Alan William Swanborough
East Wight Chaplain Alan is on the left, pictured with West Wight Chaplain Roger Whalley and County Chaplain Graham Morris at the 2007 County celebration of St Georges' Day at Smallbrook Stadium. As Alan said, "the 3 Wise Men?"
Alan’s first involvement with the movement was as a Cub Scout. He is very fond of that time and speaks of his days as a Wolf Cub and Scout with very happy memories. He made his first promise to the King!
His first involvement as a leader was with Yarmouth Scouts as one of his first jobs was in agriculture on a farm at Yarmouth. He then joined the army and was involved with the Rovers at Catterick Camp. He was posted to Kenya and became an ASM at 12th Nairobi. On posting back to Catterick, he ran both the Wednesday and Friday night Cub Packs.
He then had a career change and went to Teacher Training College and later took a degree whilst actively involved in teaching.
He returned to the Island as a teacher with a
position at St Boniface, then on to Ventnor Middle School, on to Haylands, St
Johns at Sandown and then Upper Chine School for Girls. His involvement with
Upper Chine led to a teaching post with Ryde School when the schools merged
later.
In January 1964 Alan took out a Warrant as a Venture Scout Leader. He kept that post until the 31st December 1965. He was then the District Venture Scout Leader for Richmond and Barnes District in Greater London from May 1967 until December 1969.
Alan took a Cub Scout Leader role in July 1973 with 3rd Ventnor, a role he held until December 1983 when he became Group Scout Leader. He held that position until January 1986.
In 1986 the two Districts, East and West Wight became autonomous and he was elected to serve as a District Executive Member for East Wight by the District Commissioner, Chris Tetley. A position he held for over 24 years.
During that period, he was fully ordained and became the minister for St. Blasius Church, Shanklin. He was also officially appointed District Chaplain in January 2000.
Alan was an important member of the District and County, especially with regard to the spiritual side. He readily makes himself available for events and offers a wise and experienced voice at District Team Meetings. He has over 41 year’s recorded service in the Movement, a record to be very proud of, especially as he is still making a valuable contribution.
Alan received the Medal of Merit in 1984 and the Chief Scout’s 40 year Service Award in 2009.
.JPG)
.JPG)
Like all of our stories, we welcome any more information or photos to add to this story. Please contact us via our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/iwscoutingheritage