The Jubilee in 1933 was the biggest event ever held in the history of The Boys' Brigade. : numbers were at their very best, with a total enrolment of 111,871 Boys and 52,219 Life Boys. Jubilee weeks, pageants, displays and thanksgivings were to be held up and down the land.
In London the celebrations began with the traditional Royal Albert Hall Demonstration, made memorable by the parade of the Original Company and the pioneer English and Irish Companies - the 1 st Glasgow, the lst London and the lst Belfast. On Midsummer Day the London Jubilee Review was held at Wembley in a deluge of rain. That very day the Test Match was washed out, an Air Force Pageant curtailed and a Territorial Review cancelled.But London's B.B. carried on. The huge arena at Wembley became a lake, but H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester gallantly stood to attention throughout the downpour to review the trooping of the colour,the massed bands, and the march past in slow time. The most impressive moment was the parade of the old boys, column after column, encircling the whole arena. The spectators rose as one man, and there was a continuous roar of cheers. It was a B.B. day to be remembered.
In contrast the sun shone all week on 'Glasgow 1933', the great B.B. event of the year. The whole hospitable city took the Brigade to its heart for a week of Jubilee. The railways provided cards so that Boys could save week by week for the trip. The 30th London Company bought their own second-hand bus and emblazoned their name and crest on it for the journey north. Belfast and Dublin chartered special steamers for their hundreds of Officers, Boys, parents and friends. The Dublin Old Boys went one better by chartering The Lady Munster to be their floating hotel at the Broomielaw in the heart of Glasgow for the whole weekend of their visit. Special trains brought uniformed Officers and Boys to Glasgow from all over Britain.
The Glasgow Companies began their own thanksgiving on Sunday 3rd September when every one of the city's 253 Companies paraded at morning service in their own church, each Company being accompanied by its Old Boys. Each night during the following week there were route-marches, open-air displays in the City's beautiful public parks, football matches, swimming galas, sports meetings and fancy-dress processions.
On the Wednesday, Colonel John A. Roxburgh, Brigade President, unveiled a bronze tablet in the lst Glasgow's headquarters in : orth Woodside Road which was to be a place of pilgrimage for every B.B.visitor that week. The tablet read:
The Jubilee lapel badge was to be seen all over the city. To be a B.B. Boy that glorious week was to walk like a king. And wherever you went you heard the stirring Jubilee song, written and composed by a B.B.Officer, Thomas Henderson:
For fifty years the work's been done,
And now it's ours to carry on!
Stedfast as our fathers were,
Sure in the faith that won;
Hear the song, clear and strong,
Down through the ranks go ringing;
'For fifty years the work's been done,
And now it's ours to carry on!'
The Jubilee Camp was at Dechmont, a few miles from the city, attended by two representative Boys from every Company in The Boys' Brigade, and from Denmark, Canada, Singapore and Nigeria. From the earliest hours of Friday 8th September, Transport Officers met a stream of Boys at the stations and docks and sent them on by rail to the Camp. There were 400 bell tents,17 dining marquees and 2 super-marquees for canteen and concerts, as well as a fully equipped field hospital with 3 doctors and a dentist in attendance. Each Boy at Dechmont was at once allocated to a Battalion, Company, and Tent, and there was a Glasgow Boy in every tent to be host and guide and friend. No one who was there could ever forget Dechmont - the new friends, the games, the sing-songs; the canteen, Camp Prayers, the Drumhead Service, and the final lighting of the Fire of Friendship on Dechmont Hill.
On the Friday night, in the presence of thousands of Campers, six NCOs' put their names to a parchment containing a secret message of greeting and goodwill addressed to their successors, the Boys of the Centenary Year,1983. The chosen six were:
Sergeant Hizzey of the lst Glasgow
Sergeant Gray of the 39th Belfast
Corporal Choy Ah Soo of the 2nd Singapore
Colour-Sergeant Morrish of the llth Cardiff
Colour-Sergeant Martin of the l2th Brighton
Sergeant Urquhart of the 214th Glasgow.
Thus they represented the Original Company, Ireland, Overseas, Wales, England and Scotland. The Parchment was deposited in a Bronze casket of remembrance, together with copies of the Jubilee programme, the list of visiting officers, a copy of the annual report, a set of Jubilee badges and a copy of the B.B.Jubilee battalion produced all that week by a national newspaper. The camp watched in complete silence as the casket was closed and sealed with wax with the imprint 'B.B.1933' at one end and 'B.B.1983' at the other. Many a Boy present at Dechmont that night vowed he would be at the opening of the casket at the Centenary celebrations - fifty years on!
Still the sun shone, every day and all that week. The Jubilee Review took place at Queen's Park Recreation Ground on Saturday lOth September with a parade state of 32,520 Officers and Boys. 100 special trains and as many buses carried the B.B. to Queen's Park where 16 schools were open to provide 1230 breakfasts, 10,949 lunches and 17,700 teas during that long exciting day.
The Inspecting Officer for the great event was His Royal Highness, Prince George, in naval uniform. The Parade of 17 Battalions was led by the lst Glasgow, under their Captain, Douglas Pearson Smith, son of the Founder. 637 pipers formed the Massed Pipe Bands, all bravely playing 'Highland Laddie'. The most dramatic moment was the Advance in Review order - thousands upon thousands of Boys advancing as one man - over a quarter of the total strength of the Brigade. No wonder Prince George said:
I want to congratulate every one of you on this parade.Your appearance and efficiency have served to show that the spirit of The Boys' Brigade is stronger than ever. The King warmly congratulates the Brigade on reaching the fiftieth milestone of its life of valuable service to the youth of our country, and desires me to express His Majesty's best wishes for the continued welfare and prosperity of the Boys' Brigade.
The National Anthem brought the official Review to an end, then cheers upon cheers for their royal visitor, and pill-boxes thrown high in the air. Then, from all over the ground came the rising chorus of the Jubilee Song, from more than 80,000 Boys and spectators more or less in unison:
For fifty years the work's been done,
And now it's ours to carry on!
Jubilee Sunday brought the largest open-air service ever held in this country, the Conventicle at Hampden Park, normally the scene of league and international football matches. There were 130,000 men and women, boys and girls and members of the B.B. in the ground, and at least another 100,000 outside, who could not get in. They had to be content with the distant sound from the loudspeakers. The Right Reverend Lauchlan Maclean Watt, , poet, preacher and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, conducted the Service of Worship. His text was, 'Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast.' and to the Boys' he said:
You are the world-builders, the centuries are growing in your hearts. You are the Children of the Daybreak and the Young Hopefuls of Jesus Christ. So today we thank God for the spiritual genius of William Smith who, building better than he knew, liberated a dream that has been an instrument of blessing for humanity.
The whole great company joined in the old Scottish psalms, 'All people that on earth do dwell' and 'The Lord's my Shepherd'.Everyone, for a mile round about, heard the singing.
Monday brought an excursion on the Firth of Clyde for everyone who had taken part in the Jubilee celebrations. The Boys embarked on the steamers Duchess of Argyle and, Jupiter, the visiting Officers on the Duchess of Hamilton and Queen Mary, bright with bunting from stem to stern. A long golden day took them by way of the Kyles of Bute and the site of the very first B.B. Camp. Then, on the homeward way, they sang the final chorus of the Jubilee Song and 'Auld Lang Syne'. A splendid Jubilee - a time to look back on fifty glorious years and to look forward with hope to the centenary of The Boys' Brigade. And it was a week of perfect weather, without a drop of rain.