Top Shropshire scout Ken, 76, gets Bear's 'Silver Wolf' award

"I'll give up only when the body says I can't walk any further, and even then I shall still mentally be there," said Ken, whose long service has just been honoured with the top award of the Scout movement.

He has received the Silver Wolf award, which is the gift of the Chief Scout Bear Grylls and is given in recognition of services to Scouting of the most exceptional nature.

"I'm very humbled, very embarrassed. I didn't expect it," said Ken, who is 76, and from Victoria Road, Shifnal.

It came complete with instructions on the correct way to wear it.

"It has to be worn so he is facing away from the heart."

Coincidentally, the award has come close to the 30th anniversary of the official opening of a new Shifnal Scouts and Guides headquarters which, after years of fundraising and effort, was on May 17, 1986.

And far from being something that had its best days in the past, Scouting is resurgent.

"The past four years have seen a growth in membership, both nationally and locally. At Shifnal they have split the troop over two nights. They are still 1st Shifnal, but they couldn't get them all in the room at once."

Hailing originally from Morda, just outside Oswestry, Ken's family moved to Naird Lane, which has today been largely swallowed up by Telford development, when he was around 10 or 11.

"I made friends with Denis Rotherham, who was the son of the local butcher in Shifnal. They were just restarting the troop, and he had been. I went along, and that was it. I was hooked."

That would have been about 1950, and the venue was the old church room – long demolished – across the road from St Andrew's Church.

"Having lived out in the sticks, town life didn't really appeal to me. I was more the outdoor type.

"Scouting was an outlet to get out and about, and a way of making friends. We used to camp all over the place at weekends and whatever."

The unit was 1st Shifnal St Andrew's Scout Group and the scout leader was the local curate, called Richards, and the group scout leader was the Rev John Finney, the vicar.

Annual camps tended to be at a field by a brook on the Apley estate, near Bridgnorth.

"We used to dam the brook up so it filled up and became big enough to have a semi-swim."

Another curate, Thomas Chadwick Bray, known as "Chad", became scout leader but when he left to be vicar of Ryton and Beckbury there was no leader. Stepping into the breach were Pat Harris, aged 17, who became assistant scout leader, and 16-year-old Ken, who became troop leader. Ken went on to become Scout leader and senior Scout leader for the senior troop. "Eventually a lot of children wanted to come to the meetings, and there were Brownies and Guides as well, and we were meeting all over the place.

"For a time we had the equipment in the old air raid shelter by the side of the church room but it was so wet it was ruining the canvas. We decided to see if we could get our own HQ, and Shifnal folk bent over backwards and supported us wholeheartedly."

Another site was found at the junction of Curriers Lane and Coppice Green Lane. It had originally been earmarked for a new fire station.

"After it was built they decided they wanted a new District Commissioner, because the other one had done his time. They asked me. I think I had had about six months' use of the new building before I became District Commissioner and gave up the Scout leadership of the group."

Ken has also had various other roles, including Assistant County Commissioner Scouts, and Assistant District Commissioner leader training, and current roles include district chairman of Shropshire Severn & Teme, and county vice president.

He reckons the biggest change in his time has been the impact of the introduction of girls into Scouting.

"It has proven not to be a bad thing, but I would still like to see a lot closer co-operation between Guides and Scouting."

He added: "There seems to be a bit of 'us and them' in places. I feel we are missing a trick here."

The modern rise in Scouting, he says, has come about through changes which have made it more in tune with what youngsters are looking for, and has been helped by the appeal of Chief Scout Bear Grylls.

"He's the heartthrob of most mothers, who seems to give an added edge to encourage children to go into the movement."

As for Ken, his involvement keeps him busy a couple of evenings a months.

"It keeps me young. It keeps the grey matter going."