The Cub Scout Promise

I joined the Cub Scouts in a place called Hoo in Kent back in 1974. I instantly took to the whole concept, the uniforms, the camping, the sixes and the promise. That promise has been part of me for over 50 years and, oddly enough, I hadn’t thought of it in nearly 40 years. Why has it become buried in my memory bank?

I went from Cubs to a Scout troop that I really didn’t like, full of bullying and unpleasantness, and I ended up leaving the organisation for a couple of years. Around the time I was 13 my Dad started up a new Scout Troop based on the principles and set up that was common when he had been a Scout 30 years earlier. It became the centre of my life for a few years as I looked to escape from my awful experience at school.

We were a disciplined Troop who were guided by the principles of the Scout Law and Promise as they had existed when my Dad was a boy, something that the organisation in Medway really disliked. They fought running battles with my Dad but he was much too wily for them. Every year, the troops and packs were inspected by the local ‘bigwigs’ who detested the way the troop was run and who in turn were the villains of the piece to us. One year they said that they were going to inspect the troop on a particular date. My Dad told us that we were going to get an inspection the week before to try to catch us out. He was right, we were prepared and we all took great pleasure in telling the inspectors that we knew what their game was! The people who were inspecting the troop were pen pushers who had no idea what traditional scouting was all about. My Dad and his fellow leaders were light years ahead of them in understanding young people and they knew it.

So, what are the Scouting principles I still live by?

The Cub Scout Promise of the 1970s was

I promise that I will do my best to do my duty to God and to the Queen, to help other people and to keep the Cub Scout Law.

In those days, there was one promise for Scouts of all faiths or of none and when you said it you were essentially reciting it as a catechism. The Cub Scout Law, in contrast, was very specific and it is this that I internalised more deeply than I realised over the 50 years since first learning it.

Cub Scouts always do their best, think of others before themselves and do a good turn every day.

As a set of principles for living they don’t come much better and they could not be summarised more succinctly.

Just a final thought. My Dad, who I talked about in this post, died over 30 years ago. I am now exactly the same age as he was, to the day, when he died. He’s still very much present to me and I think he would give me a subtle nod of approval if he could see my progress and the way I have kept the Cub Scout Law and the Scouting principles so close to my heart.