Selwyn House School - Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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SIil.WYN HOUSE SCHOOL Nl.-XG.-XZINIQ On Wednesday, .luly Klst, the Jamboree was ofiicially opened at the rally ground by the Duke of Connaught. l.ord Baden-Powell played a few notes on the famous Kudu horn after the Hag was broken and the National Anthem had been played. 'llhen followed a march past, the Duke and Chief Scout taking the salute 3 for an hour the Scouts of all nations marched past the saluting base. It was the most brilliant sight that I have ever seen and it was undoubtedly awe-inspiring for the thousands of spectators who sat in nine large white grand-stands with red supports spread in a semi-circular formation. Along the top of each stand the multifcoloured fiags of all the nations FCPI'-IS3!1fStl - forty-two countries in all - freely interspersed with l'nion -lacks, waved in the breeze. lmagine then a level ground ssveral acres in extent, bright with green grass, and pictarea sky sun- lit and dotted with fieecy white clouds and you have the scenic effect. Now imagine -lU,lJUO Scouts massed on the field, their banagrs a.i.l flags lending additional colour to the bright and varied uniforms and the eager spectators overflowing the stands form the necessary solid background to such a picture. Thus we witnessed one of the most colour- ful scenes in the history of Scouting and certainly by far the most important. 'l'o describe the next fortnight in detail would till a volume. l,etit saliic: tim say that four or five times was such an assembly held on the Rally ground - on one occasion for the Prince of Wales, and on yet another, when the Chief Scout was presented with a Rolls- Royce car, to buy which Scouts in all parts of the world had contributed. l5adenAPowell was greatly pleased with our Canadian displays, especially the Indians , and gave us the central position on the rally ground. There was one fellow in our troopf the Devonshires - fwhom we dubbed the Professor l who could always look absolutely stupid vrithout the slightest effort. But was he, you ask? The answer is Yes - and No. A brilliant linguist for one so young, speaking lferman, French and Spanish but a person who could not make himselflook neat, could not concentrate on cooking, and was unable to keep in step when marching. He gained renown in the troop for his cooking - neither could he watch bacon frying without allowing it to burn nor boil water without its boiling over and quenching the fire. The dear lad would sit down by a pot roast and after fixing the fire would allow the meat to become overeooked and dried up while he sat staring into space until roused from his reverie by an indignant fellow scout or his Patrol leader. XYhen we went out on parade, - after we had fixed his hat, shoes and scarf in place,- the chap beside him had to keep calling out the step for the Professor's benefit. He was undoubtedly the most odd fellow in the contingent but well liked by all except when he ruined some perfectly good porridge and his patrol had to go hungry. One of the outstanding features of the Jamboree was the abundance of mud during the first week. lt rained every day and almost continuously through that period. The result was that the main thoroughfares through the entire camp were reduced to lanes of mud some 4 to 8 inches deep. ln order that this might not deter too many people from visiting the camp the trafiic committee got to work to remedy the situation. During the days that this task was being done about one thousand scouts worked daily upon the roads. Old discarded fences were buried in the mud forming a foundation upon which to pour tons of ashes and sand lrrought in by a Heet of trucks. l rather liked the thoughtof this work, but one day at it soon cooled my ardour. .-Xt the end o' the week the sun came llll

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FOR 'PHI-1 SCHOOL YEAR 1929- 1930 'l'Hr1XX'ORl-lJ SL'Ol l' IANIBOR l-1 H 1910 Un the llth of june all the Canadian -Iamboree Scouts assembled at Ottawa for a week's training in camp prior to going to England for the International Jamboree held at .-Xrrowe Park, near Birkenhead. We totalled some one hundred and sixty scouts and were divided into four troops, namely the W'illingdon, Byng, Devonshire and Connaught troops. We were all from widely scattered homes in all the provinces and each patrol of eight scouts, - there being five patrols to a troop, - was so arranged as to represent a cross-section of the Dominion. For one week we camped in a Normal School recreation ground and practised dis- plays, historical pageants, Indian dancing, French-Canadian folk dancing and singing, pyramid work and tumbling for the Jamboree exhibitn. We also did a certain amount of route-marching on warm days with full equipment on our backs. Our scoutmaster - Mr. Power, of the Devonshire troop - led us on many enjoyable tours around the city. On july 13th, a Thursday, we entrained for Nlontreal and sailed the following morn- ing on the S.S. Antonia. At Quebec the following day we were reviewed at the Citadel by the Chief Scout for Canada, l.ord Willingdon, who was accompanied by I.ady Willing- don. His Excellency addressed us on the coming great enterprise and afterwards spoke personally'to several of us. .