THIS was one of the great Scouting occasions of the year.

The drumhead service at what is now the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington, Oxford, attracted Scouts from all over the city.

The first was held at the then Wingfield-Morris Hospital in June 1931.

It was organised by Rover Scouts from the 8th Oxford Highfield Group to raise funds for the Wingfield’s own Scout troop.

At the time, tuberculosis was still a scourge and scores of children and adults spent months in plaster recovering from the disease in the group of wooden army huts that had been converted into a hospital.

To relieve the boredom, Oxford’s famous Punch and Judy man, Percy Best, himself a keen Scouter, hit on the idea of forming a troop for the hospital patients in 1929.

Over the next few years, thanks to the support of the 8th Oxford Rovers and their leader, ‘Skipper’ Leach, many youngsters were able to take part in Scouting activities even if, in many cases, it meant doing so in spinal carriages lying flat on their backs.

Not only were they wheeled out of their wards in their beds to take part in the annual drumhead service, they went for walks using mirrors fixed above their heads to see the world about them.

They attended the annual St George’s Day service in Christ Church Cathedral and some even got as far as the Scout camp at Youlbury, where they practised knot craft and woodcraft and even managed to light fires on specially-built altars.

George Springall, former chairman of the Headington and District Scout Council, who attended his first drumhead service in 1933, recalls that the heyday of the service was during the war when the hospital was packed with children and wounded servicemen and many uniformed groups took part.

A great column of youngsters representing every movement from the Boys’ Brigade to the Red Cross would march from Manor Park, where the John Radcliffe Hospital is now, to the Wingfield Morris Hospital.

Hundreds more would be waiting to take part in the service in the grounds.

The Morris Motors’ band played before and during the service, while the Eynsham Drum and Fife Band led the parade.

As the number of patients and the length of stay in hospital dwindled, the Scout troop was disbanded, but the drumhead service continued and survived long enough to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1981.

That year, the Oxford Salvation Band provided the music, while the Horspath and Longworth Scout Bands led the parade.

  • Any memories of the drumhead services or the Wingfield Scout troop to share?