Michael Christopher Murch ‘Mike Murch’

Mike was one of the Founding members the 19^th Hendon Scout Group in 1947.

After school, Mike did his National Service with the Middlesex Regiment, interestingly, whose maroon and gold Regimental colours are identical to the colours selected for flag and scarf by 19^th Hendon.  In the Middlesex, after basic training, Mike served as a Corporal in the Orderly Room, spending much of his service in Austria.  I recall him mentioning with pride that the RSM referred to him as ‘Mr Murch’ – a form of address usually restricted to commissioned officers and senior Warrant Officers, but never to a Corporal.

Leaving the Army, he joined Barclays Bank in branch banking, rising in time to become an Inspector, nowadays thought of as an internal auditor, and then a stand-in manager covering leave periods for permanent managers in the Wembley/Harrow areas.

In the 19^th Hendon Scouts, he served under Frank Smith as Assistant Scout Master, later becoming Group Scout Master (GSM).  He was initially known by the name ‘Redwing’ and on becoming GSM, assumed the name ‘Bosun’.

Always smartly turned out, Mike favoured the old style of Scout dress; the slouch hat rather than a beret, although ultimately he adopted the green beret resplendent with GSM’s badge and hackle; shorts and brown leather belt; never long trousers; always well-polished brown veltschoen.  His standards were based on what he had seen in the military, and at camp therefore, our tents were always pitched tidily and regularly around a central flagstaff.  The ceremonies of raising and lowering the flag were taken seriously, and were performed with pride and ceremony.  Litter was evident by its absence, and cleanliness and hygiene in camp was a priority.  Mike had a distinctive face with a prominent chin, and he tended to look forensically at things through small gold-rimmed spectacles.  

He designed the original Group flag in gold and maroon, and was evidently pleased to attend the parade on 22 June 2017 when a replacement flag identical to the one he had designed was presented. This marked the 70^th anniversary of the foundation of the Group. His was a strict and watchful oversight of the enthusiasm of the younger leaders, and certainly of the behaviour of scouts themselves.  He was self-controlled, and I never saw him drink alcohol in front of the Troop.  It is clear however, that he made a particularly enjoyable sloe gin, which features to this day in the memory of ‘Skipper’ (Colin Bartlett).  Mike set, maintained and expected high standards.  I recall when he was carrying out the role of Quartermaster at one camp, and young leaders came back late from one of the endless ‘wide games’ feeling hungry.  They raided the QM’s store tent and liberated a great slab of cheese, from which hunks were carved off and quickly consumed along with numerous slices of bread.  His explosion of anger was sufficient lesson for that not to happen again for a long time.

These of course were the days when we packed kit bags and rucksacks and delivered them to our HQ in Hartley Avenue probably ten days before summer camp, so they could be loaded into a railway container along with tentage, cooking equipment – dixies, billies, kettles, (but not until much later gas cylinders and stoves), pickaxes, shovels, water containers, flagstaff, endless miles of ropes of varying sizes, sisal, sackcloth, benches, trestle tables, tilley lamps, flags, bats, balls, volleyball nets, scout staves, parrafin lamps, and the horrid green latrine tents and elsan field lavatories the thought and smell of which made you shudder.  When full, the railway container would be collected by a strange electric truck and low trailer, and as if by miracle, days later would be deposited at our summer campsite in advance of our arrival for a fortnight’s sun and fresh air.  Afterwards, we would leave our gear packed in the solitary and sad-looking container in a remote and now almost empty campsite, and after a final scouring of the site for litter, head homewards by train or boat and train, and days later, the news would get around  – not everyone had a telephone: ‘The Container’s arrived’. We would rush to Hartley Avenue to unseal it and help with the heavy work of returning everything cleaned and squared away, to its rightful place in our stores.  Heaven help if the final days of camp had been wet, and tentage needed to be dried in the limited space available.  This drying process restricted our evening parades greatly, and filled the HQ with a memorable smell of damp and decay.  For Whitsun camp, a shorter affair of four or five days I think, and in my experience usually in Bovingdon in Hertfordshire, we travelled with all our gear in the back of a furniture lorry, the upper rear doors opened back to allow us to breathe and to make faces at cars unfortunate to be following us.  We sang songs there and around the campfires each night, and Bosun had his full range of songs, the words of which were often tailored to suit the Nineteenth and its history.  After the campfire and singing, usually hot cocoa, and Lights Out by ten.

He revealed a keen interest in natural history – when the Troop was occupied about some activity or other, he was frequently seen going off with binoculars or field glasses for bird-watching at Bovingdon, Dunwich or in Guernsey, and he had an excellent knowledge of trees, leaves, silhouettes, berries, mushrooms and so on.  He was observant in the way we were all encouraged to be – he would spot footprints of birds and animals and comment on them with enthusiasm.  Mike was quite an artist.  His accurate sketches of birds contrasted with his amusing cartoons of his scouts – did he gain inspiration from Baden-Powell’s sketches in Scouting for Boys?  

