Memories of Scouts from the 1920s in Keighley (From Keighley News)

Memories of Scouts from the 1920s in Keighley

8:00pm Thursday 28th February 2013 in Keighley By Ian Dewhirst

The strength and smartness of the local Boy Scout movement in its heyday is amply illustrated by this procession turning from Cavendish Street into Lawkholme Crescent. The presence of tramlines dates the photograph as no later than 1924.

The distinctive original Scout headgear was based on the slouch hat popular in the Boer War, where their founder, Lord Baden-Powell, had defended Mafeking while using boys as runners.

Keighley’s first Scout troop is thought to have started as early as 1908 in the Lawkholme district, using an attic in Dalton Lane as its headquarters. Other early troops, connected with churches, were at Ingrow St John’s and St Anne’s. A Keighley contingent attended the first Scouts’ Rally at Windsor in 1911. Local Scouts proved their worth in both World Wars, among other jobs helping to guard reservoirs and railways in the First and collecting waste paper in the Second. St Anne’s Scouts, unloading the luggage of arriving Belgian refugees in 1914, had been taught to shout “Vive la Belgique!” The photograph has been supplied by Mr Kevin Seaton, of Shann Lane, Keighley.