The Oldest Gay in the Village--A powerful, moving and very personal account of one man's experience of being gay over the last nine decades by George Montague

Author:George Montague [George Montague]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784181284
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2014-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

NINE

It was now midway through the 1960s. A new era had dawned, an age not just of rock and roll (which had arrived in Britain almost a decade before and almost without me noticing) but one in which the whole warp and weft of society was undergoing enormous change. The introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1961 had led, inexorably, to the loosening of traditionally restrictive attitudes to sex. And the Age of Aquarius – a time of experimentation, drugs, hippies and the wholesale rejection of the hidebound attitudes and prejudices of the post-war years – was upon us.

And how did George Montague, successful businessman (for my company had grown and was now employing a significant workforce at a new site), husband, father, Scout leader and conflicted homosexual, fit in to this new era? With difficulty, that’s how.

I was devoting huge amounts of time to Scouting. By 1962 there were only about a dozen boys of Scout and Cub age left on the hospital unit. Rheumatic fever, like polio had been virtually eliminated. Those lads remaining had rheumatism-related problems, such as Still’s disease and chorea.

In December that year I was appointed Assistant County Commissioner (Extension Activities) Buckinghamshire – the title recognised that I was now responsible for Scouting for boys with a handicap. I handed over to my senior assistant, who carried on for another six years, until the unit closed.

I estimated that during my time there, at least 500 boys either joined, or continued Scouting – an achievement of which I was very proud. On four occasions we had a representative in the corner of the quadrangle at the St Georges Day Parade, Windsor Castle. This is where all those boys who have passed the Queen’s Scout Badge are inspected by, and then march past, a member of the Royal Family. Most often this was Her Majesty the Queen.

It was around then, on seeing a boy in a wheelchair in an able-bodied troop – completely at home and accepted by all – that a driving force stirred within me to do more for handicapped boys, particularly those in wheelchairs.

Nationally it was government policy for kids with a handicap, particularly those in wheelchairs, to be sent to special schools. I thought that in many cases this was simply wrong, and I could see no reason why many of those confined to a wheelchair should not attend an ordinary school, or participate in the weekly able-bodied Scout troop night.

Some years earlier we had begun a camp for our disabled lads at Dorneywood – a very grand 18th-century mansion and extensive grounds at Burnham. The house itself has long been assigned as the country seat of a senior member of the government – usually the Chancellor of The Exchequer. It is now owned and managed by the National Trust, having been given to the nation in 1947 by Lord Courtauld-Thomson.

During one weekend district camp, his Lordship had paid us a visit. I took the opportunity to buttonhole him and make a case for us to be allowed to continue to use the lovely site since Scouting was growing in the district.

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