Scouting in Greater London
[2] Boys from East London were amongst those invited to attend Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell's experimental camp at Brownsea Island in August 1907, now regarded as the founding of the Scout Movement.
Vane and Baden-Powell soon fell out over the former's antimilitarism, and he was dismissed in a dispute about renting an office for London Scouts.
This led to a degree of autonomy which prevented the formation of an effective London-wide organisation for some years, despite the appointment of an eminent London Commissioner, Sir Herbert Plumer.
[6] His successor from 1911, Major-General H B Jeffreys, had no more success in bringing the districts together, but did oversee the start of the first troops for Scouts with disabilities in London special schools.
[9] In November 1909, an American publisher, William D. Boyce, was lost in a London smog, but was directed to his hotel by a Boy Scout who refused any reward; an act which led directly to the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.
[12] In August 1924, an Imperial Jamboree was held at Wembley as part of the British Empire Exhibition.
[13] In early 1932, the County Commissioner, Edward Montgomery Phillpotts, attended a revue staged by Rover Scouts from Holborn District; he suggested to the producer, Ralph Reader, that he might arrange a larger-scale production to raise funds for Scouting in London and the result was the first London Gang Show, which opened at the Scala Theatre in October of that year.
[14] In 1939, the outbreak of the Second World War caused the evacuation of more than 21,000 London Scouts,[15] representing more than half of the membership.
It serves the London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, and City of Westminster.
In recent years the band took part in the 2002, 2007, and 2008 Lord Mayor's Shows, a Royal Visit to Enfield by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 2003.
Downe was closed during the 2020 pandemic and is now up for sale on the open market,[49] after several community groups failed to raise enough money to save it.
[50] The current name was adopted following major sponsorship from a charitable foundation owned by PACCAR Inc, the multi-national heavy vehicle manufacturer.
Ealing & Hanwell District in GLMW own and run the Walter Davies Activity Centre near Stoke Poges,[51] and the City of Westminster Scout District is responsible for Coombe Farm Campsite, located in Addington.
[53] The Training ship RRS Discovery, Captain Scott's Antarctic expedition vessel, moored on Victoria Embankment near Temple Underground station, was used by London Sea Scouts between 1937 and 1979, when it was handed over to Maritime Trust and relocated in Dundee.
[54] Based on the Lord Amory, the only permanently moored Scout 'campsite' in the UK, the DSP is located in the West India Dock, east of the City of London and opposite Greenwich across the River Thames.
[60] Hammerwood Scout Campsite, located in East Grinstead, is owned and operated by 6 Groups in Lewisham; it has 27 acres (110,000 m2) of woodland plus a field.
The forest is mostly unpartitioned with an unmanaged area for survival training weekends and is popular with Scout, Cadet and Duke of Edinburgh groups.
[68] Other sites owned or operated by districts within Greater London South West include the Bears Wood Training Centre in Croydon and Pinewood Campsite in Shirley (both Croydon District), also Polyapes Campsite at Stoke d'Abernon, which lies just outside the county boundaries but is managed jointly between Royal Kingston and Esher Districts and has been in continuous use since 1929.
Two of the unit were present at the Sunrise Ceremony on Brownsea Island to welcome the 2nd century of Scouting at the movement's birthplace.
