About Us

Group History

1929 - 46th Medway Scout Group formed. Meetings held in the Baptist Church, Camden Road

1944 - Meetings held in a converted garage in Copenhagen Road

1951 - Group became known as 46th Medway East

1952 - Meetings held in a former TocH building by "The Old Ash Tree" Public House on Rainham Road

1960 - Group renamed to 11th Gillingham and moved to Goudhurst Road Methodist Church

1978 - Moved to our own Headquarters in Broadway where we still meet

The Group scarf is gold with a chocolate border. The original group scarf was in gold and chocolate halves, which was changed in 1983 to accommodate our Group badge which shows a hawk. This is to commemorate Ted King, Group Scout Leader from 1947 to 1978, who was known as "Hawkeye".

SCOUTING IN GILLINGHAM

Scouting in Gillingham began in 1908 and all Groups were named after the area they were located in; for us, Gillingham, Rainham, Hempstead, etc. A County directory published in 1913 lists all Groups in Chatham, Rochester, Strood and Gillingham under the title of Medway Local Association and each Group was given the Medway title with the local name in brackets, e.g. 11th Medway (1st Gillingham, St Luke's). By 1923 all reference to Medway in the Group title had been dropped.

It was then decided, in 1928, that the whole of the area we now recognise as Medway Towns was to be known as Medway Scout District with a HQ in Dock Road, Chatham.

As the area expanded and the population grew in number it was felt that by 1951 there should be a Medway East District to cover the Gillingham area with Chatham, Rochester and Strood becoming Medway West District. finally Gillingham became a District in its own right in 1960.