History

1927 (2nd June)
Miss Gladys Whitehead starts a Cub Pack for about
14 boys.

1927 (4th October)
22nd Wimbledon Group registered with certificate no. 6067. This is the Group's official birthday.

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.

1928
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 near the 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 St David s School in
Estella Avenue.

1941
Conscription keeps the group very short of leaders but Mrs Dora Dunthorne and a team from 3rd.

Wimbledon run the Cubs and Leslie Ginsberg,
a Scouter from Liverpool, serving with the
Royal Engineers.

and based locally, runs the Troop with the help of Ken Haywood.

1941
onwards, 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.

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 in 1926 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.

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.

1982
The front drive is resurfaced at a cost of £2,400.

1983
The extension and garage roofs both need replacing.

1984
The first Beaver Colony is opened.

1986
A car port is erected to protect the minibus and trailer and to provide shelter, if needed, at events.

1987
The Group is 60 years old.

1989
The Tennyson Pack 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.

1994
The biggest expenditure this year was on a new heating control for the Headquarters!

1995
The group needs to raise £20,000 for a new Group minibus.

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

1998
The headquarters roof is replaced at a cost of £16,000.

2000
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. Holy Cross Church is packed for Group Celebration of Christmas

2004
The garage doors are all renewed and painted. Work commences on replacement of fencing around the site. Construction also begins on our new camp fire circle with seating and landscaping and as part of the Group Environment Award replanting of shrubs on the site commences in the Autumn.

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.