An introduction to OLP

On Sunday 28th August, 120 Scouts & Leaders from across Surrey will be travelling internationally to participate in a 3 day trip to Belgium & France to explore, learn and pay our respects to the fallen.

Throughout the trip, the Scouts will travel to Brugge, Ypres and Arras, where they will learn about what happened on the front-lines and take part in remembrance ceremonies.

We will visit the Passchendaele Museum, Tyne Cot Cemetery, Ferme-Olivier Cemetery, the Flanders Field Museum, Essex Farm, the CWGC Experience and Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery, plus we’ll even get the opportunity to take part in the Menin Gate parade.

This is an amazing trip for our Scouts which all begins with a 4.30 am start. We will be documenting their journey, so follow along here.

Commemorating a founding Scout

Surrey Scouts are travelling to Belgium & France this weekend to pay their respects to the fallen and learn about life on the front lines, and an important man inspired this trip.
In 1907, aged 10, Marc Nobel attended the first camp run by Baden Powell on Brownsea Island.
The camp actually formed the foundations of the Scout Association. Later on Marc became a 2nd Lieutenant in the British Army, Royal Field Artillery, but sadly died of his wounds on 1st July 1917, he was just 20 years old.
Marc is buried at the Ferme-Olivier Cemetery and our Scouts will be visiting his grave and conducting an act of remembrance for Marc and all those that died.

Advance Team Docks

Our 6-strong advance team are on route to Belgium! They will be getting the campsite ready & organising the food for the 120 Scouts & Leaders arriving tomorrow.

Tagged, Packed & Away

After a 04:30 start there’s an excited buzz on the coaches. Some Scouts were tucking into breakfast before we even set off (I don’t think the leaders will be far behind either).
We have a 90min journey to Dover, before our check-in and crossing.
Well done to all the Scouts & parents for arriving on-time and with the right passports!

28/8 06:30

We’ve arrived at Dover

We’ve now arrive at Dover and gone through passport control. Time for a toilet break and to grab some breakfast ready for our 09:30 boarding.

28/8 08:20

Land Ahoy

We are at Calais!
Both coaches are heading straight to Passchendaele museum, before hiking to Tyne Cot Cemetery this afternoon.

28/8 12:15 (local time)

1st Dorking & Sheerwater enjoying the ferry and one very tired Scout!

What a busy afternoon!

28/8 20:30 (local time)
We have picnicked in Zonnebeke

Explored Passchendaele Museum


Walked the trenches

Tested the plumbing

Hiked 2km across Belgium

And remembered at Tyne Cot

The Scouts have just enjoyed dinner before a quick campfire briefing & bed. We expect it won’t be long until they’re sleeping soundly.

Medieval Morning

Whistle-stop tour to the European capital of chocolate, Brugge. This town unscathed from the WWI is a great contrast to Ypres, which we’ll be visiting tonight. The Scouts enjoyed looking at the architecture and learning about the historical relevance… but mostly visiting the chocolate shops!
29/8 12:30 (local time)

An emotional afternoon

29/8 23:30 (local time)
After a cooked lunch we visited Ferme-Olivier Cemetery where Marc Nobel, one of our founding Scouts who was on the first camp run by Baden Powell, is buried after being killed 1st July 1917, aged 20. We conducted a small ceremony together, spoke the exhortation & reveille, laid a wreath & placed one of our Surrey Scout scarfs.

We then headed to Essex Farm which was an advance dressing station in WWI.
We patched up some “casualties” from the “front line” and took them through the evacuation chain.
They explored the bunkers which were used as operating theatres for wounded soldiers.

John McCrae was a Lieutenant-Colonel working in the advance dressing station from 1915. John was also a poet and after the death of a close friend, Lt Alexis Helmer, he wrote ‘In Flanders Field’.

Prior to our trip, we found out that there was a link between Dorking and Essex Farm. Valentine Joe Strudwick, lived in Dorking and attended St Paul’s School. He lied about his age to do his part for King and Country, and sadly died on 14th January 1916, aged 15. He is one of the youngest soldiers known to be killed in action in WWI. Former students and the current site-manager laid a home-made wreath from the school.

We then headed into Ypres, where we visited the In Flanders Field Museum, which was formerly the Cloth Hall, which was almost completely destroyed in WWI. The whole town was then re-built in the Medieval style, and the Scouts could see the similarities & differences to Brugge.

The Scouts also had some time to explore Ypres before we attended the 32,608th Last Post under the Menin Gate.
The Last Post Association hold a daily tribute since 2nd July 1928, except for the period of occupation by the Nazis in WWII where the Last Post transferred to the Brookwood Military Cemetery, until the 6th Sept 1944 when Ypres was liberated by the Polish.
It was an emotional parade, with our standard bearers being asked to line the road opposite the Buglers from the Last Post Association. We laid 5 wreaths whilst the Sandhurst Military Wives Choir serenaded.

Our Last Post

30/8 14:45 (local time)
We are currently on the coach heading to Calais but we’ve had a reflective day. The Scouts travelled across the border into France, and visited the Commonwealth War Grave Commission experience & the Faubourg d’Amiens cemetery, learning about how the CWGC record & commemorate fallen soldiers, preserve remains & artefacts and even creating cemeteries for recently found soldiers over 100 years on.
The CWGC experience allowed the Scouts to see the full process from finding remains to burial & the maintenance of the memorials.
Some Scouts even tried their hand at chiselling a plinth. Luckily it was just a demo piece!