Deal, Kent: Boy Scouts on the Home Front

Available for over a year

Boy Scouts (and even Cubs) played their part supporting the Home and Coast Guard throughout the country, particularly in Kent. Many clocked up hundreds of hours of war service with older boys keeping watch at strategic points on the coast, and on vital transport links. From the start of the war, some scouts were so keen to get involved in the war effort they wrote directly to Lord Kitchener. Their tales of bravery include the scout who saved a woman in an air raid, and a group of sea scouts who rowed out to the crew of a torpedoed submarine. Some turned their scout huts into refuges and first aid stations. But by far the most important role they played was as the eyes and ears of communities along the Kent coast. Sara Parker went through the archive with the Scout Association’s Caroline Pantling. Location: Deal, Kent CT14 7AD Image: Scouts, courtesy of Caroline Pantling from the Scout Association