Group Time line

1927 (2nd June) Miss Gladys Whitehead starts a Cub Pack for about 14 boys and on the 4th of October the group was registered as the 22nd Wimbledon with Certificate 6067.

1928 (2nd March) Ken Burton forms a Scout Troop with 2 boys, by July it has grown to 8 and soon to a full troop.Archie Payne becomes first Group Scout Master. Group meets at the old Holy Cross Church Hall which was located on the site of the current church car park.

1930 (December) The first Group committee is formed and it decides to build an HQ on ground in Douglas Avenue, near the Holy Cross church, that is now occupied by Gresham House.

1939 The HQ fund reaches £50 towards the target of £100.

1940 Holy Cross Hall is destroyed in an air raid so meetings are held at Ivy House and then St Davids School in Estella Avenue. Within a year or so we moved to Bushey School which was to become our home for almost 25 years until our head quarters was completed in Arthur Rd. over the years we used both the "White and Red schools"for various avtivities.

1941 Conscription keeps the group very short of leaders but Mrs Dora Dunthorne and a team from 3rd.Wimbledon run the Cubs and Leslie Ginsburg, a Scouter from Liverpool, serving with the Royal Engineers.and based locally, runs the Troop with the help of Ken Haywood.

During the war, regular camps were held at Walton firs and Polyapes despite rationing. Older boys from the Group helped the war effort by delivering handbills, acting as messengers for Civil Defence Wardens. Dances and Whist Drives are held to raise funds for the Red Cross Prisoners of War Fund.

1943 A week camp is held at Walton Firs. The fee was 15/- bring your ration book, 1/4lb of jam and 2oz of tea. A gas mask is listed on the kit list and, it is reputed, was not removed until a new list was written in the mid Sixties!

1944 Meetings had to be suspended during the V1 doodlebug and V2 rocket attacks but resumed after the Invasion of Normandy.

1945 Leaders returned from the War and the Group settled down. A Senior Scout Troop was started, which later became the Venture Scout Unit. Funds are raised to buy camping equipment and a brick storage hut built on Church land where the electricity substation now stands. A plaque from this hut has been preserved in one of the back rooms at the HQ.

1946 Rover Scouts re-started to enable older Senior Scouts to continue to be involved.

1948 The BP Guild of Old Scouts was formed to help raise funds. It was wound up in 1963.

1949 Cyril Simmons becomes Group Scout Leader and he, John and Charles Constantine, Martin Conrad and John Baker ran the Troop. Mrs Mason, followed by Ernie Smale and Mrs Spreadbury, ran the Cubs and Pat Brunt the Senior Scouts. Both Pat and Charles went on to be District Commissioners

1953 Charles Constantine took over the Senior Scouts, in 1955 he organised our first overseas camp in Liechtenstein

1955 As the number of Cubs is rising a new pack is needed and Mrs West, the wife of the then Priest-in-Charge, starts a pack on Mondays.

1958 The Group buys a piece of land in Arthur Road from the Wimbledon Scout District at a cost of £200. This land had been bought by the District with the intention of building a District Headquarters but they sold it when they acquired the site in Worple Road which was more central. Under the Chairmanship of Len Hodsdon, the committee set out to raise £500 per annum towards the cost of a new HQ.

1960 Martin Conrad took over the Senior Scouts and continued until 1977.

1962 As the trek cart, that had been repaired so many times that none of the original remained (a bit like Triggers broom!), was obsolete it was decided that motor transport was required. The group bought a 5 ton lorry to transport equipment. Later it was replaced by long wheel-based Land Rover and a horse-box was acquired as a trailer.

1965 (9th October) The new Headquarters in Arthur Road was opened by Sir Cyril Black MP JP. Sir Cyril is presented with an inscribed beer mug as a token of thanks. Sir Cyril, a life-long and teetotaller and campaigner, accepts this gift with grace! The HQ is built by J.E.Lesser at a cost of £8,066.31p.

1966 Cyril Simmons retires as GSL and Martin Conrad took over this position

1968 A third Cub Pack is needed so a Wednesday Pack is started by Miss Ann Coleman which soon moves to Thursdays.

1975 The HQ is extended by the erection of two committee rooms and a store that the rear of the building. The extension is designed by John Littler and built by Ken Clark Builders, supervised by Ali Khan, a surveyor. The building costs £5,600 and is opened by The Mayor of Merton, Councillor Bernard Clifford.

1976 The garages in the drive leading to the HQ are purchased from Ernie Smale at a cost of £5,825. These garages provide much-needed revenue to help towards the cost of running the Headquarters.

1977 The Group holds its Golden Jubilee and many previous members of the Group meet on October to celebrate the first 50 years. and Miss Gladys Whitehead returns to cut the cake!

1984 The first Beaver Colony is opened.

1989 The Tennyson Pack ( Thursdays) closes after 21 years.

1991 Diana Boa retires after 11 years as Group Chairman. Martin Conrad retires as GSL, a post he held for 26 years.

1992 Cubs celebrate 75 years of Cub Scouting. 8 members of the pack appear in the South West Gang Show.

1997 The group celebrates its 70th Birthday with a Group camp at Dulwich.

2000 Alan Maloney became GSL. Cubs and Scouts attend the Millenium camp in Wimbledon Park and like 40,000 others around the Country got VERY wet!

2002 The Group celebrates its first 75 years with a Group camp at Walton Firs during June and get-together in October both attended by many ex-group members as well as most of the current Group. The group achieves the County Commisioners Standard, the first Group in the District to do so.

2003 Martin Conrad finally retires from the Chairmanship of the Group after over 60 years with the Group and is made Life President.

2005 The Byron pack celebrates its 50th birthday.

The Group is awarded the County Commissioners Standard for the second time. The camp fire circle is officially opened by Margaret Pooley, Assistant County Commissioner. A team of 20 scouts and leaders attend the European Jamboree (Eurojam) at Hylands park, Essex for 12 days along with 10,000 scouts from nearly 70 countries and the Troop had dinner with the Chief Scout.

2006 Cubs spend their Pack Holiday in Leicester and visit Charnwood International Scout camp. Scouts hold summer camp at Buddens in Dorset and visit Brownsea Island and go sea fishing. Beavers and Cubs spend time in an Astrodome in Holy Cross Church. Cubs hold a sleepover on board HMS Belfast.

2007 Scouting's centenary celebrated across the Group. A centenary flag was flown at midnight on 1st January and will stay on the flagpole all year. Girls welcomed as full members of the Group. Several members of the Group attended the World Jamboree at Hylands park in the summer. 75 members of the Group attended the District Camp at Blackland Farm over the Spring bank Holiday The 22nd celebrates its 80th birthday with a special party.