A piece of Scouting history
Report and photos by
Colin Trollope.
ON a beautiful and warm afternoon on
Sunday, 26 April 2015, in Kirklake Road, Formby, vehicle doors banged, cars
roared away and young voices disturbed the tranquil air. Instead of parading in
Duke Street Park and Marching behind a band, the Formby Beavers' Scouts, Cubs'
Scouts, Scouts and Explorers' Scouts were gathering at Saint Luke's Church Hall
to march down, not to Holy Trinity Church, but to St. Luke's C of E Church in
honour of our Country's Patron Saint, Saint George. Many parked cars along the
road, and in front of the Church, caused the traffic to travel only on one side
of the road; as no police were available, cuts of course, many volunteers had
turned out to preserve the safety of the marching young people. They marched, as
best as they could, along the narrow path from the Hall to the Church; proudly
they carried their banners and ducked them under over hanging branches. The
Salute was taken by the Mayor of Sefton on the corner road junction of St Luke's
Church Road and Kirklake Road.
The service was led by the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, the Reverend Mark
Stanford who told the young people present about his special friend, Jesus
Christ. While the hymn Jerusalem was being sung, the Flags and Standards were
placed around the altar. After a Holy Bible reading by the 4th Formby Explorers,
that group's Cubs did an enactment about the Traditional St George and the
Dragon, which was followed by their Group Scout Leader, Eric Critchley, who read
out the Last Message from Baden Powell; that the proceeded the singing of the
Scout Hymn. Next followed the Renewal of Promises, with each Scout Assistant
District Commissioner leading their Scouting Section in reciting it in the
traditional manner.
Trophies were presented to various sections, as seen in the above photograph.
Some of the very long serving Scouting Section Leaders were presented with Certificates as follows:-
For their successful and inspiring results
with their sections C Appleton (Formby 4 Beavers), Dave Miller (Formby 4 Cubs),
and Nicky Todd (Formby 9 Scouts) while for Long Service, 5 years Graham Edgerly;
10 years Martin Sutton; 20 years Margaret Johnson and Elaine Almond; and for 30
years Eric Critchly.
As the Flags were being returned, the hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers was sung.
Reverend Stanford gave the Blessing, everyone sang the National Anthem, and the
Groups departed from the Church through an avenue of Scout Flags. Refreshments
were served in the Meeting Room with the Sefton's Mayor and the District
Commissioner. The organisers of the Annual Parade are to be congratulated along
with the Vicar of St Luke's, Reverent H Nicol, the visiting organist Mrs Maggie
Flodman and, of course the Parents who dropped their youngsters off as they
proceeded elsewhere.
For more photographs, please use this
link to see
more photographs from this event.
Please note that the above link to will take you to our standard format copy of
this edition.
