ARTHUR Boddy, of Darlington, was one of the 6,000 Scouts camping in Raby Castle in 1936, which Echo Memories featured three weeks ago.

Arthur was a patrol leader in the 16th Darlington (Victoria Road Methodist) troop at the time.

The Northern Counties Jamboree, held in early August, opened with an address from Lord Baden Powell under clear skies, but soon the rain set in.

"We had been given a site on slightly sloping ground and pitched our tents facing down the slope," Arthur recalls. "That night we had to hastily dig shallow trenches around the back and sides of the tents to carry away the water.

"The rain continued throughout the Tuesday and Wednesday. It became impossible to cook, and the latrines and washing area turned into a quagmire.

"We existed on soggy sandwiches filled with corned beef, cheese or jam. One troop had a covered cooking area and kindly allowed us to brew up when they were not using the fire. There was also a shopping area, where we could supplement our diet with Scotch eggs and milkshakes.

"On the Thursday morning, when our skipper asked for a vote on whether we should break camp, it was unanimous. Damp, bedraggled and hungry, we headed for home comforts."

Arthur, then 15, was not deterred and the next year he was one of 30 Durham Scouts who took part in the World Jamboree in Holland.

"I was excused duties like cooking because I was Lord Barnard's batman. At 7am, I had to clean his shoes and get him some shaving water."

Arthur adds: "Little did we know what life had in store for us. Most of the boys I met were to see action in some theatre of war between 1939 and 1946. Our skipper was the first to be killed, dying at Dunkirk in June 1940."

Arthur was taken prisoner in 1942. After the war, he became assistant Scoutmaster at Middleton St George, then ran the Cub pack at Arthur Pease School.

Also at the opening day of the Raby jamboree, having walked from his home village of Evenwood, was Raymond Gibson.

He remembers that some of the Scouts' foreign visitors - they came from Holland, Norway and Sweden - managed to get lost in Bishop Auckland Market Place.

"They couldn't speak English to ask how to get to Raby Castle and the locals couldn't communicate with them," he says.

Raymond was a member of the Bulldog Patrol of the Evenwood Troop, and Lord Barnard of Raby Castle - or "Lordie" as the boys affectionately knew him - was a common visitor. He also allowed the Evenwood Scouts to camp in Raby's grounds. This was no surprise. Lord Barnard, father of the current occupant of the castle, became involved with Scouting in May 1910, when he set up the Staindrop troop. Scouting was in its infancy then.

In 1912, he took the Staindrop troop to Durham's first county camp at Lambton Park, and was subsequently a familiar figure wherever Scouts gathered, at home or abroad. He retired as County Commissioner shortly before his death, aged 75, in 1964