Many of us of a certain age will recall something that took Mike what seemed like months to accomplish.  The Nineteenth had secured the lease on the former fire station at Holcombe Hill, off Highwood Hill, for a peppercorn rent.  We knew it as ‘The Outhouse’ and it allowed us among much else during those blissful summer evenings, to practise our knots and lashings, and to construct wonderful aerial runways suspended from long timber poles lashed together forming tripods. The small brick built barn stands on the hill opposite the old forge.  In Victorian days it had housed the Mill Hill fire engine, providing stabling for the horse or horses that drew it, and presumably basic accommodation for a stablehand, or fireman.  Above the brick-floored ground level was a hay loft, accessed either from the outside or up a ricketty and woodwormed ladder.  The fire waggon and horses entered through large double doors over cobbles.  Mike decided that the blank internal walls of this empty building offered a canvas for his artistic imagination.  In the style of a caveman, he painted in terra cotta colours, deer, bison, mammoths, hunters with spears and bows… this took ages, naturally.  On the Thursday nights we paraded at Highwood Hill – The Outhouse – for months we were denied access to the rudimentary shelter the Outhouse provided while this marathon work of art was in process of creation.    Dustsheets covered the floor and benches on which he stood; there were jam jars of brushes, tins of paint, the limited lighting was focussed on the area of operation, and the stone sink – a belfast sink, now desirable – was full of the artist’s equipment.  Our only way of witnessing the work in progress was to peep through the glass window at ground level before the heavy external green-painted wooden shutter was replaced at night, or to peer through the cracks in the double door where generations of mice and possibly rats had made their entry.  Eventually his creation was revealed, and we were enchanted.  Captivated.  And we felt part of a bigger thing, an older thing, a special thing, and indeed we were.

He stood down as GSM at some stage in the 1960s.  But before that time, into the Group came one Crispin Rowell, brother of Vanessa, Amanda and Lauren and son of Valerie.  Mike had seemed a confirmed bachelor but before long, Mike married Valerie and they had more than forty years of married life together in his house in Sunnyfields until Valerie’s death in late 2014.  I watched Mike at her funeral in Hendon, and saw a man deeply saddened.  From being a man who was at ease in his own company prior to his marriage, he became a man forced to be in his own company again, which could not have been easy.

In later years, Mike made the effort to attend 19^th Hendon Group AGMs and the Presentation of Awards evenings, often supported loyally by one of his step-daughters, and the current Group and parents were inspired by his presence at these events.  When there, he unfailingly wore his 19^th Hendon scarf with a Wood Badge woggle, even if he had to rely increasingly on the support of a wooden walking stick, and his step-daughter to repeat what had been said so that he could hear it.  Mike appreciated being kept informed of progress in the Group by its present GSL Matthew Cook, and talked enthusiastically about his visits.  In return, Mike shared many of his photographs of Group activities and memories with Matthew. In 2019 the group dedicated a new award in Mike’s name, given to an outstanding member of the group from that scouting year.

After a couple of weeks of declining health Mike died at Barnet General Hospital on 20 Feb 2020.

Mike is an inspiration, due to his strong leadership as a volunteer in Scouting over three or four decades, if not longer.

With grateful acknowledgement to Colin Bartlett and Martin Russell for their contributions and memories.

Edward James Wardle ‘Eddy Wardle’

In 2022 we renamed our ‘Best Scout Trophy’ to the ‘Wardle Cup’, in dedication to the many years service Eddy gave to Scouting particularly 19th Hendon. His devotion to duty is an example to all and his memory will be us always in the presentation of this cup annually to the Best Scout.

Eddy started as a leader in 1968 at 21^st Fulham as an Assistant Scout Leader

During his Police career which included service at Holborn Police Station, he rose to the rank of Sergeant.

Eddy for many years worshipped at St Paul’s, Mill Hill

Scouting Service

1971 at 21st Hendon as Scout Leader

1981 at 19^th Hendon as Scout Leader

1984 at 21^st Hendon as Scout Leader

1998 19^th Hendon as Assistant Cub Scout Leader

2006 at 19^th Hendon as Group Scout Leader

2010 he became Deputy District Commissioner and District Training advisor of Barnet Borough Scout District

2016 to 2021 Assistant Group Scout Leader at 19^th Hendon

During Eddy’s time with 19^th he has always been a support to all of the sections and leaders, always happy to help with any task. He also trained many of the leaders within the group with completing their Wood Badge.

The Silver Medal of the Boy Scouts Association was introduced in 1932.  It took the form of a silver acorn in a silver ring, suspended from a gold or orange ribbon.  Then and now, it marks ‘most distinguished service for a period in excess of 20 years’.  It is not normally awarded until at least an Award of Merit has been received, and then only for service which is in excess of ‘outstanding’.  The cloth badge of course is a horizontal open reef knot in orange or gold, on a khaki ground.

In the Scout’s Awards and Honours list of 2020, it was announced that the Silver Acorn was conferred upon Mr Edward Wardle.

Martin Russell MBE

Martin has been a great supporter of Scouting for a number of years, and is a strong advocate of the benefits that learning skills for life can bring. He is our District President, who was awarded an MBE in the 2024 New Year Honours List. Martin is also the Representative Deputy Lieutenant For The London Borough Of Barnet. Martin is a keen supporter of the group, having been a member of 19^th Hendon as a child, and is our group Patron.