Page 41 - Bulletin 11 2007

38

In Cape Town the movement was very active and there were many Troops: Green Point,
Cape Town, Rondebosch, Claremont, Kenilworth, Muizenberg, and Simon’s Town. Baden-

Powell had visited Cape Town in August 1912 and a great gathering with rousing addresses
was held at Rhodes Memorial. In 1911 the Muizenberg – Kalk Bay Troop was under the

charge of a Mr Baker, who was also Scout Master in Simon’s Town. Later, Captain John

Gentry, the proprietor of St James Hotel and also City Councillor for the Muizenberg –
Kalk Bay Ward, became Scout Master. However, in September 1915 the increasing

demands on his time in various public duties forced him to step down. (Figs. 1. 23 – 1.26).

The local scouts performed a range of part-time “war service” duties. Some assisted the
Cape Corps Recruiting Committee at the City Hall Recruiting Office, while 15 of the

Simon’s Town troop, who had bicycles, did duty as messengers between the various

batteries from Noah’s Ark to Lower North, and key points in town like the Arsenal, the
Hospital, Palace Barracks and Red Hill. On 28 July 1916 some 80 scouts from all the

Peninsula troops, of whom 5 were from Simon’s Town, were the guests of Major-General

Thompson, at the Castle. All of them had done two years’ war service and were presented
with a red and gold War Service badge. After tea and buns the Simon’s Town scouts

climbed on their bikes and rode back to Simon’s Town – no mean achievement over the
gravel roads of the day. (Difford, 1920?; Godsiff, undated).

st
One of the scouts with the 1 Kenilworth Troop was Harry Lawrence - later United Party
MP for Salt River during the 1920s and 30s, Minister of Labour, member of the Smuts

wartime cabinet, and eventually a founder member of the Progressive Party. During his last
two school years, 1917-18, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the

Rondebosch Boys’ High School Cadet Corps and, with a group of fellow-scouts, spent
week-ends and parts of school holidays manning the security check-point at Glencairn

Station. Their camp was called Jericho Post and comprised a couple of tents situated near
the beach in the vicinity of the later fish oil factory. A regular NCO was in charge and

delegated the various duties to be performed. On one occasion they stopped an imposing