The serious stuff.
Perhaps not news to all, but the Vikings were the second Sea Scout group that Derek led as Group Scout Master / Leader. Scouting was in Dad's blood becoming a Sea Scout in Walthamstow, London, and a Deep Sea Scout during wartime RN service, a scoutmaster post war and at the age of 26 22nd Walthamstow's Group Scoutmaster.
After a family move to Surrey it wasn't long before he was helping with Addlestone where I was a wolf cub and then when I joined the Vikings in 1962 Dad was lured back to sea scouts with the Rover Crew and as Senior Scout Leader carefully avoiding me - one of Dad's principles! As I prepared to become a Senior / Venture so Dad sidestepped into the role of GSL.
I was always glad of the way Dad let me stand on my own feet but at the same time couldn't help but notice the way he befriended, encouraged, nurtured and persuaded all those around him to give and get the best out of life. I couldn't avoid this as no. 23 became the base camp for all this activity.
So thanks Mum whose soul was also in scouting and without whom the surrogate scouting parentage would not have worked so well!
The anecdotes will follow - I have so many - they all make me smile.
Mike Pilley 2012
We were at a big joint scouters meeting in Weybridge (?) sometime in 1970ish. It was formal - everybody in uniform. As usual the Vikings were numerous. Derek,Trevor, Cees, Richard me et al. Somebody commented that we always turned up mob handed and seemed to be a bit of a team. They asked how often we met. We said we had regular scouters meetings. They said how often? Only 2 or 3 times a week (or more) at Kath and Derek's.
Mike Moore 2012
One day in the early 70s Derek said 'I've got to take something across London. I've borrowed a van, but could you come and give me a hand?' Of course I could. The van was a roadworthy but mature Ford. We set off and delivered the item and started the return journey. Somewhere between Esher and Hersham the accelerator pedal came adrift from its connecting rod. Small crisis! We had a look. Everything worked apart from increasing and decreasing the throttle. We had secured the load with lashing ropes, so we took a couple of the ropes, connected them and threaded them through the radiator grill and through the passenger door. We only had one speed but with Derek on the gears and me on the rope it worked quite adequately. When we got home Derek said 'we did well there but I would like to return the van in working condition.' So we decided to pop across the river on the Sunday morning to a car breakers at Shepperton. Once there we found two matching vehicles. It took 15 minutes to remove the required assembly. Within an hour the van was fixed. We returned the van to its owner (a past scout in the Vikings) and he was delighted. He said he thought the old pedal was a bit dodgy! But it was just another Viking weekend.
Mike Moore 2013
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