he died, becoming a Rover Scout and then an Old Scout," he said.
Gordon, who now lives in Suffolk, joined Leander himself in 1942 and has many fond memories of trips down the river.
He said: "I remember when we sailed once from Littlehampton into the Channel and back again in a little boat called Hero, and then the time when we rowed up river and camped on the banks near Wallington with another group from Osterley. And then of course there was the time when I nearly drowned whilst out doing an activity on the river. I don't like to remember that one as much!"
After progressing through the groups, Gordon too became an Old Scout and then, in the early 1970s, the scout leader.
He said: "My one claim to fame was that I was responsible for designing and rebuilding the headquarters in Lower Ham Road after the fire in 1981. We used to have a wastepaper store in the headquarters that just caught fire one day. We lost two of the boat houses and a number of boats and canoes. As a result of the fire, we negotiated with Kingston Council for some more land, knocked down all the buildings on it and rebuilt the headquarters that you see today. The building was officially re-opened by the Chief Scout himself."
For his 60-year service to Leander Scouts, Gordon was presented with the Silver Wolf by the Chief Scout in 2002, the highest accolade in Scouting.
Peter Burton, 85, became scoutleader at Leander in 1968 but had been a scout with the group since the early 1930s. He remembers exactly how it all started for him.
"At the age of around 11, I went to secondary school in Richmond Road. At the beginning of my second year there, I went to a class where there was only one seat left. So I walked into the classroom and sat down and started talking to the boy next to me. We started chatting about how he was a cub at Leander Sea Scouts, about to move up to the scout group there. The upshot of it all was that I ended up walking to his house on a Tuesday afternoon and we went on his bike to the headquarters on Lower Ham Road, crashing into a lamppost on the way!" he said.
In 1937, as a 15-year-old, Peter travelled to Holland to take part in the scouting jamboree, his first time abroad.
He said: "It was unbelievable. They didn't put all the English scouts in one place and the French scouts in another so we were all mixed in together and I met some fantastic people from across the world. I was there for a fortnight, and I was even lucky enough to meet Baden-Powell himself who was touring the site. He was very charming and very straight-forward, a real no-nonsense chap. It was out of this world."
5:37pm Wednesday 21st March 2007
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