Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A superb ‘All Clear Boys’ Scout Gilt Cross awarded to Scout Patrol Leader L. A. Richards, St. Matthias Scout Troop, Bethnal Green, for his gallantry rescuing and rendering first aid to the victims of a direct hit during an enemy air raid on Bethnal Green on 19 May 1918: ‘With a raging conflagration above and flooding below the boys of the St. Matthias Scout Troop went in and calmly carried out the duties required of us’

Boy Scouts Association Gallantry Cross, 3rd Class, 1st issue, gilt, the reverse inscribed ‘L. A. Richards 5.7.18’, with integral top gilt riband bar; together with the named award Certificate, inscribed ‘This is to Certify that I have Awarded to Patrol Leader Richards of the Saint Mathias [sic] Troop, Bethnal Green the Gilt Cross of the Boy Scouts for Rescuing and rendering first aid to the victims of an air raid at Bethnal Green on 19 May 1918. Signed “Robert Baden Powell”, Chief Scout’, this mounted in a glazed display frame; and a Presentation Bugle, inscribed ‘Presented to Arthur Richards S.P.L. of St. Matthias Scouts by the People of S.W. Ward Bethnal Green, for Valuable Services rendered during Air Raids 1914-1918 “All Clear Boys”.’, good very fine and better (lot) £1,200-£1,600

L. A. Richards, a Patrol Leader of St. Matthias Scout Troop, Bethnal Green, served during the Great War as an ‘All Clear Boy’, and for his services was awarded the Boy Scouts Association Gilt Cross, specifically for rescuing and rendering first aid to the victims of a air raid on Bethnal Green on 19 May 1918. His own account of the War states:

The ‘All Clear Boys’
‘Following the outbreak of the Great War, the whole troop got together to consider what could be done to contribute towards the war effort. As a result of those deliberations an approach was made to the Officer in Charge, Bethnal Green police station, to see if our talents could be of service. After giving the matter careful consideration the Inspector suggested that it might be a good idea to establish a First Aid Post in a room in the Mission Hall, then facing Old Bethnal Green railway junction, which also served as a Headquarters for the Police Special Constabulary. We agreed to do this and soon a First Aid Station was set up and fully operational with at least one person on duty at all times. The days which followed were not idle times. Practice and more practice was the order of the day and after a short while everything was working with clock-work precision.

Then, quite unexpectedly, came the Zeppelin raids with bombs dropping on London and its environs. These air attacks were so unexpected that no provision had been made by the government for such an emergency. There were no air raid shelters! Terrified people just fled from their houses to church crypts (which really offered little protection from falling bombs) and to the lower parts of the taller tenement buildings and factories. People just felt that bit safer deep down in the earth huddled together for company. But the most terrifying part of the whole business was the fact that it was not until the bombs were actually falling that the people realised that an air raid was in progress.

The police were the first public organisation to get a few minutes’ advanced warning of an impending air raid but they had no way of passing that information on to the people. Needless to say, the cyclists of St. Matthias Boy Scout Troop supplied the answer. We linked up with the first aiders and immediately after the police were informed that a raid was imminent the information was passed onto us cyclists who, without thought for our safety, raced around the borough on our bikes calling out “TAKE COVER!” The whole operation was carried out in an orderly manner. Each cyclist was made responsible for a certain number of streets and with a quarter of an hour of an air raid warning being received by the police the whole of the Borough had been warned to Take Cover.

As soon as it became known to the police that the German raiders had been driven off, us cyclists sprang into action once again but this time we carried a bugle. On it we sounded two distinct notes which soon came to be recognised by the public as meaning “ALL CLEAR.”
This simple bugle call brought relief and joy to the hearts of the people. With smiles of pleasure and gratitude they left their places of supposed shelter to return home. Us lads on bikes soon became known as the “All Clear Boys”.’

The crucial test came during the evening of 19 May 1918:
‘Quite close the First Aid Post were several tenement building blocks, about four stories in height, each housing several families. On that fateful day, the people had been given advanced warning to take cover but the folk living in the buildings regarded the ground floor rooms of the somewhat substantially constructed tenement blocks to be safer than a church crypt. So most of the occupants flocked down to the ground floor.

Suddenly one of the building blocks received a direct hit by a bomb! The force of the explosion fractured the water main and the lower part of the building rapidly became flooded while the upper part was burning fiercely. With a raging conflagration above and flooding below the boys of the St. Matthias Scout Troop went in and calmly carried out the duties required of us. As a result of our action I and one other of our team received the Gilt Cross for Gallantry of the Boy Scout Movement. It was, of course, really a token award in recognition of the whole team's courageous efforts. At a later date an investiture was held at The People’s Palace in Mile End Road when the Gilt Crosses were pinned onto our uniforms by General Sir Alfred Codrington of the Guards. The two of us also received an illuminated certificate signed by Robert Baden-Powell.

As soon as the war ended, and unknown to the scouts of St. Matthias Troop, the good-hearted, cockney stall-holders whose barrows of wares ranged along the whole length of Bethnal Green Road made a collection from their equally appreciative customers to show their thanks. At a specially arranged Public Concert attended by the Mayor and other local dignitaries each of us All Clear Boys were presented with a suitably engraved bugle.’

Sold with a typed ‘Memoire’ written by the recipient, detailing his Great War activities; and four black and white postcard photographs relating to the recipient and his award.