Andrew Moncrieff, Mary Mills and Rev Clive R Fowle take a trip down memory lane, while Anthony Claff and Peter Wrigley say the Scouts weren’t so bad eitherPhineas Harper’s article reminded me of how much the Woodcraft Folk influenced my life (Like Jeremy Corbyn and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, I grew up in Woodcraft Folk. Here’s how it changes children’s lives, 16 August). In the early 1950s my parents actively sought a socialist children’s organisation. We lived in Clapham and the nearest Woodcraft group met in a co-op hall in Balham. The group was called Sunrise Elfins and the leader was Ada, the wife of national organiser Henry Fair.In 1952, aged six, I went on my first of many summer camps. The camp was at Westward Ho! and was hit by a hurricane that was reported on the Daily Mirror’s front page. In 1959 I went to Czechoslovakia in a 10-strong delegation. One of my lasting memories was visiting Lidice, a village razed to the ground in reprisal for the assassination of an SS official, Reinhard Heydrich. Continue reading…