#1 The oldest Scout Flag in South Africa
If you look into the Scouters Den, past the busy scouters and piles of lost property, you’ll notice quite a few flags. On the shelf are our two current flags, furled and ready for Cub and Scout meetings. In the corner are two older flags on poles, and in frames on the wall are two much older flags. One of the framed flags is very tattered fragment, but this is our most historic flag: the oldest Scout flag in South Africa.
1st Claremont is the oldest Scout Group in South Africa, and we first met on 3 March 1908 when two brothers at Claremont Public School, Fred and Charles Stern, read the first edition of “Scouting for Boys” and asked their Headmaster, George French, to start a Scout Troop. This is the flag that they flew at the very first meetings of 1st Claremont. Scouting was brand new and it would be some time before a flag with the Scout logo was available. Instead the group used a White Ensign, the flag used by the British Royal Navy.
In the same frame is the envelope the flag was stored in with handwritten notes by George French on where the flag was flown. This is part of the primary historic evidence of 1st Claremont’s first meeting having taken place on 3 March 1908. The list of events is truly impressive, including long marches on foot with luggage transported by trek cart. The Argus published an account of their first expedition across the Cape Flats in July 1908.
“White Ensign – 1st Flag flown by S.M. Scouts in March 1908 and at all subsequent standing camps and Trek Camps of 1st Claremont Troop. 1st Claremont Troop formed 3rd March 1908.
Some of the camps:
- 1st Weekend Camp – 20th March 1908, the weekend we passed the Tenderfoot tests
- Cooking Tests in Cottons Farm 20th March 1908
- 1st Standing Holiday Camp – Harringay, Cape Flats, June & July 1908
- Muizenberg
- Hout Bay
- South West Farms 250 miles
- Karroo Tour 300 miles
- More than 40 camps, besides service (war time) at Wynberg Camp during the Great War. 1st Claremont Troop marched more than 1000 miles during these years.
‘Wolf’ G French, Scoutmaster at 1st Claremont Troop 3rd March 1908 (registered 1909) to 1919.
Cyril J. French, Asst. SM 1908-1913”
The White Ensign is flown by ships of Britain’s Royal Navy. It consists of a red St George’s cross on a white field, with a Union Flag in the canton (top left quadrant). The St George’s Cross is significant in this case because St George was the patron saint of Scouting.
This flag was donated to 1st Claremont Troop by Noreen Auerbach, the daughter of the first Scoutmaster, George French, on 3rd March 1985.
