Warragul and District Historical Society
The Warragul and District Historical Society held its last meeting for 2017 recently.
The meeting was held at the Old Shire Hall with a power-point presentation titled “Scout Jamboree – 1929”.
The information had been transcribed from the diaries and letters of Tom Adkins, who had attended the Jamboree, and also some of his photographs of the tour.
It was an amazing trip to Europe by sailing on the S S Baradine, which took 40 days with interesting tours arranged for the Australian scouts at each port of call.
Tom Adkins was the Troop Leader and, at the age of 18, had a great deal of responsibility in caring for the boys in his charge. Once in England, there were many places of historical interest shown to the boys and Tom wrote of these places and the historical facts of these buildings.
The Jamboree was the third World Scout gathering and was known as the “coming of age celebration”. It was held at Arrowe Park with 56,000 boys in attendance representing 36 nationalities involved with the scouting movement.
After the 16 days of the Jamboree, the camp was broken up and the Australian boys did a further tour through France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany. By laying wreaths at many of the war memorials, they learnt much about the terrible experiences of the soldiers of World War I.
They returned to England with more sightseeing and educational tours for a further 20 days before embarking of the “Bendigo” to sail home.
The return trip took 49 days with more experiences at the ports where the ship berthed and the Maltese, Egyptian and Singhalese scouts left them. This entire tour was for six months.
The society was pleased to have some of the scouts from the Warragul troop attend and also six members of the Adkins family, some who travelled from Melbourne and Raymond Island to hear this story about their father, grandfather and great-grandfather.
Tom’s daughter Margaret Morley donated the medallion her father had been presented with when Lord Baden Powell came to Australia in 1931. He had met Lord Baden-Powell when he was attending the 1929 Jamboree and regarded that as a great honour.
Tom Adkins was an outstanding member of the Warragul community, involved in many organisations and died in 1987 at the age of 76.
A wonderful little travelogue booklet has been produced by the Warragul and District Historical Society and is available to buy for $20 by calling 0438 232 105.
The Warragul and District Historical Society will open again in February, every Thursday 10am to 2pm and the second and fourth Sundays of each month, 2pm to 4pm.
Visitors are welcome.
Drouin and District Chess Club will be in recession until February 5, 2018.
The club will recommence on that date and will meet at Drouin Senior Citizens Centre, 1 Oak St Drouin, on Mondays from 7pm to 10pm.
The club was inaugurated in December following a successful application for a Baw Baw Shire Council community development grant.
As well as accommodating for social games, the chess group is looking to commence a competition to find a Drouin and District Chess Champion for 2018 in various grades.
People of all ages are welcome to participate in the worldwide sport.