Outside Interests

Now we get to the eternal bits of my life.

Aircraft

Somewhere around about 12 years old, I fell in love with planes. Two things happened. I can date one of them but not the other.

Firstly, Mum bought me a plastic model to make. We were walking along in Tooting having been shopping. It is odd because it was the end of Tooting - not The Broadway - where the shops were sparser. We stopped outside a Stationery shop and I saw this kit of a Hawker Sea Hawk (Frog) and Mum bought it for me. Since that point I have been a dedicated - if sometimes armchair - scale modelmaker. After that, nearly all of my pocket money was spent down at Bec Models - at Tooting Bec Tube Station. There were some Saturdays when the owner - Frank - would nearly throw me out after three hours of dithering.

Over the coming years I bought a kit every Saturday and made it Saturday night. Everyone in my model shop of a similar age always talks about Airfix kits as being the only way into modelling at that time - they all reminisce about the 2/- (10p) kits that they bought in Woolies (F.W. Woolwarth for you non-English out there). I never had to do that because I had Bec Models. I grew up on the real thing - Revell, Monogram, Renwall, etc. I cut my teeth on F-8 Crusader, B-66 and Grumman Albatros models.

My peak was reached when I won a competition for my Revell Crusader - more later. As time passed, I moved into many other types of models - Armour and, of course, F1 cars - the classic Tamiya 1/12th scale beauties.

Owning a model shop myself now shows how strong the modelling instinct was with me. This also encompassed Model Railways but I will cover them later.

Secondly, 1957 brought the Golden Jubilee of the Scout Movement. Remember, this is someone who never joined anything that lasted. I did join the Boys Brigade but that lasted 4 weeks. I was watching the events at the Jubilee Jamboree when a group of Air Scouts appeared in the arena with a glider. I was hooked. I wanted more than anything to become an Air Scout. After some time of thinking I wrote to The Scouts headquarters and asked if there was an Air Scout troop in my area. I didn't get an answer that I can recall. It is now that the timeline gets a bit blurred. One evening, there was a knock on the door. In came a man who introduced himself a 'Pip' Rands and an Assistant District Commissioner of Scouts for Streatham. He was to become somewhat of a mentor to me over the coming 11 years or so. He told me that, as a result of my letter, an Air Scout Troop had been started in Streatham and that I should go along to see them. The time line is blurred because I know that I was 13 and a few months when this happened, so this would imply that we are talking about 12 months after the Jamboree, but my memory doesn't have it that long - Ho Hum! I think that this part of my life deserves a separate section because of its impact.

My interest in aircraft was also at the physical level in the sense that I was a keen aircraft spotter. Then, one day I got a book from the library that described how to do circuits and bumps. I got my Meccano Set and made a good facsimile of a light aircraft cockpit. I would spend hours on a Sunday afternoon, in our front room, pretending to fly this aircraft around. My big dream was to join the RAF but that was never to be. Mind you, my height and lack of sparkle at sport and in the CCF would probably have done for me anyway, but a boy can dream. It shows my real dedication because I expressed the desire for the RAF to my careers teacher at the end of the 3rd year at school. He then asked why I was choosing the Arts route to the GCEs - English, History, Geography - rather than the Science route - Physics, Chemistry. My answer was somewhat along the lines of 'because that's where all my friends are going'. As it was I kept up the Maths so I didn't do that badly.

Scouting

So I joined the Air Scouts.

1st Years

As a new troop, the 31st Streatham only had 11 members -all of whom had been in this troop less than a few weeks and met at Sunnyhill School - in Sunnyhill Road which is off the High Road in Streatham.

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. However, I was the oldest of them all and being a shrinking violet, I soon made an impact. I joined and was put in the Eagles patrol. At that time all scouts wore shorts and carried a wooded stave. Walking to scouts in the uniform with a stave (with the patrol flag fitted) never elicited any comments - least of all ridicule which it would get now.

Within four weeks I had passed my Tenderfoot badge and had been enlisted. I was now on par with everyone else so promotion was on the cards. Pretty soon we had enough boys for two more patrols. We already had

" Eagles - Terry Sawyer - Patrol Leader (PL)

" Falcons - Steve Brown - PL (previous scouting experience)

They formed two more patrols

" Merlins - Roger Whittle, PL and

" Hawks - Me as PL.

Because of my age I roared through the 2nd Class badge and got on quickly with the 1st Class which was important because we were always aware that you shouldn't be a Senior Scout (15 - 18) without a 1st Class badge and we always looked down on those who hadn't got that far. Unfortunately, the one thing I was no good at was swimming - the 1st Class badge required 50 yards unaided, so I languished. Mind you, the other badges were easy - Air Spotter was a doddle.

I had my first taste of camping at the annual Summer Camp the first year I joined. This was held at Downe Scout Camp - just down the road from Biggin Hill Airfield, of 2nd WW fame. I don't remember too much about it but I do remember the chemical toilets! I also got my first sheath knife - the trusty Bushman's Friend. All scouts were bedecked with knives in those days - as befitted active campers.

One of the targets for an Air Scout Troop was to get RAF recognition. This not only gave you a great badge to wear, with an RAF roundel on it, but it also gave you the chance to visit airfields and get some free flying.

I have to say that joining the Scouts changed my life forever. I had a purpose as a PL, I thoroughly enjoyed camping and the close involvement of aircraft was ideal. None of the scoutmasters we had were fluent in any way with Aircraft so we had to work hard at keeping them with the faith. It is very easy for an Air Scout troop to become a standard Scout troop in a different uniform so we made sure that aircraft came into most things. One of the high points was the dedication of the troop flag. This was done in the school hall in Sunnyvale Road, where we usually met - we didn't have our own hut at that time. I was privileged to be selected as the flag carrier during the dedication service. (see photo section).

The bit we disliked most was St. George's Day. This is the main date in the Scouting calendar. It involved a lot of hanging around getting the parade in order, lots of marching, which is NOT a Scout strength and then a tedious (to a 14 year old) church service - all taking place on a Sunday afternoon when there were always much better things to be done.

Senior Scouts

Eventually, I reached 15 so had to move on. However, I was 18 months older than the next lot so I had to mark time until there were some more to join me. For the next 18 months, I assisted in running the Scout Troop. Eventually, they caught up and all of a sudden I was PL of the Guy Gibson patrol. Now, all of the others had been PLs but now had to do with me in charge - that taught them - smile.

One thing I had to do in that intervening period was get that 1st Class Badge out the way. I finally struggled through my 50 yards - goodness knows how. That left only the 1st Class Hike - as it was called. This involved two scouts going on a two day hike. It seems incredible now but this is the way it worked: You were told to get a train to a station somewhere in the country and to take a particular Ordinance Survey map with you. You also needed food for 2 days, cooking equipment, tent and sleeping bags etc. as you were camping out overnight. Once at the station, you opened a sealed envelope and it told you which points of the map you had to touch and where to end up.

Our instructions took us to Kingswood Station in Surrey. We found that we had to make our way across country to Epson Downs Station (Epson Downs is the famous horse racing course - home to The Derby (pronounced Darby for you furriners).

So off we went. We found an accommodating farmer who let us take a corner of a field and we set up camp. Lit a fire, etc. We made it next day to Epson Downs.

The final task was to write a log. Peevish Note!! The 31st Streatham Air Scouts still have my 1st Class Hike Log and when being asked politely for it 25 years ago, politely declined and kept it for their records!

However, with that done, honour was satisfied and I was a Senior Scout with a 1st Class Badge!