1st Adderbury Scout Troop, Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK

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1st Adderbury Scout Troop, Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK

In 1976, as part of Adderbury's Silver Jubilee celebrations the 1st Adderbury Cub Pack was formed. Lads aged between 8 and 10 years old flocked to join.

A couple of years later it was time for the oldest Cubs to leave, but there was nowhere for them to move on to, so it was decided to start a Scout Troop.

The Group Scout Leader at the time Peter Jennens, and Committee Chairman Bruce Gracie-Langrick, began a search for someone with the skills to start a successful Troop. They were put in contact with Mike Lidster, a physics teacher at the Warriner School in Bloxham, who had previously run a Troop in London.

Mike agreed to become 1st Adderbury's leader. On Tuesday 23rd January 1979 he asked the 18 lads who turned up to try Scouts to "fall in" for the very first time.

Mike Lidster loads a boat onto his car roof in 1983

A page from Mike Lidster's diary shows the programme for the very first meeting and those who attended (click to enlarge).

So the Troop was formed, and the first three PLs were named as Trevor Gainey (Tigers), Sebastian Peissel (Otters) and Andy Cox (Merlins). It wasn't long before so many lads had joined the another patrol was formed, and Brett Seaney took charge of the Lions, with Tim Gainey taking over later.

The Troop's PLs on a night exercise in March 1981.

Mike Lidster ran the Troop until 1983 when he became ill. He attended Summer Camp that year, but decided the time was right to hand over the reins to someone else. Soon afterwards he passed away.

Ken Baker had been Mike's assistant from the start and he agreed to become the Troop's second leader, ably assisted by some of the Troop's ex-Scouts who became young leaders.

Ken Baker in 1982.

By the late 80s Ken had moved to the role of Group Scout Leader and Ken's assistant Andy Green stepped up to the role of Scout Leader.

Andy Green when he was a
Scout with the Troop.

Andy remained as Scout Leader until 2019 - forty years after he first joined the Troop, when he stepped down from the position.

Hundreds of lads have been members of the Troop since 1979, but the one constant that remains is the basic programme format that Mike Lidster introduced back in then. Technology, communications, and trends may have changed beyond recognition, but Mike's basic programme, albeit reinvented for a modern audience, still works as well today as it did back in 1979.

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