Posted by: Kathy Krywicki
Original published in the April 2012 OSCAR.
The 17th Southminster Scout Troop will be celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. On January 10, 1932 Southminster United Church was dedicated and shortly thereafter, in the fall of that year, the scout group was established and has called the church at 15 Aylmer Avenue home ever since.
Recently, when the Old Firehall Hall was renovated and the community centre temporarily moved into the basement of the church during the reconstruction, a bit of house-keeping was done to make way for the extra tenant at the church. That’s when Brent McLean, Group Commissioner for the 17th Ottawa Southminster Scout Group, realized the full extent of documents and artefacts related to the troop’s history: log books of meetings, registration records, journals, photos, pamphlets and trophies from over the years. Tales of local outings, hiking and camping ventures in the Ottawa region, swimming in the Rideau River, and bowling parties at Billings Bridge Mall, fill the records.
Brent is safe-keeping this wealth of archival material and he’d like to share it with the neighbourhood. The task of preservation is considerably lightened by already having digital copies of much of the material. Organizing and indexing the material is the next phase. To that end, the group is looking for help in managing their collection. Past or present participants with the troop – beaver, cubs, scouts, venturers, leaders and other volunteers – are invited to refresh their memories and build new ones by working on this endeavour. If you’d like to assist with this project, contact Brent McLean at brent.mclean@rogers.com or call 613-565-2726.
One treasure is the troop’s honour roll. Listed on the large scroll are the names of those who earned the highest awards, such as the Queen’s Scout Award. In fact, prior to 1952 the plaque shows the King’s Scout Medal.
From the 17th Southminster Scout Troop Honour Roll, here are the names of the King’s Scout:
Lloyd Gunby ’35
Charles Whittier ’37
Bernard Pearson ’38
Bennie Bolton ’39
Alexander MacLachlan ’39
Stuart Pearce ’39
Alfred Miller ’39
Douglas Donald ’40
James Donald ’40
Donald Whittier ’41
Allan Henry ’41
John Croft ’43
Don MacPherson ’43
Stuart Tubman ’45
Oral Rooke ’45
Bill McLennan ’45
George Myles ’46
John Stanton ’46
Ronald Backs ’46
Lawrence Wilcox ’46
Mervyn Wilcox ’49
Do you recognize any of these names? Do you have a story to tell about the 17th Southminster Troop?
The Ottawa South History Project is collaborating to help tell the group’s story and explore their long and rich history as part of our neighbourhood; showcasing some of this archival material would be a terrific way to commemorate the role this organization has played in our community.