I am aware that I was only asked to "take over" as Vice- President from my father, Len Smith Senior, when he died. He did far more for scouting than I have been able to and was a Vice-President for longer than I have been. His involvement in scouting started in 1914 and was largely in starting scout bands. Many years later in the 1940's when 1st Whitton asked if he could help he raised all the money to buy the instruments and taught the boys to play (he was a professional musician having studied at the Royal College of Music, before opening the business (Len Smiths) in Twickenham in 1927) and ran the band for many years. He was also asked by Mont Garratt when Mont was either district or county commissioner to form a Twickenham branch of the BP guild of old scouts. He did this with an initial membership of 450. He was involved in many other scouting activities and valued the "thanks" badge that he was awarded. Most of my voluntary service has been through Rotary International. My scouting career locally was fairly short lived. I joined 10th Twickenham Cubs in 1940, later joined 1st Whitton scouts but was then away at boarding school, university and then became a pilot in the R.A.F. I was in the Dauntsey's school scouts, senior scouts and rovers in Wiltshire. I have, however, been a member of the Rotary club of Twickenham for nearly 50 years and the honour of being President on Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland. I was able to see the work of Rotary carried by the 60,000 Rotarians in 2000 clubs in the Islands and Rotary's work overseas where Rotary helps scouting in many countries particularly U.S.A. I am a member of the International fellowship of scouting Rotarians. There are many similarities in the aims and objectives of Scouting and Rotary. Rotary's motto is "Service Above Self" and Rotary helps those locally and overseas, mostly those less fortunate than ourselves. I felt it would be appropriate to present a cup for annual award to the person who had best lived up to the motto of service above self in the previous year. |
Matthew Snell  Matthew Snell was awarded the Service Above Self trophy because of his selfless work with another Scout group. Matthews' mother took over the running of 1st Hampton Hill Sea Scout Group and Matthew has given up a huge amount of his own time helping with the beaver and cub sections. Most teenagers would run a mile if they were asked to help their mother with a group of 6 to 10 year olds, but Matthew has taken it all in his stride. Bearing in mind that Matthew has his own scouting path to follow, plus a heavy workload with exams, it is no inconsiderable burden to an already very precious personal time. In the past 6 months the membership of the beaver and cub sections has grown from just 6 to 23 members, and it is the belief of the district team that without Matthews help this turnaround would not have been possible. |