Legacy of Service, Queen Elizabeth II

[RememberSchiff]

Chief Scout Bear Grylls Remembers HM the Queen

As a family of Scouts, we are united in sorrow for the loss of our Patron, HM The Queen. She leaves a bright legacy of hope and promise for future generations. Together, we will honour her memory.   

We will remember her and give thanks for her kindness, her service, and the unwavering support she showed our movement over many decades. She was truly a friend to Scouts everywhere.  

I will miss her quiet leadership, her values and integrity, and her wonderful sense of humour. While she was our monarch and Patron, she always made time to listen to our Scouts and recognise their achievements. Her smile would light up the room.   

For 70 years HM The Queen has stood at our side, encouraging our volunteers and inspiring our young people to learn new skills, help others and shine brightly. Her sense of duty was an outstanding example to every single Scout during her long and eventful reign.  

‘Scouting is a global force for good’ she once told us. ‘In this country and around the world, Scouts are helping others and making the most of their lives.’ 

So many Scouts aspired to become a Queen’s Scout. Those dedicated young people earn our highest award, the pinnacle of their time in the movement.  

It’s one of my greatest honours as Chief Scout to congratulate these incredible young people each year. It was a very special moment when HM The Queen herself met our Queen’s Scouts in our Centenary year 2007. This reprised her review of Queen’s Scouts in 1952, the year her father, HRH George VI passed on. 

Just as HM The Queen supported Scouts, we have been there for her too, looking after the crowds during her coronation in 1953. We were so proud to confer upon her the Gold Wolf (the only one of its kind) as she became our Queen and Patron.  

She played a full part in the life of our movement, meeting young people, attending Scout events and shows. Her visit with HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, to the Jubilee Jamboree Indaba Moot in Sutton Coldfield in 1957 was an unforgettable highlight of celebrating the movement’s 50th anniversary. She toured the site in a Land Rover and met so many of the Scouts gathered from all over the world.  

Fittingly, she launched the RNLI lifeboat, The Scout, in Hartlepool in 1977, following heroic fundraising efforts by members of the movement. It saw many years’ service and saved many lives.   

n 1961, HM The Queen graciously opened Baden-Powell House, Scouts’ international hostel in South Kensington, just as she would our new headquarters in 1976 and our refurbished training centre at Gilwell Park in 1995.  

She continued to take a lively interest in our work, as our movement developed and changed over the years. These changes included welcoming girls into the movement and became ever more diverse. The outpouring of devotion and affection during her jubilee years gave a sense of how much she was admired, both within our movement and by the whole country.  

HM The Queen sent her well wishes to our 120,000 Cubs during the Cubs centenary year in 2016, and was an especially strong champion of our work supporting young people in areas with the fewest opportunities. She strongly supported our pioneering work with early years, helping those families and young people hit hardest by the pandemic.        

It will take time for our movement and our nation to recover from this loss. But we owe it to her to pick ourselves up and carry her legacy forward. She will live long in the memory and will be remembered by the countless individual stories of kindness our Scouts and volunteers will share for years to come.   

Let’s not be downhearted at this difficult time, but extend our sincere sympathies to her family and many friends. Let’s not forget she was a devoted mother, grandmother and great grandmother too.   

Let’s take great solace and comfort in her warm-heartedness towards young people, her devotion to her duty and most of all her kindness.  

In memory of our great Patron, let’s show that same sense of kindness and respect to each other. A great book has closed - not just a chapter - and a new one now begins.  

On behalf of every Scout, we thank HM The Queen for her service. We will never forget her.   

https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2022/september/chief-scout-bear-grylls-remembers-hm-the-queen/

Edited September 9, 2022 by RememberSchiff

[RememberSchiff]

From Scouts Victoria (Australia),

Scouts Victoria mourns the loss of HM Queen Elizabeth II

Scouts Victoria is united in our grief as we mourn the loss of HM Queen Elizabeth II. We honour her legacy of service to the Commonwealth and to the Scouting Movement.

We extend our deepest sympathies to the Royal Family and to the countless people around the world who will be affected by this loss.

HM The Queen will be remembered for her unwavering support for Scouting worldwide. The Queen ascended the throne at a young age and devoted her life to public and voluntary service which she saw as one of the most important elements of her work. Her stoicism, her sense of duty and her strength are examples to all Scouts.

Thousands of our members have been inspired to become Queen’s Scouts, the peak award of the Venturer Scout Section. This achievement takes personal determination, dedication and service to the community, qualities that she herself demonstrated. We will be forever grateful for her enthusiastic support and inspirational leadership.

