By Deputy Editor Andrew J Warn
He must be famous – if you go onto Google, there are 749,000 hits for various Ken Doughtys. Our very own Ken is 11th in that list.This is a good time to write about our Mr Doughty, who seems to have run local Scout movements forever, for this is the centenary year of the movement, and Ken has been part of it for well over 50 years.
Ken flanked by Jo and Ruth
Some facts we have discovered about Scouting:
26 of the first 29 astronauts were former Scouts.
The only countries without scouts are China, Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Laos and Andorra.
Famous former scouts include David Beckham, Paul McCartney and Stephen Spielberg.
The motto ‘Be Prepared’ derives from founder Baden-Powell’s initials.
Girls were first allowed to become scouts in 1991.
Dolly Parton, the country singer, became a scout this year at the age of 60.
The ‘Scouting for Boys’ book by founder Baden Powell, is the 4th best selling title in history, beaten only by the Bible, the Koran, and Mao Tse-tung’s Little Red Book.
Woggles, used to tie Scouts neckerchiefs together, were first used in the US and were made from bone wood or rope.
There are more than 70 different proficiency badges.
Last year the most popular badge was for information technology, with 48,069 given out.
Apparently 100,000 people in Britain take part in Scouting events every day.
The recent international World Scout Jamboree held in Hylands Park Essex gathered together 40,000 participants from 216 nations. That is bigger than the Olympic Games, which is expected to attract only 21,000 participants from 203 nations. Baden-Powell started his movement with a small group of boys camped on Brownsea Island in 1907, it has now grown into a global organisation of 28 million members.
Baden-Powell, by then a Lieutenant General, was inspired by the bravery of the cadets at the siege of Mafeking, during the Second Boer War. The cadets played no small part in the defence of the town by carrying messages for the army.
Ken Doughty has been part of the movement since 1951, when he joined the St Pauls Cub Pack at the age of eight, he is approaching retirement now, but he is clearly one of those people who, when he joins something, makes it his own. He has been awarded nearly every scouting honour, and having started his leadership career as an Assistant Cub Leader with the Dogsthorpe Pack, has been variously, Assistant County Commissioner, District Commissioner, and is at present Glinton Group Scout Leader. As one would imagine, Ken has seen a lot of changes in that time. In his younger days, the group would load their trek cart with camping gear on a Friday night, pull it down Walpole Street, over the Westwood bridge into Milton Park, camp for the weekend then decamp, load up, and drag the cart home on Sunday night, tired and happy.
There were other things that were startlingly different compared to now. For example, when Gunthorpe was a new estate, way back in 1966, Ken was given five shillings from Central Scout funds and told to start a new Scout group. (For our younger readers, five shillings is 25 pence in today’s money). Anyway, he and his troop must have done something right, because within two years they had built their own HQ, and in 1971 Ken was on his way to becoming Assistant District Commissioner.
Ken and Chris moved into our Benefice in 1967, and in due course their daughter Lynne was born.
In 1932, the famous Ralph Reader had three successful revues running in London, he devised a similar format for Scout Gang Shows, which interspersed big musical numbers with sketches and smaller musical numbers. The plan was that the shows should be fast-moving and seamless
Ken and his crew have followed that format for 30 years, and have become famous for the New Werrithorpe Gang Show held every year at AMVC. That started in 1977, as an offshoot of the Gang Show held at the Embassy theatre in Peterborough. Someone decided that a ‘little show’ at the north end of the city would be a good idea, and Ken was given the task of leading it. Acts from New Werrithorpe Gang Shows have been at the Royal Albert Hall on two occasions, playing to an audience of 5,000 each time, and once on live TV. The group of people who started the enterprise with Ken were so worried that they pledged to put in their own money to cover expenses should it fail!
Ken’s take on it is that so many good hearted people, not necessarily part of the scouting movement, put in so much effort every year that it cannot possibly fail, and the real buzz is the pleasure performers and audience get.
On the previous page, we mentioned the World Jamboree held recently at Hylands Park – Ken was there, and was amazed. Sainsburys set up five supermarkets on site, 32 lorries of food were shipped in every night, and 340,000 loaves of bread were consumed during the ten days. Being Scouts, people were quite willing to make their own entertainment; a Swedish troop even built their own wooden Ferris wheel without any metal fixings, just cord and rope lashings.
Ken was also at the last World Jamboree held in the UK, at Sutton Coldfield in 1957. I bet that was a bit different to Hylands Park, but the message hasn’t changed in the last hundred years; it’s still all about co-operation, resourcefulness and fellowship.
You wonder why people wring their hands and despair of modern youth when the answer lies in the excellence and continued success of the Scouting movement. Ken will tell you that young people have changed little in his Scouting career, if you give them direction and something good to belong to, and they won’t let you down. It is instructive that Baden-Powell started the movement 100 years ago in response to exactly the same social ills that we see today.
Why do people give so unstintingly of their time for this, the largest youth movement in the world? In Ken’s case the sheer pleasure he and fellow leaders get from seeing their charges do well, and grow into good people is reward enough.
Anyway, he’s been a maintenance engineer most of his life, so he and his fellow leaders keep the Scout movement turning in the same way that he has kept the wheels of industry turning for so many years. He was also a Governor of AMVC for about 25 years, has run the neighbourhood watch for the Jelson estate, and is at present booking secretary for the village hall.
On the left of the photograph on page eight is Jo Roberts, who joined the 2nd show as a Brownie, and has been show choreographer for many years before becoming a producer. On the right is Ruth Morris (nee Crane), who was Musical Director for a number of years before leaving the area to get married and produce the Basildon, Wickford and Billericay Gang Show. And of course, Ken is in the middle.
As we do this series, we are always enchanted by the fact that however grim the world seems to be, you don’t have to look too far in this Benefice to find the campfires of gentle people.
