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Scouting over a hundred years
Robert Baden-Powell's Scout movement has guided generations of young boys for 100 years with a code of honour and a motto of 'be prepared'.
In 2007 it was the centenary year of the Scout movement, it also marked 100 years since the first Croydon group was born.
There were more than 2,500 scouts in the borough in 2007, including beaver and cub branches, but in 1907 it was a small group of boys from Addiscombe who started to meet on a regular basis. They were said to be inspired by Baden-Powell's first camp on Brownsea Island.
The meetings continued on an informal basis throughout the year until it got its own Scout master in early 1908. The troop had its inaugural meeting on June 2 at a premises in Park Street with just eight members and by the end of that month the troop's membership had grown to 12. The scouts outgrew their Park Street premises, moving to St Mary's Hall in Oval Road, and went from strength to strength in the following years. In 1927 a purpose-built home for the Scouts was opened in Grant Road and named Beverly Hall. By 1933 there were 13 troops in the borough.
During the Second World War many were called up for national service and some troops were run by the boys themselves. Scouts were wartime messengers and they also helped with collecting waste paper, farm work and more importantly putting up air raid shelters.
Scouting in Croydon flourished after the war, hitting its peak in the 1950s. In 1957 the Croydon Boy Scouts Association produced a booklet to commemorate its 50th anniversary, a copy of which is held at Croydon Local Studies Library. It reads: "Scouting in this part of Croydon has had its ups and downs, but we are proud to say that we have tried to play the game of Scouting for boys for 50 years, despite two world wars and all the other world problems that, at the time, beset us."
"We must give our thanks to all helpers who give up their time voluntarily to help play the game of Scouting for boys, and so make this movement what it is today, the grandest youth movement ever. It has stood the test of 50 years and we wish good luck to Scouting for the next 50 years when the movement celebrates its centenary in 2007."
