MRS. MONICA BOATWRIGHT
1922 The Start
It all started in 1922, when the Chief Commissioner for South Africa, Mrs. Fulford, came to Swaziland and stayed with my parents. She came to tell Swaziland about Guiding, and my mother was very interested and called a meeting of all other interested parents. I was produced to model the Brownie uniform which thrilled me very much. It was a huge straw hat, brown uniform, Sixer emblem on the left and a cloth Brownie emblem on the right above the pocket, and a Guide belt, the smallest size yet it always slipped off me all the time. My mother was enrolled as a Guide and given a cockade and wonderful silver cords pinned to her jacket. She wore a straw hat with an enormous cockade on one side and huge gauntlet gloves. She became the first Territorial Commissioner for Swaziland, and in those days it was called Protectorate Commissioner. The first Company was started at St. Marks School in Mbabane and a Pack at the same time. The Brownies helped form Guards of Honour with the Guides and Police on the arrival of High Commissioners, the Prince of Wales, etc. My chief recollection of this is how we ran away from the huge prancing horses as they cantered up suddenly with mounted police as escort to the V.I.P. car, and a distraught Brown Owl trying to get us back into line.
The story of my Guide life nearly ended here because I could not darn, and darning a sock was one of the things we had to do. Every time the Brown Owl would say, poking her finger right through my painfully achieved darn, "Supposing this had been the toe, Monica?" I tried three times and ended up in tears and if it hadn't been for my mother's encouragement I would have given up completely.
In those days Brownies had to make sets of dolls clothes or to knit wristlets or a muffler as part of their tests for First Class. The Grand Howl was made by putting your finger into your mouth and twirling it up and down and 'Tu Whooing' at the same time, culminating in a loud 'La La La' whereupon the most senior Sixer in the Pack asked 'What does La La La mean?" and all the Pack shouted out 'Lend a Hand, and play the game'. I often wondered what game was referred to. She then produced a Union Jack from her pocket and all the Pack stood at attention
A Guide
I then went on to Guides, having got my First Class in Brownies. Badges in those days didn't seem to have been invented tor Brownies. I had to walk or bike rather a long way to attend Guides so was a bit weary when we w at tracking and I used to trail behind when everybody else was finding a sign, but I had a very sympathetic Captain who took my efforts into account. I was a member of the Loerie Patrol which we pronounced (Lorry) and then became Patrol Leader of the Swallows and went to camp. What a thrill! Ox wagons were in vogue then and our kit all went in ox wagons. Our uniforms were all home-made and hats were blue straw, all of one size. Mine was stuffed with paper and I looked rather like a tadpole. In fact the only Guide whose hat fitted was the Company Leader. We had great fun, and an excellent Captain, and I was working towards First Class and was very interested in Guiding when I was then sent to boarding school in South Africa. There I became a very junior member in a patrol named after some dim flower which grows at the Cape. How boring to be a flower! We did nothing but drill and march and there were so many in the Company that we never got time to pass tests. Again I needed all my resolution just to stick it out.
I was 13½ when my mother died and I returned to Swaziland and to school at St. Marks. After that, in a year we moved to England and I went to a school where there were no Guides. I therefore joined Lones and did a lot of badge work in my spare time like Toymaker, etc., and was working for my First Class. The juniors in the School came to me and asked me to ask the Headmistress please to get Guides started. She was sympathetic and when opportunity occurred and a new Games Mistress arrived, who would become the Captain, Guides started, to the sound of great jeers from the seniors about the gaudy Girl Guides. However, we flourished and I managed to get my First Class. In those days, there were three kinds of First Class. There was the red, which is the same as it is now, there was the green, which was mine without the swimming test - there were no facilities to learn at that school and also in Swaziland the rivers were unsafe. Then the third was the mauve which was for handicapped Guides.
1929 Arrowe Park Jamboree
During one holiday I went to Arrowe Park, in Cheshire, England, to the great Scout Jamboree which was in 1929. I had my first sight of the Founder and I saw him blow the Kudu Horn. What mud there was!, for it rained almost the whole time, and the Founder made his rounds on horseback.
I left school and started off raising a Brownie Pack in Dorset, whose dialect I found very difficult to understand. I went to Foxlease to train and liked that very much indeed. And then we moved to Devon, and I started another Brownie Pack also Cubs. I went to Gilwell, thinking it was the same thing as Foxlease, but it wasn't! We were under canvas and we had cold showers!
