16th Reigate Scout Group,   NEWS SHEET   No 202,   April 2007

The Old Reigatian Association Dinner in March was celebrating the Centenary of that august body, as well as Aubrey Scrase's fifty years at the School. At least twenty-four members of the Scout Group were there, along with several of their wives. We had fifteen on a special Scout table, and a dozen others were elsewhere around the hall.
Richard English was at the Dinner with his wife Margaret. Though he has moved from Reigate to Sussex, he is a faithful attender at various reunions.
Bernard Hawkins , as well as his almost lifelong bell-ringing hobby, is now the Parish Clerk at Betchworth. He thinks that
Anthony (Tant) Yeats holds a similar position where he lives in Essex. Brother Martyn Yeats also joined us for the evening.
Brian Roberts was there with Myra. He retired some years ago after long service with the Surrey Police, and among other things, is now helping with a project at Coldingley Prison aimed at keeping young people out of trouble.
Celfyn Sutton came down from Lancashire for the dinner, and stayed with his father, who still lives in Oxted. Dad was a great supporter of the Group, as well as of School rugby (not to mention London Welsh!).
We understand that Cel's brother Trefor is not too well.
John Barrow came even further, from Edinburgh, where he continues to work at the Observatory, - though he does not often look at stars !
Chris Rowland now lives with his wife mostly in Rome, but it is not clear whether he came from there specially for the Dinner.
Mark Jopling still lives near Canterbury, but said he had left teaching because changes to the History syllabus had "ruined the subject".
Richard Jopling and Duncan Wesley were also at the Dinner, with 'The Flyers' and other rugby players. Also on other tables with their contemporaries were Dick Carter , Ian Whiteman , Jamie Nicholson , and Michael and Peter Jackson.
Lastly, on the Top Table, apart from Aubs, were the guest speakers Andy Perkins and Chris Wise, both of whom were in the Scout Group in the 60s or early 70s.

Apologies and good wishes were received from Bob Burnett, David Goldson, Riccy Green, Ashlin Harrington, and Peter Wheatley.

Colin Cook wrote a long letter: "Perhaps you would pass on my greetings to all those who will be joining your table, and whom I may have been under canvas with, - and of course those warm greetings are extended particularly to you and Aubrey.
I have to admit that, while it may have seemed an endurance test at the time, I have the most oft recounted memories of my time in the School Scout Troop, and particularly the two summer camps I attended: near Portmadog, when it rained every day but Aubs assured us it was 'just heavy dew'; and in the Black Forest when one of our number was stung by a hornet, and a tornado felled most of our tents !
I think it is true to say that such experiences were character forming, and encouraged me to (a) travel, and (b) engage in a number of leisure activities such as sailing, skiing, bell-ringing, and now Rotary, that I might otherwise have shied away from. Currently I am President of Winchester Rotary Club, and am busy planning activities and events to fulfil its charitable objectives, the current one being to raise £20,000 for water conservation projects in Rajasthan, ( donations gratefully accepted !). I have recently trained as a Winchester City Tourist Guide, - just after completing a BA in History and Geography, - something I had been wanting to do ever since going straight from School into commerce.
Along the way there have been family and children. They have all grown up with a 'can do' attitude, and I would like to think that my experiences in Scouting, which certainly equipped me to be able to cope with 'disasters', have rubbed off on them. So you see what an influence Scouting has been. 'Be Prepared' was the motto then, 'Service above Self' is Rotary's now.
Have an enjoyable evening, and if ever anyone from my time at RGS fancies a heritage walk round the city of Winchester, do get in touch."
Neil Kearns was one of the original 2nd year Scouts, and e?mailed just before Christmas: " A voice from the past. I am just clearing my attic and have found an old photo album with pics from early camps, - I think in the Lake District and somewhere near Dorking. I recognise many faces, but names are a problem. My best friend at the time was Keith Abell; other faces in the photos were 'Tiddler' Ray Holdsworth, 'Gert' David Goldson, Dick Carter, and a guy called English.(!) I am selling off a business now and close to retirement, so perhaps a trip to Reigate soon; - I live near Farnham in west Surrey, so not the other side of the world."

