About Us
The history of 9th Walton (Viscount) Scouts
Why 9th Walton?
9th Walton-On-Thames Scout Group was originally formed as an Open Sponsored Land Scout group in January 1968 under the sponsorship of Walton Methodist church, the incumbent being Rev. Bill Robson.
John Pearson became the Group Scout Leader. His daughter became the Cub Leader and his son in law became the Scout leader.
On 2nd October 1968 it was converted to an Air Scout group due to the keen air interest of the leaders and particularly as John Pearson was working at BAC Weybridge.
Why Viscount?
On 11th July 1969 it added “Viscount” to its name, with kind permission from British Aircraft Corporation (Weybridge). The chief designer came to a presentation and gave us a large photograph and scale model of a Viscount aircraft that was used in wind tunnel tests.
Flying and Flags
During a church service it was noted that the Scout group had no flags. A member of the congregation, Mrs Pegley, kindly offered to buy a flag for the Cubs and Scouts and Mr. and Mrs Beck presented them with the Union flag. Later when a Venture Scout unit was formed, Mrs. Foster presented them with their Unit flag.
In about 1971 the Group gained RAF recognition. With the departure of the Pearson family to Northampton, Cliff Beck relinquished the job of Scout Leader to become GSL and Brian Chambers then became Scout Leader.
In Britain there are between 3500 and 4000 air scouts from 130 Air Scout Groups with only 60 Groups in the country having RAF recognition.