3rd Tynemouth
(Ritsons Own) Scout Group
Billy Mill Lane, North Shields, NE29 8LP
1970 - 2000
Over the next few
years, the Group got more new Leaders. In 1971 Eileen Holmes became the
Cub Leader, Lesley Salmon and Anne Ambler became Assistant Cub Leaders
and Geoff Laws became an Assistant Scout Leader. In 1972 Bob Robson
became the Group’s Venture Scout Leader, a new section created to
replace the Senior Scouts and Thomas Turner, a former Rover Scout became
the Assistant Venture Scout Leader. A year later, in 1973 Barney Carr
took over from George Pilgrim as the Group Scout Leader.
In 1974 the Troop
got another new Assistant Leader when Fenwick Curry joined the Group, he
was joined two years later by two former Scouts, Dudley Rogers and
Martin Beavers. Barney carried on as Scout Leader until 1977 when he
decided to concentrate on being the GSL and handed the Troop over to
Fenwick Curry, or Fen as he was known. That year also saw the Cub Pack
change hands when Eileen handed the Pack over to Michael Pearson.
In 1978 Bob Robson
took on a new role as the Assistant District Commissioner (Venture
Scouts). Because of the amount of time it took up, he handed the job of
Venture Scout Leader over to George Hunter, with Derek Bennett acting as
an Assistant Venture Scout Leader.
April 1979 saw
three Venture Scouts start to help at the Scouts. Paul Rogers, Keith
Hill and Marty Jameson all started to help regularly at the Troop until
they were old enough to take out warrants.
The new
headquarters stayed as it was for 11 years until the 17th of
May 1980 when a new Venture Scout room was officially opened. The room
was an extension onto the back of the building, again having been built
in part by the Leaders, Venture Scouts and Scouts in the Group at the
time. It was about this time that Graeme Rea took over as Venture Scout
Leader.
The building work
was not without it’s risks though, Barney Carr had a close escape when
one of the Scouts, Adrian Nichol, who was helping dismantle a
partitioning wall, removed one or two bolts too many and the wall
collapsed, leaving Barney stood in the open door way of the collapsing
wall surrounded by a cloud of dust.
In 1984 the group
had a wedding to celebrate when Dudley Rogers and Cub ACSL Helen King
were married, with the Cubs providing a guard of honour.
Two years later,
on Thursday the 10th of April 1986, the Group opened it’s
doors to a newly formed section of the Scout movement aimed at 6 to 8
year olds. The Beaver Colony’s first meeting was a great success with
fifteen boy’s turning up for the first meeting. Ruth Mather, the mother
of one of the Cubs, was the Beaver Leader and she was helped by Megan
Summers, Caroline Berry and two of the Scout Troop’s patrol leaders,
Michael Dale and Robin Gilchrist. Within six months the numbers had
risen to twenty two and the colony got a third helper when Nicola
Harrison started.
The end of 1986
saw another new Leader for the Beavers in the form of Alison Tilbury,
but it also saw Michael Dale leave to join the army in January 1987.
Within a matter of months Michael was replaced by another scout called
Michael, when Michael Barber started helping, together with Gordon
Harrison, another member of the Scout Troop.
1986 saw Gillian
Pearson being appointed as the new Assistant District Commissioner
(Beavers). Her promotion was followed a year later by her husband
Michael, when he was appointed as Assistant District Commissioner
(Cubs). He didn’t leave the Group altogether though and stayed with the
Pack as an Assistant Cub Leader.
In the same year
Mike became ADC (Cubs), Helen Rogers took over the Cub Pack from him.
Derek Bennett resigned as the Group’s Venture Scout Leader to be
replaced by former Scout and helper, Christopher Dixon.
In 1991 one of
Ritson’s ex Scouts made world headlines during the Gulf conflict. Adrian
Nichol, patrol leader of the Kestrels in 1979, was navigator in a
Tornado shot down on one of the first bombing missions of the conflict.
He was captured and paraded on TV (using his middle name of John)
together with his pilot (John Peters) all over the world.
Two other
ex-scouts also served in the Gulf, but only found out they were both in
the area when Michael Dale and Phillip Rossiter bumped in to each other
at a fuel dump in the middle of the desert.
December 1991 saw
Megan Summers leave the Beaver Colony after five years. It also saw
three long term helpers become official Leaders when Michael (Mick)
Barber and David Dale took out warrants as Assistant Scout Leaders and
Gordon Harrison became Assistant Cub Leader, together with Lisa Lee, the
sister of one of the Cubs.
The Group also had
a new helper at the Beaver Colony when Joanne Hopkins, a work mate of
Ruth’s joined.
A year later in
1992, Barney Carr retired as GSL with a surprise party at the hut. He
was replaced as the GSL by Dudley Rogers while Barney took over as the
Group Chairman.
The summer of 1992
also saw the Beavers lose their founding Leader when Ruth Mather left. A
notice was put in Ritson’s Review in March that year asking for someone
to take over the job of Beaver Leader, and then again in June saying
that the Colony might have to close if a new leader was not found to
open after the school holiday. Luckily a new leader was found when
former Beaver helper Nicola Harrison came back to the Group, after a
four year break, to become the Beaver Leader.
In 1993 David Dale
took over from Christopher Dixon as the Venture Scout Leader, a role he
continued with until the Venture Scout unit ended a year later in 1994.
When the Venture Unit closed David went back to the Scout Troop as an
assistant leader.
In 1994 Mike
Pearson who was ADC (Cubs) became the District Commissioner (DC), a job
he did for 9 years. Later that year Mick Barber and Joanne Hopkins got
married, complete with a guard of honour from the Group.
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