Weymouth man's Boys' Brigade memories (From Dorset Echo)

Weymouth man's Boys' Brigade memories

10:14am Tuesday 2nd March 2010 in

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WHEN Looking Back featured a Boys’ Brigade camp from the summer of 1952 (LB, October 20, 2009) it caught the attention of Weymouth man David Chant.

He was pictured in the photograph and he was able to provide us with some other names of his peers.

He disputed the fact that the photograph was taken in Langton Matravers in East Dorset, believing it to have been shot at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.

Mr Chant also thought the picture was taken earlier than 1952, possibly some time between 1949 and 1951 when he turned 17, as he enlisted in the Army in 1952.

As a result, we ran a second story in Looking Back on February 9, and now Mr Chant has been back with this series of pictures of his time in the Boys’ Brigade and of when he was stationed in Hong Kong with the Dorset Regiment.

One of eight siblings, Mr Chant grew up in Sherborne and was a member of the First Sherborne Boys’ Brigade.

He thoroughly enjoyed his years with the Brigade and, as the pictures show, won a number of awards.

“The Boys’ Brigade was a bit like Scouts and we did things like camping,” he remembered.

“We won the silver Tent Trophy for the best tent inspection. It was a solid silver cup with a tent and ropes and I understand it is now in a safe somewhere!”

Mr Chant also won the Trevett Cup for highest attendance and smartness.

Once he joined the Dorset Regiment at the age of 18, he was stationed in Hong Kong.

Mr Chant describes marching and walking in uniform as ‘like being in a sauna room’. He has lent us this picture of him in the Army band playing the tenor drum.