Indefatigable in her official duties, she travelled around the world and endeavoured to meet with Scouts everywhere including on her 16 Royal visits to Australia. Our members have been guards of honour at her many visits around the country, which will be a particularly enduring memory for those Scouts.

She gave us a shining example of kindness and respect for one another, and her dedication to service will continue to be an inspiration to Scouting. We honour the memory of HM The Queen and will never forget her

Guidance for Scout Groups can be found here.

https://scoutsvictoria.com.au/about-us/news/scouts-victoria-mourns-the-loss-of-hm-queen-elizabeth-ii/

[Cambridgeskip]

At the risk of this getting political…. We had the same head of state for over 70 years without so much as anything inconvenient as an election. I think the U.K. could learn something from the USA on that front.

[MattR]

I can't ever get my head around how much history the queen saw up close. While she really wasn't allowed to reflect on it publicly it would have made a great history book.

But back to scouts. Will the highest rank be renamed "king's scout?" ... and will face to the right rather than the left. We get some odd bits of news over here.

[yknot]

It is amazing the degree of support the Queen and her husband Prince Phillip gave to the world's youth through their various roles and patronages. In addition to scouting, she was a one time patron and lifelong supporter of Pony Club, another youth organization I have given a great deal of time to. She's also supported youth involvement in golf, tennis, football, and the Olympics not to mention multitudes of youth charitable and social organizations. Many children, not just in the UK or the Commonwealth but throughout the world, have lost a great friend and lifelong champion this week. I'm sad to mark her passing.  

[Cambridgeskip]

4 hours ago, MattR said:

I can't ever get my head around how much history the queen saw up close. While she really wasn't allowed to reflect on it publicly it would have made a great history book.

But back to scouts. Will the highest rank be renamed "king's scout?" ... and will face to the right rather than the left. We get some odd bits of news over here.

Yes it will become the Kings Scout Award. Not quite sure what you mean about facing right or left??

[MattR]

16 minutes ago, Cambridgeskip said:

Yes it will become the Kings Scout Award. Not quite sure what you mean about facing right or left??

The queen faces left on all UK coins. Charles will face right. It changes for every monarch. Assuming the Queens Scout Award has her portrait on something (just an assumption) then maybe the king will be facing the other way. I'm telling you, we get odd bits of news. And we read it because we're tired of our own. At least I am.

[Cambridgeskip]

22 hours ago, MattR said:

The queen faces left on all UK coins. Charles will face right. It changes for every monarch. Assuming the Queens Scout Award has her portrait on something (just an assumption) then maybe the king will be facing the other way. 

Never knew that! Things you learn. That said I generally try to avoid most things royal related. 

[qwazse]

On 9/10/2022 at 5:55 AM, Cambridgeskip said:

…. We had the same head of state for over 70 years without so much as anything inconvenient as an election. I think the U.K. could learn something from the USA on that front.

‘Skip, I lived in UK during one of your parliamentary elections. They were as hot as any race in the states.

During my stay, I came to admire how the royals embodied the aspirations of the many Brits. That was mostly Elizabeth’s doing.

But I’d never wished the Americans to have the same. We’d probably make a hash of it. Among my friends are monarchists who covet the stability that a royal family may bring. The grass is always greener, I suppose.

[RememberSchiff]

This is the BBC:

Enver Eng, from Hampshire Scouts, guided those at the front of the line across Lambeth Bridge from the South Bank, on Wednesday evening.

Mr Eng, who was awarded the Queen's Scout Award - the highest award the Scouts offer - in August, said: "They were so patient and amazing it was a great honour to guide them through."

He said people were "incredibly kind - it was as if they hadn't spent two and a half days there".

The 24-year-old, from Basingstoke, is one of more than 1,000 volunteers helping with the queues in Westminster.

Matt Hyde, chief executive of the Scouts, said "we're taking our inspiration of selflessness and service from the Queen", who was patron of the organisation.

"If anyone embodied that, it was the Queen herself in terms of a life of service - and we take our inspiration from that in scouting," he said.

 

More photos at source:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-62913022

Related from other sources, 120 Scouts serve as Operation Feather guides:

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/queens-funeral-ni-scout-on-incredible-honour-as-nine-members-head-to-london-to-help-41993959.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11210761/London-comes-standstill-ahead-Queens-funeral.html

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by RememberSchiff