In this the 100th anniversary of the start of the First Word War, many communities are turning their thoughts to those who were lost.

The Loose Swiss Scouts took their own casualties in the Great War.

Second Lieutenant John Grevilles Fulkes, of D Company, 3rd Battalion, the Essex Regiment, was killed on November 13, 1916, aged 30. He had been the troop’s Assistant Scoutmaster.

Private Alfred Vernon Langley, of the 7th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) died on September 17, 1917, aged just 20. He had been a Patrol Leader with the troop.

After the war, a memorial was erected to their honour, in the grounds of Crisbrook Mill, Cave Hill, in the Lower Loose Valley. It still stands today.

The memorial was unveiled on January 22, 1922, in a ceremony reported in the Kent Messenger of the day.

Brigadier-General Wingfield Stratford then observed: “The two essential points in the training of Scouts are devotion to duty and cheerful endurance.”

He remarked how those qualities had been exhibited by both men at the front in France.

Members of today’s Swiss Scouts will be holding a service of remembrance at the memorial on Sunday, October 12, starting at 3pm.

All welcome.