25/01/2025
The 72nd Glasgow Scout Group 1925 - 2025
We could like to get in touch with former members, parents, leaders, supporters and friends
to keep them informed about our Centenary celebrations. If you would like to be kept
updated on these arrangements please email [email protected]
In 1925 Frank Shepherd, Superintendent of the Sunday School at Broomhill Congregational
Church in Victoria Park Gardens South, got together with Robert Bovington, then a leader at
the 23rd Glasgow Scouts, and they founded the 72nd Glasgow Scout Troop. By the 1930’s the
Group (now with Cubs and Rovers as well as Scouts) had moved to an old railway carriage at
110 Clarence Drive, beside the railway bridge and adjacent to Maitland Shoe Repairs (you can
still see the foundations of that shop on the left before the road passes under the bridge). A
hut was built onto the carriage but during the Blitz on 13th March 1941 both the Shop and
the Scout Hut were destroyed by incendiary bombs. The Group then moved to an old Tennis
Pavilion in Victoria Park before new premises were built at its current home at 500 Crow Road,
beside Jordanhill railway station, in 1950.
Over the years the Group has had its up and downs – at one point in the early 1960’s there
were over 100 Scouts in 4 Troops and they held two separate trips abroad, and in 1982 there
were only 7 Scouts at the start of the year. However generations of boys (and latterly girls
too in the Venture and Explorer Scout sections) have benefitted from a huge range of activities
and experiences - visits and camps, expeditions and meetings, DofE and Scout Award training,
shows and displays etc. The Troop has regularly been abroad, to Switzerland and Italy in
particular, and in more recent times has run trips to Canada and the USA.
And so in 2025 the Group celebrates its Centenary, as well as the 75th anniversary of its move
to 500 Crow Road. We intend to hold a commemorative event in the spring, arrange open
days in the Halls with display of photographs and memorabilia, and publish a History of the
Group.
John Syme, Explorer Scout Leader