The Officer commanding troops on the Island instructed Colonel Brodie to request the 1st Newport Scout Troop to maintain a non-stop guard over the Carisbrooke reservoirs until it was possible to detail soldiers to do this. The time was 3.30pm and by 4.30pm J H Burgess, Group Scoutmaster and half a dozen senior Scouts left for Carisbrooke where the manager of the waterworks brought the key to the outer iron gates. By 6.00pm the camp was pitched, a sentry mounted and reliefs arranged.
For a whole month the guard was maintained with each new relief assembling at 6.30am each morning in St James Square and taking over the guard at 7.30am for the next period of 24 hours. Two sentries were mounted, one inside the outer gates with the key and one patrolling the line of ventilators where it was feared the enemy may try to insert a harmful substance.
The sentries performed a one-hour duty with three hours rest and discipline was rigorously maintained by the Patrol Leader in charge. One such Scout with five years-service who failed to appear for duty was brought before a ‘court of honour’ and expelled from the troop! There was of course no difficulty in getting boys for the guard as it was deemed a sufficient excuse for being absent from school!
The standing orders for the gate guard were that no person was to be admitted unless he had papers identifying him and a right to enter. On one such occasion the manager of the waterworks himself was refused entry as he had no papers and was told he would be knocked off the gate if he tried to climb it!
Various scares arose but nothing of a serious nature and one night a military guard arrived to take on duties there after. The troop were called on again shortly afterwards to provide a double guard where a mass of telephone wires entered the exchange. This was a particularly vulnerable spot and again the guard was maintained until soldiers took over.
Folklore says that the troop, now 1st Newport Scout Group (The Old Guard) obtained it’s ‘old guard’ moniker on account of the sentry duties.
Extract taken and abridged from the book ‘The History of the 1st Newport I.W. Troop (The Old Guard)
