St George's Day parade in Hastings

Nearly 800 members of the Hastings, Rye and District Scouts and Girlguiding Hastings Division and Girlguiding St Leonards Division braved the seafront chill to parade from Wellington Square to the White Rock Theatre.

The parade was led by the Section 5 drummers followed by the main colour party consisting of the flag of St George escorted by the Union Flag and flags from the Scout and Guide sections.

The honour of carrying the St George flag this year was given to Cerys, a member of the Girlguiding Hastings Division Senior Section.

The Senior Section is for girls aged 14-25 and is celebrating its centenary year.

The salute was taken by the High Sheriff of East Sussex, Michael Foster DL. Also attending the event was immediate past mayor of Hastings, Alan Roberts.

During the service which followed, to mark the Centenary of the Cub Scouts, members of the section gave a brief history of Cub Scouting through the years.

There were also moving tributes to president and former district commissioner for Hastings, Rye and District Scouts, Eric Stokes, who passed away earlier this year aged 94.

He was also the founder of the local Gang Show.

Kitson and Del, past producers of the show, paid a moving tribute to Eric and Cub Scout Luke voiced his appreciation to Eric thanking him on

behalf of the younger members for the opportunity to carry on the legacy he left to the district Scouts.

The song ‘Crest of a Wave’, synonymous with Eric and Gang Show’s the world over, was sung at the end of the tribute.

The collection from the service will be donated to Eric’s named charity, the Andean Medical Mission, which sends medical staff to Latin America to perform eye surgery.

Three awards for services to local Scouting were presented - Andrew Bishop received the Medal of Merit and Angela Johnson was awarded the Silver Acorn, both presented by Judith Collins, acting district commissioner,

Judith was then presented with the bar to the Silver Acorn by district chairman Peter Walker.

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