Members of Girlguiding IW have recently returned to the Island from a very special camp in Norfolk.
Celebrating the Girl Guide experiences of Her Majesty The Queen this Living History camp held at the Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum, Norfolk, was based on Guide activities in the 1940s when HM The Queen and Princess Margaret were Guides and Rangers.
Girlguiding Norfolk staged this 6-day 1940s Guide Camp with activities based on the challenges the then Princess Elizabeth would have tackled as a Guide and, later, a Sea Ranger.
There was also a session on car mechanics, which the Princess learned while serving with the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) during the Second World War. Guides and Rangers taking part in the camp ‘travelled ‘back in time to experience living in the 1940s, with equipment, uniforms and activities tailored to that era.
Activities included:
- Skinning and cooking rabbits
- Car maintenance, learning how to change tyres, oil and spark plugs
- Mastering different signals on a bosun’s whistle
- Trying out 1940s hair styles
- Having a Royal tea party and Scottish dancing
- An incident hike to test how prepared the girls were
- Giving guided tours of the camp to members of the public visiting the museum
- Crafts from that time – knitting, making lanyards and netting
Helen Green, Girlguiding Norfolk’s archivist, who organised the camp.
“We were as authentic as we possibly could be, it was a challenge not being able to use anything made from plastic or other modern materials but was a fantastic way of bringing history to life and experiencing some of the things the Queen herself would have done in Guiding. This was such a fantastic opportunity to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in a really hands-on and fun way.”
