1942 – 2025
John Webb, a Scout, leader, parent and supporter of 1st Claremont, passed away in May at the age of 83. He was involved in 1st Claremont for most of his life, first as a Scout, then as a Scouter, parent, grandparent and supporter. This is my tribute to my father’s 70 years of support for 1st Claremont – I am so grateful that he introduced our family to Scouting, which has been such an important part of our lives.
– Ian Webb, Scout Group Leader
We’ve had a lot of J. Webbs as Patrol Leaders at 1st Claremont – Julia (current Bats PL), James (Kestrels 2023-2024) and Jonathan (Swifts, 1990s), not to mention one I. Webb, Ian (Eagles, 1980s). But all these Webbs at 1st Claremont owe it to John Webb, who joined 1st Claremont as a Scout in 1955, and never really left.
John Webb started Scouts at 5th Claremont in 1954, which was part of St Saviours Church that he attended.
“[5th Claremont] was very small then – two patrols and about 8-10 members: Springboks, with Roy Klibbe as PL, and Tigers (Peter Lamb, son of Foxy, was their PL). The troop met in a prefab hut where the St Saviour’s rectory now stands. The Scoutmaster (GSM?) was H “Foxy” Lamb. I remember only a couple of other names: Reggie Schlosz (he had a younger brother, and they were at RBHS.) I think one of the ASMs was one Brian Gavin, another whose Scout name was Penguin. There was a Cub Pack as well, led by Gerald Bonthuys. St Saviours also had a Coloured Scout Troop, which may have met in the same venue. I remember their Scoutmaster – a very tall man who attended the morning service at St Saviours when I was in the choir and always waited till everybody else had taken communion before walking up to the altar rail. “
But numbers at 5th Claremont dwindled, and in 1955, just before 5th Claremont closed, John moved to bigger Troop, just up Bowwood Road.
1st Claremont in 1955 was a strong Troop, with several legendary leaders. “Eland” John Clarke was the Scoutmaster, and he had already been at 1st Claremont for over 20 years since winning our first Gordon Shield in 1934. Jimmy Black took over from him in 1955 and ran the Troop for the next 5 years. “Leeu” George Towler was Group Scoutmaster and he had been there even longer – he attended the 1929 World Jamboree in London, and owned a property in Kommetje where the Scouts camped regularly. Richard Knight (father of our former TS and current DC David Knight) was also Scoutmaster around that time.
In 1955 the building was fairly new – the main hall had been built in 1940 and the stage was added in the early 1950s – and the grounds were much bigger, including what is now the top part of the tennis club and the Padel courts. The Scouts camped under the pine trees. The big plane tree was there, planted by “Eland” and Rover leader Doug Jearey. The Scouts had a weekly meeting as well as Saturday afternoons in the grounds, where they competed for the “M.O.S.C.I.P.” trophy – which stood for “Monthly Outdoor Scout Competition Inter Patrol”. That trophy is still awarded every term for the best Scout patrol.
John was in “Piets” patrol (Piet-my-vrou, part of 1st Claremont’s long tradition of naming patrols after birds). Camps at Kommetje were a great favourite, and the Scouts developed a permanent campsite that they used regularly. John remembered digging a deep well for the campsite, and the water they drew was so brackish that it turned the tea blue. John also explored the Kalk Bay Caves and hiked up “Trolleytrack” (a very eroded path that is now closed) to stay overnight at the original Scout Hut in Ash Valley, returning for a quick (illicit) dip in Colonel Bird’s Bath in Kirstenbosch. A hike up Skeleton Gorge remained one of his favourite routes throughout his life. John and the Scouts also attended memorial services for Jan Smuts at Rhodes Memorial, and wide games at a boulder they called “slaughter rock” in Bishopscourt, and went kloofing in the Wit Els river near Ceres.
The Scouts wore leather belts, and 1st Claremont wore bone woggles (a unique tradition which the Troop needs to revive). The Scouts performed “gang shows” on the stage of the hall, and John wrote skits and songs for them. At Gordon Shield they performed a calypso with words he had written to the tune of Harry Balafonte’s Jamaica Farewell:
Our calypso song isn‘t very long
For we‘ve been working hard all night
And thinking of a rhyme takes lots of time
And none of us are musical or very bright
But we’re glad to say we’ve found a way
Of fitting some words to this tune so gay
We don’t know how but we’ll take a bow
And if you don’t object we’ll sing it now.
We’ve taken the field at Gordon Shield …
Sadly the rest of the song is lost to history. John loved campfire songs, as long as they had clever lyrics, and I remember him singing them to us as children, or playing them on the harmonica. “Pottering Along” and “Wild Cat Kelly” were two favourites. I might try to re-introduce “Michael Finnegan” to the 1st Claremont campfire repertoire in my Dad’s honour.
