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Scouting Awards, UK.


Subdeacon Joe

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Posted
 
Scouting Skills & More  · 
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Alfie Rowlands  · 
 
  · 
Alex Tosh -
"Not many people outside the world of very nerdy Scout leaders will know what this badge is.
This little badge and around 60,000 others very like it were issued in 1945 to members of the Scout Association who carried out National Service in defence of the UK on the home front during the Second World War.
While the older members and leaders joined up to serve in the armed forces the younger members did their best to keep their troops going.
This service is mostly remembered for the useful work collecting scrap or for digging for victory or working on farms.
There is however darker side to this service. In many of the most heavy bombed towns and cities in the UK Scouts were thought of as dependable and members were recruited as messengers, first aiders and guides for the massively over stretched fire and police services.
Around 1000 bravery awards were presented for this work. In Bootle, the most bombed place outside of London, three whole Scout Troops were awarded the Silver Cross for bravery.
90% of these National Service Awards and 60% bravery awards were awarded to boys aged between 13 and 17 years.
So while people attend memorials across the country this morning and quite rightly remember the soldiers sailors and airmen lost in the many conflicts across the globe, I'll have this little badge in my pocket.
I'll think about the terrified 14 year old directing fire engines during an air raid with burning buildings on each side of the road and bombs bricks glass and tiles raining down on them, or the 15 year old on firewatch seeing the fires and explosions slowly advance towards him or the beleaguered 16 year old patrol leader whose patrol are holding back a crowd, stopping them entering a burning building because they think a relative is still in there.
This is the reason you will see Scouts parading this morning they are not here to glorify wars and conflict. They are there simply to represent those who have gone before and those who did their best in the most terrifying and impossibly difficult situations imaginable."
 
May be an image of text that says 'NOS N'
Posted
Just now, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I never heard that before.  God bless them, one and all.

 

Neither had I before today.  I figured it would be of interest to people here.

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