1933 The "Calgaric" Cruise
My most excitement was the "Calgaric" Cruise in 1933 with the Chiefs and their family. We went to the Baltic ports and Scandinavian ports. What a wonderful experience. It was her idea to charter a ship and take Scouters and Guiders to see foreign Scouts and Guides, B-P was a bit taken aback and said 'What will you do if nobody will come? You'll have a whole ship on your hands with nobody in it.' However, she was determined and undeterred she went ahead and hired the "Calgaric". We went to Holland, we went through the Kiel Canal, we went to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia (these places are now all swallowed by Russia), also to Danzig and to Gdynia. On the quay there was a lone Scout wearing a Swastika on his arm in a Scout uniform. It was just before Hitler's rise to power. What a wonderful welcome we had everywhere.
We then organised everyone on the ship to respond to welcomes. So when we tied up at any port a Welsh Scouter slipped over the side and conducted from the quay the yell which was to be a special Thing:
Hullo hullo, hullo,
We are here to meet you,
We are here to greet you,
Hullo, hullo, hullo,
C - A - L - G - A - R - I - C
Calgaric!
A preliminary Cub Course was held during the time we were at sea. We had to be occupied doing things and for this Cub Course those who attended were given certificates. I still have mine. We had entertainment, B-P doing an item quite by himself of a Rhodesian / South African scene in the sticks; a man on a farm seeing the dust arising on the horizon and a car coming along, and then chasing a chicken, killing it, cooking it and getting it ready by the time the travellers arrived at the front door, all in mime except for the hen noises. The audience could see the whole thing as if were a reality. He was over 80 then. I remember the thrill of being sent on a message by him, 'Hey you', and a very much alarmed Monica came to receive a message, which was for the Chief Guide. The presents which were showered on us by the Scouts and Guides: the time I was lost in Estonia with some Scouters who did frantic swimming signs with their arms to ask where the sea was, and the amused locals who understood perfectly. What fun it all was, to see the international side of the Movement and not just to read about it. The Guides camped for a month, not just a week or two, each patrol all sleeping in one bed which took up all the tent space and the bed was made as a camp gadget, with a wonderfully embroidered bedspread on it. The Swedish Boy Scouts rushed to B-P as soon as he landed and seized him and threw him up in the air, and the agonized voice of the Chief Guide saying 'Oh, don't drop him, don't drop him'! All these things I remember very well.
St. Helena
I next went to St. Helena for six months, but I didn't do much Guiding there, though I went and visited the Cubs.
Sophiatown
From there I went to Sophiatown, a slum area near Johannesburg, in 1934. I ran two packs of Cubs at different times and two troops of Scouts at different times, and somehow I took my warrant and became a District Captain in the Wayfarer Guides. One memorable day I remember Very well was with Miss Lawrence, making 106 trefoils out of cardboard, and colouring them, and sticking pins into them, when the Wayfarers became Wayfarer Guides, for that very grand day that was to become historic.
In Sophiatown there wasn't any open space where one could have Cub meetings, so I used to march my little boys on to an adjoining kopje. The streets were not made up and after rain, huge pools formed that contained all the dirt imaginable, plus dead dogs and cats. Imagine how I felt when the church bells rang the Angelus and all my boys stopped as one, right beside one of these many pools to say the Angelus. Then the locals used to shout after us 'Ama sojah ka missis' (Soldier on missis)! On another occasion my Scout Troop met in the evening under a lamp post before going into the schoolroom; I found myself one moment with the boys, the next there was not a boy to be seen. Far away down the street I saw Police with long bits of wire, stabbing it into the road to find the soft spots where the skokiaan queens had hidden their drink.
From Sophiatown, with its sharp little urchins, I returned to Swaziland, where I went to a coloured school at St. Michael's Mission to help keep it going. There I started Guides, Scouts and Cubs. I then left and went to help on a farm in the Transvaal, because this was at the time of the war, in order to enable the owner of the farm to join up. So at this time I became Captain of the 1st Transvaal Lone Company and so kept my contact with Guiding. I had Railway gangers' children and all sorts of children in this Company, I remember one African in a place called Taungs used to write and end her letter "In the name of the Father, and of the son and of the Whole Ghost" and sign her name.
