The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme
This was introduced about two or three years before I left, and we were encouraged to take part. We did so at the bronze level; I don’t know whether anyone from my generation at Caldecott went on to take the silver or gold.
There were four categories, all of which we had to pass in order to qualify. One was Rescue and Public Service training; mine was training in first aid. I am sorry to say that I have forgotten most of what I learnt, but what I do remember is that one way to relieve the patient’s suffering in almost any situation was apparently to give him a cup of warm, sweet tea.
There was also a pursuit, defined as a creative or purposeful leisure activity different from those in other sections of the scheme. After all this time I have no memory of this at all, but my D of E record book tells me that I took part in the Ashford Association Drama Group.
By far the easiest and most enjoyable category was the expedition. This involved camping out overnight, including walking to the site [not of course an official campsite], erecting the tents and cooking our meals. It was of course something we had all done several times for pleasure. I went on the expedition with my brother Randall, Robert Clark and David G, and we thoroughly enjoyed it [photos 19 and 20].
Sadly, I did not receive the bronze award, and this was because I failed the physical fitness section. We had to pass in three out of five categories, and the fact that I could not swim ruled out swimming from the start. Running was no problem. Another, named ‘physical efficiency tests’, required us to pass three out of five tests, namely stamina, strength, skills, speed and spring. I passed three of these, two of which I cannot remember; the third was to run in a given time around the outer perimeter of a rectangle, and I soon twigged that the trick was to follow a notional oval track rather than slow myself down by turning a right angle at the corners.
That left jumping and throwing. Throughout the summer term I practised the high jump, the long jump, the shot, discus and javelin, but was never able to jump or throw far enough.
[Photograph: Duke of Edinburgh Expedition; me reading the map]
Camp