Ian Blake's Retiral
Social night to mark the departure of J.R. Blake
Thursday 4th December 1959
click here to see the log entry
Entries from Troop log
Friday 20th November 1959
The following announcements were made at the end of the Troop meeting of 20th November 1959.
*That SM. J.R. Blake was leaving for Trinidad and a gift was being given him at the social.
* That there would be a practice on Thursday for the same.
*That would be a last parade on 6th December for Mr Blake.
Thursday 3rd December 1959
A rehearsal for the social was held.
Friday 4th December 1959
The social was a great success. It started off with a beetle drive at which our cadet Scouter was master of ceremonies.. The parents were then entertained by the Troop. There was magic, quiz and singing and stunts.
Skipper Blake and his wife were presented with good-bye gifts by Sandy Miller. J.R. Blake was given an engraved silver cigarette case.
Song composed by choir and Mrs Lind on departure of SM. To “Uncle Tom Cobley”
Chorus Our skipper is going to gay Trinidad,
We’re sorry he’s going, it’s really quite sad,
We wish them good luck in his ventures abroad,
Kenneth Johnston, John Doe, Jim Blair, Ronald Lind,
And uncle Bob Miller and all, and uncle Bob Miller and all etc
Sunday 6th December 1959
There was a good turnout for Mr Blake’s last parade, the 10 who passed their quest emblems were presented and Ken D. Conway was awarded his Queen’s Scout Badge.
R. K. Miller is now the Scoutmaster of the 70th.
Note made by R.K. Miller in April 1960: PL Trevor Jones was chief photographer for the social but unfortunately his camera didn’t function very well and so only four pictures turned out. These are shown in the troop log.
​
Further notes from editor:
Readers may be interested to know that the presentation silver cigarette box is still in the possession of the Blake family. Martin Blake (Ian Blake's son) sent photographs of the cigarette box, along with an extract from the Greenock Telegraph covering the social evening (see this page).
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​