My thanks to all who sent Christmas cards and the much maligned news letters. I find the latter quite interesting.
Tim Formoy's 'Annual Blurb' is quite unintelligible to anyone who does not know the family and all its 'in' jokes. It is clear that both Tim and Trish play a lot of golf, travelling around the country to do so.
Colin Harriden's family are as active as ever, particularly with their church. Colin's Dad and Margaret's Mum were both very ill last year, but made remarkable recoveries. Mum celebrated an 85th birthday and Colin's parents are looking forward to a Diamond Wedding in April.
Mike Pupius is still at Sheffield Hallam University, becoming even more academic, being now part of the faculty. He continues his travels, speaking and consulting throughout Europe and further afield, including Hawaii and Singapore. Mountain biking has become his new fitness regime.
Anthony Yeats wrote: " We have just been reading our 2005 letter and very little has changed, - which must be good. Linda has an irrational fear of the piles of paper which I file neatly and systematically on the floor, and she wants me to construct an office in the garden, - far away in the garden. It does have its attractions as an idea, - cameras on wi-fi so I can keep my bird nets under observation, a secret supply of coffee and lots of boys' toys. So it could become the project for 2007." The family letter continues : " Tony is still being anti-social with respect to holidays, - he goes away to Cumbria for bird ringing, and to the Continent and the USA on business, so he insists on extravagant holidays in Wales with side trips to posh restaurants."
Peter Wheatley as we mentioned last time, has moved house to :
12, Park Road, Market Lavington, Devizes, Wilts, SN10 4ED. This is a short 10-minute walk from School which "wakes me up and probably does a bit to keep me fit. The new house has a long narrow garden, and also a dining room, so at last I can invite people round to eat. I aim to set up proper fruit and vegetable patches, and try gardening.
Scouts have also kept me very busy. Our Troop remains large, - over 26 boys, - and very active. We went to Cornwall for our summer camp, to a 'farmer's field' site not far from Penzance. The weather was kind, and we had a great time, on the beach, canoeing and swimming, and also walking round the spectacular coastline. I am losing my assistant leader in the New Year, and hope someone else will volunteer. I have other helpers, but they are not qualified, and if I am on my own, it will severely restrict what we can do at both meetings and camps. The Scout Association's insistence that ALL Groups must become co-ed is proving a headache. We have a very pushy mother with a whole clutch of daughters who wants them in the Cubs and Scouts. I have made it clear to both her and the local DC that I won't take girls in the Scouts without a female assistant leader, but she won't budge. The outcome could prove interesting, and I hope it won't lead to me giving up the Troop. I cannot feel safe having girls in my charge with no woman around to help out."

Sadly, we must record the deaths of Rodney Deslandes and Ashton D'Mello in 2006. They were both among the original 2nd Form Scouts when our Group started in January 1954. We did see Ashton at the School's first Millenium Reunion in 2000. Rodney's grandson has just started in the 1st Form at School.

I have, on computer and a card index, databases of addresses: one for those who receive this News-Sheet by post, a much larger list of those who are notified by e-mail, and a card record for every Scout about whom we have information. For some years I have liaised with Ali Massey, who has the Old Reigatian database, exchanging new addresses we hear about. Now it has been suggested we should amalgamate these databases. We have not discussed the details of how this might work, so I have yet to agree to it. Meanwhile, of course, we do need to be told of changes to postal and e-mail addresses, please.
Ali has also suggested that personal news from our News-Sheet might be quoted in the 'Old Reigatian' magazine. I am slightly doubtful about this because (a) it is often news of a 'Scouty' nature, which would not be of general interest; (b) the magazine only appears once a year, so much of the news will be a bit out-dated; (c) the text of our News-Sheet is on the OR website anyway; (d) you may not want your news published generally. Several of you have, in the past, told me that you did not want certain things noised abroad; others have written a special News-Sheet version of your news. So in future, it might be a good idea if you tell me if you do NOT want some of your news included in either publication.
As always, because of the Data Protection Act, addresses will not be included in the web-site version of our News-Sheet unless you give us permission, but may appear in the postal edition.

If you have access to the web, and an e-mail address, do please tell us. It would save us time and expense.

Robin H. Bligh, 39, Monks Walk, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 0SS.
< robin@reigategrammar.org >   01737 - 248135 .