Page 36 - Bulletin 11 2007

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Rosebank Showgrounds which had been taken over for war purposes. It is believed that in
total over 25,000 men were enrolled in all of these units. But Noah’s Ark Camp ceased to

be used after August 1916 when training was moved to Woltemade III (Wingfield).

Home Front Activities

Home front activities comprised the formation and duties of the Peninsula Citizens Training

Association, the supportive activities of the Boy Scouts, and providing troop comforts and
looking after convalescents. Concurrently, numerous local peace-time routines continued.

Peninsula Citizens Training Association.

In October 1914 a desire for an organization resembling a Town Guard led the Mayor to
call a meeting of citizens at the City Hall to canvas support. There were over 1,000

volunteers and out of this the Peninsula Citizens Training Association was duly formed.

(Mayor’s Minute, 1915). They marched and rode out to various parts of the Peninsula,
including the South Peninsula, as part of their training programme. (Figs. 1.19 - 1.22).

The Boy Scouts

The Boy Scout movement was founded by Lieut.- Gen. Sir Robert Baden-Powell in 1907.
Its motto was “Be Prepared”. It was not a military movement, or boys playing at soldiers,

but a voluntary association for boys between the ages of 11 and 18 who desired to learn
practical skills, qualities of good citizenship, and also be of service to community and

country in time of need. When war started the movement was mobilised both in Britain and
the Dominions – some 250,000 in Britain alone. One of the most important tasks the Sea

Scouts performed in Britain was as coast guards – those over 14 years old – while the Land

Scouts guarded railway lines and telegraphs, acted as dispatch riders and orderlies, and
were drafted into agricultural activities, and much else. (THWI, 1918).