Brian and Jenny Cumpstey

A PAIR of long-standing Scout leaders have retired after more than 50 years teaching children how to “be prepared”.

Jenny and Brian Cumpstey have led the 34th Islington Scouts in Gillespie Park Hall since the 1960s and even though they are now about to take a long-earned rest, insist that the organisation is as relevant today for young people as it was when it was founded in 1907.

Trouble is, they warned, there aren’t enough people who want to lead groups any more.

“You’ve got the kids, but you haven’t got the leaders,” said Mrs Cumpstey. “When we tell them they have to do this and that to become a leader, they say ‘Oh no, we can’t give our time up for that.’”

There are currently 38,000 young people on waiting lists in the UK to join Scout groups, but no leaders to lead them.

The couple hung up their own black and yellow scarfs earlier this month when they held their goodbye party.

Mr Cumpstey, 77, became the 34th Islington Scouts leader in 1964 when Harold Wilson was prime minister. He had joined the group as a boy 10 years earlier. His wife, 72, became a leader there in 1972. The couple married a year later and moved to Canning Road near the Arsenal stadium and had two sons, Rob and Dan. They celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next week.

For Mr Cumpstey, his age was making it harder to lead the children in the activities he once revelled in. “It was a difficult decision,” he admitted. “But I can’t do what I used to be able to do, like camping, hiking with the kids and my patience got more… it dwindled.”

The couple joyfully recalled countless camping trips with their group, alongside their own sons, who both joined trips when they were just months old. Other happy memories include sports days at Finsbury Park and Highbury Fields and the assimilation of girls into the Scouts in 1976.

“We’ve loved it,” said Mrs Cumpstey, who worked as a teaching assistant at Joan of Arc Primary School in Highbury for just under 30 years. “We really did. And we were fortunate we had two boys and we could do it. We could take them so it didn’t interfere with family life.”

She added: “When Brian was unemployed it was just unbelievable. People were there just bringing us stuff. It’s just one big family.”

Her husband added: “I was dead choked when I said to the kids [we were retiring]. It was awful.”

Praising the organisation, which places adventure at the heart of what it teaches, Mr Cumpstey, a chef at Trust House Forte for 25 years before becoming a school caretaker at Highbury Fields School in Highbury and then St Mary’s Church of England primary school in Angel, added: “For the children, they get camaraderie and make friendships outside of school”.

A Facebook post dedicated to them has garnered dozens of comments from former Scouts.

A message from Iyare Igiehon said: “You changed my life. You opened my eyes to a wider world and set me on a path to university and a career I’m enjoying to this day.

“Please know that there are many, like me, whose lives are better for having had a chance to be part of 34th Islington.”

Sarah Hughes-Martin called them “absolute legends” while Daniel McDonald said “they don’t make them like you two any more”.