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.

Page 1 of 2

We hope you liked the photos, but please, don't copy them.  Please help us to keep our copyright intact and to keep this website newspaper online. Click on here to find out how you can order copies of these photos.