The 1st Ballynahinch Scout Group will celebrate their 90th Anniversary on 27 November 2005.
The Group had its beginnings on a cold wet Saturday afternoon in 1915, just a few weeks after Baden Powell had visited Belfast to promote this new movement of his, when six boys met on Windmill Hill and decided there and then to form a lone Patrol.
They set about looking for a Scoutmaster to enable the lone Patrol to become officially recognised and to be extended into a Troop.
The father of one of the boys, Rev Francis Moran who was minister in the Methodist Church, at once agreed to become Scoutmaster and so two weeks later on 27 November 1915 he founded the troop with six other boys, thus forming two Patrols - the Pewits and the Wolves.
About the same time the then Countess of Clanwilliam agreed to act as Patron.
Numbers grew during the first year and by November 1916 there were 20 Scouts on the roll.
In the following year the numbers in the Troop rose to 33 boys and the funds for that year show that a grand total of £2.16s.0d had been amassed; this was collected at the rate of one penny per boy each Scout night and a find of ½d for a night missed. So a good attendance was always assured.
Expenses in these early days were kept to a minimum, an oil lamp cost 4s.0d. but there were a few "heavy" expenses such as £2.5s.0d for the hire of three motor cars and drivers and the boys must have been doing a spot of star-gazing as 6d was spent on a book on astronomy. The annual concert that year brought in £15.3s.0d.
From then on the future of the Troop was assured and was carried on by Rev Moran, until the end of 1918 when Rev Noble Huston, minister of First Presbyterian, took over as Scoutmaster.
The Wolf Cubs as they were then known began in 1927 and were an immediate success, with large numbers of boys in the Pack and a long waiting list.
In the 1980s the Group came under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church and had a membership of 44 boys, made up of Scouts, Cubs and Beavers. Then Beaver Section had been added and took boys of pre-Cub age.
On Sunday 24 November 1985 a service was held in First Presbyterian Church to celebrate 70 years of Scouting by the Group (1915 - 1985) and was conducted by Rev Maurice Bond, minister of the church. The address was give by Harry Scott, Chairman of the NI Scout Council. Robert Morrow, Group Scout Leader, gave an historical resume.
At the time of writing (August 2005) the present Scout Leaders are Sam Currie and William Smyth. The Cub Leaders are Valerie Neill and Richard Morrow and the Beaver Leaders are Sarah Graham and Rodney Brown. The present Group Scout Leader is Caroline Verdon.
Everyone is looking forward to 27 November 2015 when the Group will be 100 years old.
During the history of 1st Ballynahinch Group hundreds of boys have passed through the three Sections and have been made, I believe, better citizens and have been part of that great idea of Robert Baden Powell which he called Scouting for Boys.
Robert G Morrow (Ex Group Scout Leader)
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