As local Girlguiding units adjust to the current emergency, local guiding veterans, in the run-up to VE Day, remember their guiding adventures during World War II.
Margaret Phillipson from Kendal, now a member of Girlguiding’s Trefoil Guild, recounts how as a 15-year-old she transferred from 1st Kendal Guides to Kendal Rangers: “We became very involved when the evacuees from the ‘doodlebugs’ arrived in Kendal.” Evacuees arrived by train in the evening and the local girls supplied them with snacks and drinks and with somewhere to sleep for the night. “It was a very emotional experience for us and of course much more so for the evacuees.”
In the early days of the war young people’s groups such as Guides and Scouts were expected to help the war effort, and some local groups were trained as message carriers. Young people helped grow vegetables, collected scrap metal, and raised money for the lifeboats. Some Guide units faced difficulties because their leaders were in the Armed Forces or worked as land girls or in the ammunitions factories.
Margaret Stanswood, a member of Ulverston Trefoil Guild, remembers that “getting to and from Guides in the winter months was not easy as no street lighting was allowed and the full ‘black-out’ of all windows was compulsory. Only a torch with a tiny beam was permitted. The trees in Hawcoat Lane had bands of white painted round them which helped identify them and somehow we found our way home in the dark.” Guiding was suspended during the spring of 1941 when bombs and land mines devastated the area, but soon restarted even if the meeting room “only had tarpaulin and white canvas over the windows, with no glass being available.” Clearly there was a great willingness to carry on regardless.
The same spirit is in evidence in the current emergency, where Girlguiding Cumbria South is trying to provide opportunities for its young members, aged 4 – 18, to continue to engage in guiding activities. In doing so leaders hope to provide the girls with some sense of normality and fun amidst all the current challenges they are having to face.
So far they have held an exciting virtual camp for well over 500 members as well as “Three Song Thursdays”, featuring Assistant County Commissioner Vicki Noble leading camp-fire style singing via social media. The latest activity is the “Coast, Lake and Fell Challenge”. This involves Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers and their leaders in a range of activities, such as finding out about the county’s lighthouses, exploring the work of the Mountain rescue teams and designing a poster about the Lake District’s wildlife. Any profits made from the sale of the accompanying badge will be donated to charities, including Bay Search and Rescue, who are currently struggling financially.
For the VE Day celebrations local Girlguiding members will display specially designed bunting at their houses, take part in the two minutes silence and cheer Forces veterans, and modern day heroes, at three o’clock.
