1st East Grinstead Scout Group
Centenary 1908 - 2008
The old Masonic Hall in East Grinstead, at the top end of West Street, was rented out as a new headquarters to the Troop when the store became too small. It was here that Dr. Lewis Walker and Mr. Roland Hazel joined the Troop. Dr. Walker gave first aid lessons to scouts and eventually became the first official scoutmaster in 1911. Mr. Hazel served as assistant scoutmaster along with Alfred Bingham.
Happy years
Mr. Bingham describes those days: "These were most happy years for all of us," he wrote. "There were so many things to action at Brighton and other places along the south coast.
The landing of Bleriot with his little plane at Dover. Weekend camping on Ashdown Forest, night marches with the Forest Row Cadet Corp. as the first two patrols affiliated with the Cadet Corps for about a year or two."
Mr Bingham was in charge of the 1st East Grinstead Scouts which went to the Crystal Palace Rally in 1909, they were chosen as the Guard of Honour to the King and Princes.
Lord Baden-Powell the founder of scouting was present at the occasion and the East Grinstead scouts met girl guides for the first time as the female side of the movement had only just been formed.
A similar memorable day for local scouts was the rally at Hever Castle where several hundred boy scouts met. The Ashdown, Baldwins Hill, Dormansland and Lingfield troops were all involved.
"Another moment that I remember was a boy scout funeral," wrote Mr Bingham. "It was one of the Baldwins Hill scouts. Six scout leaders pushed the trolley from his home to the church and cemetery and it seemed such a long way. It was so silent and not a word was spoken, the only sound was the slow march of the boys. In those days there were very few automobiles and the road was almost empty of traffic."
An earlier article in the same paper in 1950 reports on an address given by Dr Walker, the founding Scoutmaster, at the Annual Meeting of the East Grinstead Scout Association as follows;
THREE BOYS STARTED SCOUT MOVEMENT
The interesting and little known story of how three very young boys nearly 50 years ago were responsible for bringing the Boy Scout movement to East Grinstead was told by the man behind it all, Dr. S. L. Walker, president of East Grinstead District Boy Scouts Association, at the annual meeting held at the Scout Hall on Wednesday last week.