'We were punished by being put on latrine duties for the next week.'

'We were punished by being put on latrine duties for the next week.'

Tom remembers his time at the scouts and the annual scout camps.

Tom Sutton

Trinity College Dublin

1935

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Tom Sutton

Childhood and Early Life

Life Story

Belfast

1940s

Another memory of my childhood days was my time as a foundation member of the 78th Scout Troup, initially as a cub. Judge Johnston was the scout master assisted by Brian Rankin (a solicitor), whilst cub master was David Harrison (who had a cafթ in Belfast), assisted by Brian's sister. We met on Friday nights and were allocated to patrols. I was in the Owls. The leader of my patrol was Billy Savage. We studied for different things, like first aid and in passing the exam were rewarded with a cloth badge to sew onto the sleeve of our uniform.The annual camp was both in Northern Ireland other parts of Britain. My most memorable was at Balmaha near Loch Lomond in Scotland. I remember that the best part was on the first day as we went to bathe in the loch. To for a swim, you had to walk across very dirty mud that looked awful, so myself and my colleague, Norman Ewing, decided to miss this and skipped back to camp. Alas, Judge Johnston caught us hiding in a tent and we were punished by being put on latrine duties for the next week. However, despite this, it was a great week enjoyed by all and on arriving back at York Road railway station, we had to walk home as we were skint and had no money for the tram.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)