The Troop operated a separate patrol, Bulldog, at St. Andrew’s sister church, St. Wulstan’s, Longbridge Hayes.
This picture was taken in 1913 at St. Wulstan’s Church Longbridge Hayes.
It is thought that all of the Altar Servers on this photograph were Porthill Scouts.
They are – Front row – Jack Emery, Fr. Frederick Cleveland, Arthur Alcock
Back row – Harry Shyrbottom, Colin Jackson, Bert Hind, Aly Jackson, Fred Holdford
Photograph courtesy of the Hickton Family
The next bit of documentary evidence we have is a page from the Local Association Papers for our District, Burslem, in 1915. By now the Scoutmaster was the Rev. Nash and the Assistant Scoutmaster was Mr. P Bourne. The Rev. Nash coincidently arrived at St. Andrews Church in April 1908 and Mr. Bourne had been Assistant Scoutmaster since 9th December 1908 when he was 23 years old! At the time, there were twenty members of the Troop.
It is interesting to note that in many instances, the Scoutmaster tended to be the Church’s vicar or Curate until the 1950’s.
You can see the Local Association form here.
By 1919, the Troop was recorded as being registered with Imperial Headquarters on 1st October. This document also shows that the Troop was originally registered in 1911. Prior to 1919, all records were kept by the District Secretary. From 1919 they were kept at Headquarters.
It is also interesting to note that our meeting place of St. Andrews Church Hall is first mentioned. This is the place where we still meet to this day! The Scout Master was still the Rev. Nash and his Assistant Scout Master was a Mr. G. Smith. By now there were 35 boys in the Troop.
On 12th June 1924, The Prince of Wales, later to be King Edward VIII, visited Stoke-on-Trent and can be seen below inspecting some Scouts. Were Our Scouts there?
The Prince of Wales is wearing the bowler hat and is accompanied by Mr. Ronald Copeland (Scout Commissioner) and Alderman F Culling (Mayor of Stoke).
By 9th September 1926, the Scout Master was a Mr. William Bird and his Assistant Scout Master was still Mr. George Smith. The Troop had 34 Scouts and now had 12 Rover Scouts.
In 1927 Baden-Powell visited Hanley Park. Were our Scouts there? For an event as important as the Chief Scout visiting the area, it is probably safe to assume that our Scouts were there!
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On the registration document of 19th November 1928, Mr. George Smith was now the Scout Master and he now had two Assistant Scout Masters, Mr. D. Cartlidge and Mr. C. W. Simpson. Numbers had gone down a little by then, but the Troop still had 28 Scouts and 16 Rover Scouts.
All Packs and Troops were re-registered in 1928 with Headquarters when the Group system of registration was introduced.