“On my honour, I promise to do my best to do my duty to God and my country, to help other people at all times and to obey the Scout Law.” – Scout’s Promise.
Val Nash is now 85 years old and has been actively involved with Scouting for 45 years. The words of this promise are however still fresh in her mind. “I remember the Scout’s Promise as if I took my oath yesterday. When you took this oath, you took it for life. It wasn’t something you could break. It’s not like today, when it seems it is too easy to forget your oath,” she said.
Val has always been part of a scouting family and said it is a way of life that was taught to her children and their children.
She married her childhood friend when she was 18 years old. They were married for 59 years before her husband died after a long sickbed.
“Bob was a wonderful husband and we were very happy. We knew each other very well as we grew up together,” she said.
Val started scouting because of her husband. He was very involved in it and she wanted them to have something in common that they could talk about, as they were total opposites of each other.
After they got married, they moved to the Free State where they started a scouting troop in Goldfields. Bob started a Boy Scout troop and a Cub pack, and because girls were not yet allowed to participate in Scouts, Val started a Girl Guides troop, as well as a Brownie pack.
Because her husband worked on a mine, they moved house often, but they were involved in the Scouting movement in every area where they lived.
Scouting is voluntary, which means you do not get paid for it. “It is like doing church work. You do it for the love of it. But even so, the reward is seeing these children learning and mastering basic survival skills,” Val said.
She went on to say, “Scouting is about the little things and memories that nobody will ever be able to take away from you”.
They were rewarded with long service medals and both received the Silver Protea award. This is the highest token of thanks that the Scouting world can give. Val was also the only woman to have completed her Scouting and Wood Badges at the time.
Val completed 45 years of active scouting before she went to work in the Scout Shop to show her gratitude for everything the scouts had done for her. She said laughingly, “There comes a time when you cannot play and skip along with the boys anymore.”
Val is no longer as actively involved with the scouts, but she tries to follow their progress because, as she said, “Once a Scouter, always a Scouter.” She thinks the scouting movement today is not that different from what it was when she was involved, although she feels that they are not very active in the community any more and they do not receive a lot of exposure. “You used to see a lot of scouts around. They would visit old age homes and just spend time with the older people. You do not see that anymore,” she said.
Val now lives in the Wilro Park Retirement home, where she spends a lot of time knitting for charities. “I knit blankets, jerseys, baby booties – you name it, I knit it. The churches send their requests, I knit for them, and they distribute the articles to the people in need,” Val said. She also loves antiques and reading non-fiction, especially books about South Africa’s history.
Val has a very large family (four children, about 13 grandchildren and close to 27 great-grandchildren) all of whom live in Pretoria. She said they try to visit often and do not neglect her, but it does get lonely. “It would be nice if the Scout Troops brought their boys to visit and chat a bit,” she said wistfully.
As I got up to leave, Val greeted me with the Scout’s trademark left-handed handshake. Upon seeing my confusion she explained,”This is a sign of trust. Weapons were usually carried on the right-hand side and were easily accessible when shaking with the right hand. This is how you showed your trust towards the other person.”
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