The Baden Powell Boy Scouts were recognised as a
Government non-combatant service at the outbreak of World War 1. Mr Hugh Goodacre, The Chief Commissioner for
Leicestershire, was requested to mobilise one thousand Boy Scouts and they were
to be placed at the disposal of the Government. After an appeal to raise money
to cover expenses, £471 9s 6d. was collected.
During the first six weeks of war Boy Scouts patrolled the Knighton
Tunnel and Viaduct on the Midland Railway, and, until well into October, they kept
watch at the New Parks, Gilroes and Oadby Reservoirs.
They also acted as orderlies at Glen Parva Barracks and the Magazine
often seen outside recruitment offices where they would run back to the
Barracks with enlistment papers. They
were paid 1/1 per day - not a bad rate considering how much the Soldiers were
paid when they Took The King’s shilling.
*
During 1915 – 1917, three hundred
Leicester Scouts were employed at various patrolling stations on the coast, and
in 1918, they assisted at the flax harvest at Edenham in Lincolnshire.
Two Loughborough Scouts, Howard Moss and William Jelley, who both
attended Loughborough Grammar School, enlisted.
Photograph courtesy of Mr W M Moss
2nd Lieutenant Howard J H Moss (on the left) joined the 5th
Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment and was killed in action on the 13th
October 1915 aged just 19 – a date when many soldiers of the Leicestershire
Regiment lost their lives at Loos. The family lived at The Knoll, Nanpantan. He
is buried at Caberet Rouge Cemetery and commemorated on memorials in St Marys
Church, Nanpantan, Emmanuel Church, The Carillon, The Baptist Church and
Loughborough Grammar School. Bell 8 in the Carillon Tower was a gift from
William and Anne Moss, the Mayor and Mayoress of Loughborough in in remembrance
of Howard James Harding Moss and Gerald Alec Moss, their Grandsons.
2nd Lieutenant William Jelly (on the right) was awarded the
Military Cross. He was with the 6th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment when he died of wounds at Rouen
Hospital on the 2nd November 1917 aged just 22. His parents lived at
124 Leopold St.
Loughborough. He is buried at St Sever Cemetery and remembered on a number of
memorials in Loughborough including The Carillon, St Peter’s Church and
Loughborough Grammar School.
* £471 9s 6d = £143,000 and1/1 or
1 shilling and 1 penny = £16.40
using Average Earnings on Measuring
Worth.com http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/relativevalue.php
© Karen Ette 2013