The farm was sold and I returned to Swaziland on request to help the Mission at Mbabane. I found the Guides were very flourishing among the European children, so I set to work and started a company of Guides, then Cubs followed and then Scouts. I then was put on the Gilwell Training Team and became Akela Leader and so was able to organise trainings for Scouters in Swaziland also in Johannesburg. Very soon we had troops and companies in most of the main centres of Swaziland.
1947 The Royal visit
The next excitement was the Royal visit. It took place when their Majesties, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth with the two Princesses came to Swaziland. I had in the meantime become Territorial Secretary as well and so I had a great deal to do in organising the transport of the children to the spot in Swaziland to which their Majesties were coming. It was very hard work because it was at the time when the rains had started to break, and I was afraid the lorries would stick in the rivers. At the inspection, I was with my Company and my Pack was in the charge of an Assistant, and Princess Elizabeth came and inspected. She was very good at doing this because she talked to the children in the back rows, not only those in the front. Everything went off splendidly, until - horror upon horror - a poor European Company next door to us had a very ancient flag which they had taken out of the church where it had been laid up, for this occasion. It had many moth holes in it but as everybody thought nobody would really look at the thing closely, they paraded with it, but Princess Elizabeth, on coming to the Company, insisted on looking at the colour. The Colour Bearers nearly passed out
I next became Territorial Commissioner and this kept me very busy. The Government were very kind and gave me the use of a car to visit distant places and also free postal services - (our Guide post was free - telephones were free,) and all this was a tremendous help in organising Guides. I had great help from Lady Beetham when she was President.
I was in charge of the contingent which was sent to Cape Town for Princess Elizabeth's Birthday Parade. This consisted of one Swazi, one European and one Scottish Brown Owl, who also ran Cubs and insisted on wearing both bits of uniform together, and I, of course, had strict instructions to see everybody was correctly dressed and I did my best on the train, but what can you do with the Scots??
Imagine my embarrassment having just got off the train in Cape Town (which was late) being hustled off to march down Adderley Street and to notice that my Swazi Guide was bringing with her, clutched very firmly, a large bottle. She was determined to get some sea water, In due course a kind seaman in H,M.S. Vanguard got some up the side in a bucket and filled her bottle for her.
The Chief Guide's Visit to Swaziland
My next excitement was the visit of the Chief Guide, the Chief Commissioner for South Africa and Betty Clay to Swaziland. Wonderful co-operation from the Mbabane L.A. and all over Swaziland, enabled every child able to come, to come to Mbabane, packed so tightly in lorries that they were standing up. We called the gathering 'Jabulani' which means 'Everyone rejoice'. The Chief was coming to us from the Transvaal and we were told that she did not like travelling on bad roads and so would be flown from Johannesburg to Carolina which was on our borders. So I set out to meet her in my best uniform in the Resident Commissioner's car with a very smart chauffeur. On arriving at Carolina we asked the way to the airfield. It was pointed out to us, and behold! A field of waving grass two to three feet high and I was told it hadn't been in use for a long time, and that the local garage had the wind sock. We tore down the street to the garage but the man said they had had the wind sock but they had sent it to Johannesburg for repair!
Imagine this! We had fifteen minutes, and no time to argue so we took all the dirty rags from the garage and set off at once back to this airfield. The chauffeur arranged all the rags while I rushed up and down to see if there were any ant bear holes but only found two concrete blocks. We lighted the fire and heard the plane. The smoke was black and evil looking, and terribly smelly, but plenty of it. The plane circled round several times and we decided that if it didn't land here, we would go to Ermelo the next town, where we were sure to have a proper airstrip. But the Dove Pilot decided to make his run in. I shut my eyes, and down she came, with several big bumps. The door opened and a beaming Chief Guide came out as if nothing had happened and embraced a very dirty Territorial Commissioner. The Chief Commissioner, South Africa, was white and shaken, her first flight, and Betty followed, rather pale. So we all got into the car and drove off. The nearest place possible we stopped and had a cup of tea. But it was one of the worst experiences I've ever had, no means at all of communicating with the pilot of the plane.
The rest of the visit was uneventful and everyone did their stuff, even to the Government District Commissioner, crowing like a cock to give the sign to the Sunbeams and Brownies to burst through the Swazi hut to form a ring and give the howl.
The only other incident was, as the Chief was going around, looking at the Companies, a man appeared plus a camera from the side of the crowd where the visitors were looking on, and said in a broad American accent, "Say, what is happening, who are you?", to my horror and amazement The Chief just said, "I am Lady Baden-Powell, and I am doing my job, looking at Guides. Would you let me continue."