John’s mother Rose was once a Guide leader, and served on the Scout committee, so in a sense there have already been 4 generations of Webbs at 1st Claremont.
In 1957 John Webb and David Cole wrote a handwritten camp newspaper called the Kommetje Rattler, and for 1st Claremont’s 50th birthday in 1958, John launched the first edition of Smoke Signals, the 1st Claremont magazine which is still going today. It included many humorous articles including some Scout rules:
In 1960, John became part of a team of Rovers who ran the Troop for several years while there was no Scoutmaster.
The Troop boomed under the leadership of this team, producing 17 Springbok Scouts in the next decade (before that, Keith Laskey’s Queen Scout award in 1957 is the only Top Award at 1st Claremont that we know of), and for several years in the mid 1960s and early 1970s 1st Claremont was almost unbeatable in the Gordon Shield, winning 7 times.
“Six of us signed up for the Wood Badge course during the first half of 1963: Jimmy Cole, Neil Gauld, Ronnie Gould, Keith Laskey, Bertie Humphries and me. There were five consecutive weekends at Gilcape (I missed one because of a bursary interview in Pretoria), followed by some written projects (mainly quizzes on P, O and R – is that acronym still in use?) and then a period of three months probation. However, I could only complete six weeks because of leaving for Cambridge in September, and so I had to wait three years until I got home before they gave me the badge. I assume the others qualified.”
John left South Africa to complete a PhD in Mathematics at Cambridge, where he was active in the Cambridge University Scout and Guide Club. He was annoyed that a bit of Scout bureaucracy meant he could not wear a Wood Badge during his time at Cambridge, but he returned to 1st Claremont, completed the Wood Badge and remained active in the Troop for several more years.
John married Anthea in 1970, and (after a few years break from Scouting) returned to 1st Claremont in 1981 as a parent when I was 8 and he brought me to join 1st Claremont Cubs. My brother Jonathan joined later, and we both became Scouts, and have stayed on as adult leaders since then.
As a parent John kitted us out and sent us off to start our own Scouting adventure. He drove endless lifts to Gilcape, Delheim, Elgin and Hawequas, served (briefly) on the committee, took part in Troop family hikes, and attended 1st Claremont’s 75th birthday and the “Supertroupe” Scout show. At one point he and Anthea drove out to Theewaterskloof to teach the Scouts waterskiing but the weather was so miserable that this was wisely cancelled.
It can’t have been an easy time to be a Scout parent – the Troop programme was full of exciting activities, but the Scouts were quite a rough crowd and the leaders weren’t always too particular about the rules, so there was no shortage of drama. Hike groups explored routes that were exotic and often alarming, foofey slide ropes snapped on many occasions, and no camp was complete without a memorable injury. One leader was even expelled from Scouting. Somehow it always rained on the last day of camp and parental cars got stuck in the mud. My Dad’s VW Passat brought many tired Scouts home to hang up the wet tents in the hall.
In 1995 John gathered the 1st Claremont alumni in an event in memory of “Eland” John Clarke, and led an alumni fundraising drive to renovate the Patrol Leader’s den and purchase new Kon-Tiki poles (which we still use). He again gathered the alumni for our centenary in 2008 – one of only a few people to be at our 50th, 75th and 100th birthday celebrations. Once again he raised funds for the group, this time to renovate the stage.
In 2019 I earned my Wood Badge which my father presented to me, along with his Wood Badge scarf, which was previously worn by “Umhlanga” Baker, one of the very first Scoutmasters at 1st Claremont. He continued to attend Scout events – our big fundraising auction in 2023 to replace the stage roof, a visit to Hawequas, and proudly seeing his grandson James receive his Springbok last year.
John’s last recent visit to 1st Claremont was to browse the stalls of our fundraising market in March. He was becoming less mobile and in April he had a fall, just before he turned 83, and suffered a stroke in hospital, where he remained for 6 weeks. We visited him daily, sharing memories and news, and many of these stories were about what we were up to at 1st Claremont. He was happy to hear about Kon-Tiki, and delighted when our team were runners up in this year’s Upton Shield, with his granddaughter Julia as one of the team trainers, although he jokingly said it was a “disgrace” that they had come second by one point. The stroke and complications proved too much for him, and we were with him when he died peacefully on 14 May.
As a family we are very grateful for the support and loving messages from Scout friends. But most of all, thank you Dad for bringing us to 1st Claremont, and thank you 1st Claremont for the important part you have played in my father’s life, and in ours.
Ian Webb
Scout Group Leader
☉