-Xfter sailing from Quebec the voyage was uneventful, the most interesting occurrences being the passing of icebergs in the Straits of Belle lsle and our chats with some American Scouts who were also Jamboree bound. Un the 27th .luly we sighted Ireland and later in the day some Scottish lslands with their neatly laid out green iieldsand hedges harmoniously blending with many-coloured hill-sides and red-roofed, white-walled cottages. .-Xfter calling at Greenock and Belfast we reached Liverpool on Sunday -luly 28th. When we landed at Birkenhead we took busses to :Xrrowe Park and then marched a mile and a half through the camp to our contingent location. Our camp was about 175 yards long and 75 yards in breadth and this gave usample room in which to move around between the tents. Fach of the four troops had a large marquee tent which served as a dining-room and each patrol of eight Scouts lived and slept in a bell tent. These tents were round and about l-l feet in diameter, a single pole supporting the weight of the tent, with tent pegs and stays maintaining the balance on the outside. For bedding we were each provided with two rubber ground-sheets and three heavy blankets and we used our dunnage bags for pillows. Our kitchen-range was at the rear of the camp. Here each patrol had its Fire-place and cooking-grill. They were all in one line, dug to plan and made to look as symmetrical as possible. The Patrol Leader ofa patrol x as numbered one and his cooking duties were to supervise and aid the efforts of his Scouts, the rest of his patrol was numbered according to rank from two to eight. The system of cooking was this : numbers two and three washed up after break- fast and cooked lunch g scouts four and Five washed up after lunch and cooked supper 3 six and seven washed up after supper and cooked breakfast- then the round began again, scouts eight and two pairing off to clean up after breakfast and so on. In this way we each had to cook and wash up one meal a day and it did not grow monotonous. For the first few days we were busy settling down and arranging camp and also lending a helping hand to the London and Sussex Scouts who were camped in front and beside us. Norway was quite near at hai d and Scotland was also close by. llll

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FOR THF SCHOOL YEAR 1029, 1930 out and assisted in drying the roads. These had originally been grass but now looked like a trampled circus ground. The Kludboree , as the -Iamboree was commonly called during the first few days, had been fun but we were all glad to be rid ofthe clinging mud and regain ' terra lirma '. The rags and -iapes which were perpetrated upon various persons were features of the lighter side of camp life. Ir was not uncommon to wake up and lind that you and your bed had been gently put out of the tent during the night whilst you slept, nor was it unusual to awake as the result of a douche of cold water pouring over your face 3 but really the most unpleasant of all was to awaken with a gurgle of alarm and a muH'led splutter to find your mouth crammed full of soap and water, mixed with tooth-paste and shaving cream. Our trips on leave to l,iverpool and the meals we thereby avoided cooking were also incidents which linger in oneis memory. Other things that one recalls to mind were the wonderful Hungarian sea-scout dis- plays, the massed Scottish folk-dancing, our attempts to speak Swiss, Belgian, .-Xustrian, American and many other foreign languages with our brother Scouts whose camps we visited W and the impressive religious ceremony held on Sunday, .-Xugust -lth, when the Archbishop of Canterbury conducted the service. Then on the 13th .-Xugust the lireat -lamboree ended and l went to the northern lake district with relatives and there enjoyed some mountain climbing,nshing,shooting and motoring until our contingent sailed from Glasgow for home on .-Xugust 23rd. - our memories full of innumerable reminiscences. After a safe and uneventful voyage home the contingent demobilized at Montreal to seek their respective homes-some to the West, some to the Maritimes, and one scout even to the Yukon, each and every one of us carrying happy remembrances of the Great Jamboree at ,-Xrrowe Park. SKI. CROWTHFR, late .-X.S.NI. -llst S.H,S.'l'roop it f ' is l ff' 4 4. 4, ,Q , J X,-V M . f - Sf. l, 7 J W:-, : 1' - I 1 .- N ll ii' . ' . ' , -at ' N xv ,...- V - YN NQQQKNN l l i I