The Leper Company was brought in on a lorry and stood to attention on it while the Chief spoke to them. It was a wonderful day, but I don't think I'd ever like to organise such a huge affair again. The upshot of it was a few weeks later on, the Chief wrote and asked me if I would go to Tanganyika (as it was then), to help train the Guides there, as the Territorial Commissioner, Mrs. Moffat, was in great need of someone to do training who had had experience with Africans.
Tanganyika
I leapt at the chance, and got leave from my job for three months, and prepared to go. It was a bit of a shock to South African Headquarters as I hadn't a training certificate or anything and there was no time to do anything about it, so they turned a blind eye most kindly. I caught the ship at Lourenco Marques and got to Beira where we were delayed for five days with cargo so we arrived in Dar-es-Salaam five days late. I was to have been briefed there by Mrs. Moffat. Instead she came out in a launch to the ship and as my name began with a 'W' I was to be the last to disembark, so she yelled instructions to me from the launch while I leaned over the side and tried to take them in. Immediately on landing I was to go to the training and leave fo Tabora, so we continued the briefing in the car going to the station. I was given money, all in shillings, large sums I thought, and off I went, to the absolute unknown. The train was a wood burning one, so not very fast, so I saw a bit of the country going past. Arriving at Tabora, there was no-one to meet me, so I got someone to get my luggage which was very heavy with training equipment and went outside to find a taxi. Fortunately, however, the Headmistress of the Government School turned up, and all was well. I stayed with her for the duration of this visit.
I trained Africans in Kiswahili and Swazi. Then I trained sari-robed Asians in English. Stalking in African dust in these beautiful garments really went to my heart. I visited Companies, but there were no Packs. I had a wonderful time.
Next I went on a trip to Itigi where I stayed in a Rest House until the bus left. These travelled in pairs to help each other in case of breakdowns, but it was always the other bus that had the tools. We didn't get far before the radiator burst, so we had to go back to Itigi. However, we all got off in the end and I saw this curious tribe called 'The Wagogo' who have these enormous earlobes which they tie behind their necks to keep them out of the way, rather like the Masai. We travelled all night and we arrived at Dodoma where I stayed and trained Asians. From there I went to Iringa by bus. There were no Guides there so I was just catching buses, and I started off again to go to Mbeya. We travelled all night and at 6 a.m. we had a stop, and a nice kind Guide Captain met me and I had a bath and breakfast before going on to Mbeya. Then, horror of horrors, the brakes failed, and on those mountains it was no joke. The driver was obviously used to it and could manipulate his gears, using them instead. I arrived a bit worn out at Mbeya and stayed with the Headmistress of the girls' school there. My Kiswahili was improving and I trained Africans and Asians, and then went to Tukuyu and saw Europeans.
I then caught another bus and I went off to Arusha where I trained Europeans and Asians. Then up to Moshi, where I was put in a tent in the garden of the Guide District Commissioner's house as her house was full with her relations who were visiting here, full of stories about rhinoceros in the vicinity. A tent didn't seem very secure. All Asian girls here, and then I went to Machame to a Government School on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. It was very cold at night here and the mountain was lovely looking like an enormous great plum pudding with a cap of white sauce on top. It was here I had rather an eerie experience, going in a bus again with all the girls to Moshi, for a campfire. Coming back quite late at night, of course the bus stopped again and wouldn't go, for what seemed to me hours. Not understanding what was going on or a word that was said, it was all rather spooky with bamboos rustling and weird night noises, However, at last we got started and arrived home safely.
From here I went off by train to a place whose name escapes me where I arrived in the middle of the night and had to take the bus up into the Usumbari Mountains, to a place called Lushoto. This bus had brakes but no lights, fortunately there was a moon. Lushoto was a very German-looking town. Here I had my first experience with Warrior ants. I was busy in the middle of the training session when, with a yell "siyrfu!" the trainees disappeared, and I saw these terrible ants marching straight through what was the training circle. I also beat a hasty retreat.
From here I went on to a place called Kifangula, lush and green and beautiful, and where the quinine trees grow, and there I stayed at a Coloured Mission of the Roman Catholic Church. I was treated royally and given the Bishop's room where he slept when visiting the Mission, and trained coloured girls.
