THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

BOB A JOB IN FINDON

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

First published in Along the Furlong in May 2003

In February 2003 Evelyn Stanford asked me if I had any details on the Findon Scouts.   She knew that they were in existence in 1914 and had seen a certificate covering a scout’s investiture.   She believed that the Findon group was probably disbanded during the war.

I thought that information on the Findon Boy Scouts had dried up for my website.... until I heard from Pam Stepney who told me a little about the origins of scouting in Findon.

The Findon Scout troop was started in 1912 by Alec Gordon Boulton.  He had been born in Karachi Sind in 1880 and was a veteran of the Boer War and had been taken prisoner and suffered from malaria.  He was the son of Major General C. F. Boulton of Woolsthorpe in The Square, Findon.  (The property became known as Grey Point in the late 1920s).

It is interesting to mention here that the property we know as Grey Point was known by different names over the years.   Originally it was called Saltystead.   Around 1909/22, Salteystead was changed to Woolsthorpe.

It is like unravelling a tangled piece of string when trying to discover the origins of scouting in Findon — let alone attempting to tie any knots in it!

Scouting commenced in the nearby Brighton area as early as 1907, (the same year as the first experimental camp on Brownsea Island).   During the First World War scouting continued in the face of many difficulties and undertook many public services — including that of Coastguard duty and assistance at the Children's and Military hospitals.

The earliest reference I can find of a Scout movement in Findon is five years later in 1913, when Alec Boulton of Grey Point (then aged 33) arranged to take the village scouts to camp in a friend’s park in Essex.

Alec seems to have been a very popular village person in Findon and it was said that  ―

By 1914 and the outbreak of the First World War, Alec was in charge of both the Findon and Worthing Scouts.   The scouts were scheduled to hold a rally at the Worthing Sports Ground at this time ― but this was temporarily abandoned when the Findon troop (along with Worthing and Goring) were asked to participate with more than a thousand other Sussex Scouts to stand guard on railway bridges overlooking the lines.    They ended up guarding the Balcombe viaduct on the London Brighton and South Coast Railway.

Alec saw active service during the First World War as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Special Unit.  He was appointed interpreter to the 129th Baluchi regiment with men from the Indian subcontinent and was with them in France in the trenches. 

Almost as soon as they docked on the other side of the English Channel, the 129th Baluchis were sent to the front line.   Alec Boulton, the scout leader from Findon, faced the well-equipped German soldiers in appalling conditions on the Western Front.   The men took cover in trenches that were shallow and waterlogged.   He discovered there was a lack of hand grenades and barbed wire and a dire shortage of soldiers to man the defensive line ― not to mention sickness and casualties all around him.    Alec and his comrades were outnumbered five to one.

Many participants in the war from the subcontinent of India were badly wounded and were sent on a journey to England and ended up not far from Findon.  The Royal Pavilion in nearby Brighton was used as a hospital during the war and 4,000 soldiers from India were nursed back to health.    Many of the soldiers' wounds were infected with gangrene and they refused to contemplate the thought of returning to India with limbs amputated, as they would be of no use to their families.   

Others died from blood poisoning and according to Sikh and Hindu beliefs, twenty of their bodies were cremated on funeral pyres and sprinkled with symbolic metals, flowers, fruits, grains and spices on the downland 500 ft. above Brighton. Their ashes were then scattered in the English Channel.

The Chattri memorial to the 64,000 Indians that died fighting in the World War was erected on the exact site of the crematory slabs on the Downs and unveiled by the Prince of Wales on 1st February 1921 (before becoming Edward VIII).

Within a few years the Chattri was forgotten and became neglected until members of the British Legion renovated it in 1951.  An annual Chattri Pilgrimage and Memorial Service was then organised by the Royal British Legion and took place every year with the High Commissioner for India or his representative, Indian officers, and the Royal British Legion in attendance. This ceremony just along the downland from Findon is believed to be the only one of its type in England.

Fancy a walk?   Access to the Chattri can be made through a farmyard north of Vale Avenue in Patcham.   Follow the signs to Standean Farm.   After about 200 yards a distinct footpath veers to the left and ascends the downland for about a mile to the memorial.  It appears that in recent years the annual pilgrimage (traditionally on the last Sunday in June) may have ceased.   Maybe the ceremony has halted due to the age of those originally attending?

Owing to the deaths among the officers in the trenches, Alec was asked to take over the duties of Transport Officer.   He took on hard work and great risks that earned him what were described as “golden opinions”.   Upon the disbanding of the Interpreters, his services were so valued that he was retained in the Provost Marshall’s branch as the Assistant Provost Marshall.

Immediately after a short home leave, he unfortunately caught pneumonia.   His health had not been robust since the Boer War.   Sadly, he died in a hospital in France on 19th February 1916. He was 36 years old.

Findon residents learned of his death with deep regret and a memorial service was held for him at St. John the Baptist Church.

Ian Short who lives in Findon tells me that the Findon Scouts continued after the First World War.   He recalls that Mick Ockenden of Nepcote (one of the Ockendens of the woodyard), was a Patrol Leaders before war broke out for the second time.  The boys met at the Old School House on School Hill (now demolished).   There were Cubs and Scouts, also Brownies and Girl Guides.

Ian remembers going to camp in 1939 near the Dog and Duck public house at Warnham — the camp was shared with a troop from Balham in London.

When the Second World War came, the evacuees arrived in buses from Worthing to the Findon Village Hall.  Ian tells me that it was the Boy Scouts' job to collect them and make sure they were delivered to the pre-arranged houses in the village.  

It is possible that the Findon scouts did not continue after the death of Alec.

Continue if you would lilke to read about The Constable Family of Findon during the First World War.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — was launched by Valerie Martin in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon, West Sussex, U.K.