North West Durham Battalion
To condense into words 75 glorious years of continuous service of
the Boys' Brigade movement within this area is well nigh on
impossible. Let us look back to where it all began.
William A. Smith, a Glasgow Sunday School teacher, seeking to
control the natural but unruly behaviour of his class of boys,
decided to instil a code of discipline esprit de corps with his
religious teaching, and to achieve this he formed with 30 Boys the
first Boys' Brigade on the 4th October 1883.
This newly discovered explosive idea of religion with discipline
spread like a forest fire throughout the country, but it was not
until 1925 that the flames reached North West Durham. Here R.W.
(Bob) Birtle introduced the object of the Boys' Brigade movement to
St John Methodist Church at Annfield Plain and under his leadership
a company was duly enrolled on 23rd March 1926.
At Consett in the Avenue Methodist Church, under the inspiration of
M.W. (Matt) Atkinson another company was formed and within a year, a
further six companies were operating under the initial control of an
Area Council of Officers.
The pattern of the movement continued and on the 3rd November 1927
the North West Durham Battalion was officially inaugurated with Mr
F.B. George as President, Capt. M.W. Atkinson as Vice-President,
Lieut. F.M. Bainbridge as Treasurer and Capt. R.W. Birtle as
Secretary.
Over the 75+ unbroken years of service, men whose names are
legendary, and many more lesser known, have continued to build up a
tradition on which today we are privileged to share in the
celebrations of the 75th Anniversary.
The best way to preserve this tradition is to simply add to it,
maintaining at the centre of our work the original "Object"
Adapted from "How it all began" by A Wilkinson
NWD Battalion - Golden Jubilee Booklet