After this, I came down from the cool of the mountains to the heat of Tanga by train. There I stayed with the Government District Commissioner and his wife, and pookies kept leaping on the roof at night, keeping me awake. One other thing I remember is my host ate Curry for breakfast, turning scarlet in the process. Here I trained Asians of all faiths, and also those in Purdah which were my first lot of Guiders whom I trained in Brownie work, as well as Africans. The heat was terrific and I had a narrow squeak when a coconut fell off a tree under which I was holding a session, and landed beside me with a plop. After that I always chose my places more carefully. I had a wonderful and exhausting time in Tanzania. In between I had days off and was shown the country, everyone was so kind. At a lunch given in my honour, an Indian man, who was a member of the Local Association, fed me with the hottest of kebabs imaginable. I nearly died of it. Also Asian girls showed me the polite way to eat chapattis. This is quite an art.
The children and Guiders everywhere were wonderful and I came away loaded with presents.
I flew from Tanga to Dar-es-Salaam, and an Asian who owned a Sisal plantation allowed me to have his share of luggage allowance, so I was able to have all my books and training equipment and presents free, though these became quite a problem to cart about the country. I stayed in Dar-es-Salaam for a bit of a rest and to report on everything before I finally left for home by air to Lourenco Marques. I was asked to return as a Trainer, but I married instead.
Mocambique
Now came a lull as I went to live near Joro Bolo (Xai Xai) in Mocambique and at that time the Portuguese did not allow Guides. Everyone belonged to the local Youth Movement or Mossadades. However, the hot weather I used to return to Swaziland and stay with my sister, who had taken over the territory as Territorial Commissioner, so I was soon roped in again to do Guiding things, and at that time I was asked to organise something for Lady Helen Gibbs, which was my first meeting with her.
We left Mocambique and returned to Swaziland for a short time where I found myself again in Swazi Guiding. I organised Marcelle de Meulemeester's first training visit. The Chief Commissioner of South Africa, Miss Grant, came on a visit and we had great fun getting a cake iced in blue with a gold trefoil to give to the Queen Mother, Indhloukazi (female elephant) of Swaziland, to whom Miss Grant was to be introduced. She wanted to give her a Supporter's Badge, which was quite a problem. I explained that there was nothing to pin a Supporter's Badge on except goatskin and bare skin, and so she made it into the form of an Order and with coloured ribbon and that was tied round the Queen's neck.
Rhodesia
We then moved to Rhodesia (after a holiday in England), where the Chief Guide kindly let us make her apartment at Hampton Court Palace our headquarters. On arriving in Rhodesia we were without a house or anywhere to live so we lived on a farm for a little time and then in a caravan. I was visited by Mrs. Sherry who at once, before I had even got a house to live in, persuaded me to become the first Division Commissioner of Matabeleland North. This Division started at the Victoria Falls and included Wankie, Nyamandhlovu, and then jumped over Bulawayo and continued to Ntabazinduna, Shangani and Inyati. Some Division! I enjoyed it and had a number of adventures. A highlight was Mrs. Wynne's visit to Inyati where we marched round the church behind the Chief Commissioner's standard and flags and sang the old hymn Mr. Sykes had made up from the Triumph song of the Matabele warriors who sang it on return from eating up the Mashonas. He turned it into a Christian hymn. The original was "Nansi indaba yomkonto" - "Here is the matter of a spear" and he turned it into "Nanisi indaba isisemkonto" - "Here is the matter not of a spear" but singing it to the same tune, It was really thrilling hearing it being sung by all the children in a place where it had been first used.
The Chief Guide's visit to Rhodesia
Next was the Chief Guide's visit to Rhodesia. I couldn't get many of my Division together in Bulawayo so I made a flag of various little elephants holding something in their trunks indicating what part of the country and what units were in the Division.
I started Brownies at St. James first, then Guides, then finally Rangers. The latter I ran myself for some time as unlike the other Units I couldn't get anyone to take them over. These Rangers pioneered the feeding scheme that Rhodesia got the Certificate of the Donald Ross Trophy for, it hangs in H.Q. in Salisbury. I then became Division Commissioner of Matabeleland West and started in a small way in the Tjoloto Tribal Trust.
Finally, I got somebody else to take over the Division and started the job of Lones, my present job, together with running a pack of Cubs and being on the Gilwell training team, Matabeleland, as Assistant Akela
After fifty-two years, I feel that as Guiding is a youth movement it is now time for me to hand on, but I hope that for the rest of my life I may remain in contact and help wherever I can, and that I am asked to do so.
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