The Oldest Boy Scout in the World...

Sir Lancelot as Boy Scouts County Commissioner 

As we’ve seen in previous tales from Watnall Hall, both Sir Lancelot and Lady Maud seemed to have felt that it was their duty to try and improve the lot of the villagers and perform public service. So in 1910, as he was a personal friend of Lord Baden-Powell who had stayed at Watnall Hall on several occasions, Sir Lancelot founded a Boy Scout troop in Watnall. This was only two years after the movement had started with the camp on Brownsea Island, near Poole in Dorset.

Boy Scouts

Sir Lancelot was also county commissioner for the Boy Scouts for 31 years. At a Notts scouts council meeting in 1940, Sir Lancelot finally retired from the position. He was 93. The Duke of Portland said: “I believe he is the oldest scout in the world, and the best. A most loyal heart-and-soul supporter of the movement.”

Mr. Ken Livermore, aged 92, remembers that Sir Lancelot was always interested in the Scouts, but on at least one occasion his interest was not at all what the boys expected. At one meeting in about 1920, “I remember him saying one day he wanted us all to go (to the Hall) one Saturday afternoon, ‘and I'm not going to tell you where you're going, and what you're going to do, but I want you to all come. Be Prepared”, said the Colonel.

Be Prepared! “When we got there we had to go and climb up these trees and gather his apples into all these sheds....... We were all dolled up in our best and everything shining, you know. Oh, the Girl Guides as well ! They didn't go climbing. We did the climbing in the Boy Scouts, and they did the basketing and away, you see. I always remember that........ “

Mr. Livermore used to go every week, "perhaps two nights a week. We had them two buildings at the end (of the outhouses), and he used to let us roam all over them fields where that cemetery is you know (the Rolleston graves). You could play your games - all your hide and seek, what you liked over there. He used to encourage it. He loved it." Mr. Livermore also recalled another thing the Colonel used to say to his Scouts. "If you were drilling, for instance, and you did it smartly, "Gut, Gut, Gut, Gut, Gut. "He didn't say "Good', be said, "Gut, Gut, Gut, Gut, Gut.”

Sea Scouts

The Colonna

Sir Lancelot and Lady Maud also had a connection to the local Sea Scouts. He enjoyed yachting in his later years on the Trent and on the south coast at Cowes on the Isle of Wight where he was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. In 1929 he inspected the Beeston Sea Scouts..

"In October of that first year - 1929 - the joint membership of the two troops - numbering 30 - was inspected at the river base by Col. Sir Launcelot Rolleston DSO of Watnall Hall. Col. Jardine was in charge of the parade and afterwards he entertained the scouts and their friends to tea. This inspection, by the County Commissioner became an annual event in the early days. The boat crew which brought the inspecting officer from and back to Mitchell's Boat House was picked equally from the 1st and 2nd Beeston Troops and it was considered a great privilege to be selected. Lady Rolleston sometimes visited, in those years, to sail the Colonna¹."

When Sir Lancelot was very old and unable to row himself, his chauffeur Fred Justice used to row him, a job he did not particularly like as he couldn't swim!

Girl Guides

Encouraged by her friend Lady Olave Baden-Powell, wife of Lord Baden-Powell, Lady Maud formed a troop of Girl Guides in Watnall a few years later, becoming a District Commissioner. Mrs Dora Ambrose, aged 90, recalls the day in 1920 when Lady Maud came to Nuthall and enrolled her in the Guides. "I was 10 years of age when I joined the Guides. We were enrolled in the coach house that belonged to the Rectory. Miss Boden (the Rector's daughter) was Captain of our Guides. That was all I really knew of her, (Lady Maud) except when we went to various Guide Rallies at the Hall at Watnall.” These took place on the Bowling Green. “There was a really big show of different companies of Guides - Eastwood, Kimberley, Watnall....(and) Daybrook. These Guides came in a laundry van, and they had a very big company and always used to win all the prizes for the various events that we had, you see. Always the Daybrook Guides took most of the prizes. I think we had some signalling - Morse, it was Morse. You used a silk flag you know, dots and dashes, and there would be games, running and that sort of thing. Tea was provided. We would take our mugs, (and) staff in the Hall made the tea for us.... "We had a very big Rally (at Wollaton Park) with all the companies in Nottinghamshire. But that was a rare event, you know. I helped to keep the campfire going. We had a campfire and we sat round the campfire and we had a sing-song. Imagine, there was hundreds of guides. It was lovely really. It was very hot and we all had thick uniforms on. Oh dear. "

Sir Lancelot's Duties

Sir Lancelot had many duties as the Scout’s County Commissioner. This article from the Nottingham Journal on 17 January 1918 is typical and demonstrates the Scout’s original aims of toughening up Edwardian boys in preparation for service to the Empire..

Parade, Mikado Cafe, Old Market Square, Nottingham

BRIDGFORD SCOUTS - In the presence of nearly 300 parents and friends of boy scouts, gathered at the Mikado Cafe last night, Colonel Sir Lancelot Rolleston, K.C.B., D.S.O. the County Commissioner, presented H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught’s Challenge Shield to the West Bridgford Troop. Mr L O Trivett, who presided in the absence of Lieutenant-Colonel M H Hall, recalled that the West Bridgford Troop had won the Challenge Shield two years in succession. The troop was formed by the late Captain Briddon, and after passing through a very difficult period, was now a highly successful troop of 45 scouts and 45 cubs. They had 40 ex-scouts serving with the Forces, of whom three had fallen in action.

Fundraising

He's not shy about fundraising either. In 1926 he writes to Viscount Galway, a north Nottinghamshire friend and fellow landowner, on behalf of the Nottinghamshire Boy Scouts County Council asking for financial support through subscriptions.

All the other "Tales From Watnall Hall" can be found here...

https://watnallhall.blogspot.com/

Sources and Notes: 

Watnall Hall and the Rollestons -RA Horton 2000; http://www.beeston-notts.co.uk/2bss.shtml

1 - The 'Colonna' - a ship’s lifeboat which had once belonged to Sir Thomas Lipton’s steam yacht 'Erin'. During the yacht’s war service in World War 1, the lifeboat had rescued a torpedoed ship's crew. It had been fitted with a centre-board and rigged as a gaff sloop and was occasionally sailed, but was a little too big and slow for river work. It was used more often as additional sleeping accommodation when the hut was full, as it had a canvas cover. This boat ended it’s days, without rigging or centre-board, with the 1st Notts Sea Scouts.