Crawley Scout president given highest award 'for services of the most exceptional character'

The Silver Wolf is the highest award made by The Scout Association "for services of the most exceptional character." It is an unrestricted gift of the Chief Scout and was presented Brian Eastman by Ollie Gidman, Crawley’s District Commissioner.

Brian received this for the work he does for Scouting. As Group Scout Leader, then Chairman and now President he has seen the group grow from a few members to where it is now with over 200 members, and is still supporting it. He has a wonderful skill and knowledge in gaining grants for the group for equipment to support scouting.

Aside from Scouting he is a family man who supports his Wife and family and an active member of St Alban's Church and Ifield Barn Theatre.

The Citation for the award read: Brian has always been involved in Scouting as a young person going through all the sections until he received his Queens Scout award. When he was 20 (in 1960) he took on an Assistant Section Leader role in Scouts and did that for 4 years until he got married and started a family. He then took a break putting family first but in 1982 Brian’s eldest son Andrew needed a place in Venture Scouts so Brian started as a Venture Scout Leader at 6th Crawley. Brian did this role for over 8 years.

In 1990 Brian moved to 2nd Ifield (St Margarets) as Group Scout Leader and this is where he made his home in Scouting. At the time the group only had a few Cubs and Scouts and no Exec but this has increased and we now have 2 of each section (Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers plus a SASU). During his team as GSL Brian not only managed the group attending every section camp and regularly supporting section meetings but he started a fund-raising committee to raise funds for a new building. Brian was very focussed on developing a “family ethos” within the group so annual group fairs and camps were a must and the main Beaver, Cub and Scout Leaders are still in post today. To help develop this family ethos, Brian initiated the first Gang Show for the group in 2001 and there have been 3 further ones since then. All these responsibilities and activities were in addition to his normal GSL work and ran alongside his career, family and other volunteering commitments.

After 16 years as GSL, Brian eventually handed over the role of GSL and took up a new role in 2006 as a Group Scout Fellowship Member and then in 2007 became the Group Chairman. It was this role that allowed him to continue to keep a close eye on what had become his group. During this time Brian continued to own the coordination of Gang Shows and spent more time on Grant Applications alongside his other commitments. One of these was working with his oldest Son Andrew in organising and planning and then being part of international trips abroad for the Explorer Section.

In 2010 Brian’s Group Scout Fellowship role transferred to being a Group Scout Active Support Member and in 2014 Brian changed his role from Group Chairman to Group President. He continues in both these roles currently bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to newer leaders in the group.

His current responsibilities as Group President and SASU member have allowed Brian to continue to develop and expand the visibility of the group within the local community by ensuring our presence and liasing with various authorities for the London/Brighton Veteran Car run, Community Firework Events, Weekly Kayaking at the Crawley Public Lake and generally supporting each section within the group. Further fund raising via grant applications to local and county funds has made Brian’s name a house hold name within local and county councils.

Brian’s key achievements are:

- As Group Scout Leader for 2nd Ifield Brian recognised the need to replace the old pre-war building and shortly after taking on the role started a campaign to replace it. This involved creating a “fund raising’ committee which he was pivotal too and also with his career skills as an Architect spent many hours working on drawings etc for the replacement building. He also adopted the role of the main person applying for grants. This was a mammoth task to take on whilst working full time in London and bringing up a family. Despite the ever-increasing costs of the building Brian never gave up on this dream and although his role changed in 2007 to Group Chairman and then Group President in 2014, Brian’s dream eventually became reality when in 2015 (some 25 years later) the new building was opened at a cost of approx. £350k.

- As Group Scout Leader Brian always tried to encourage the members to feel as if they were part of an extended family and one way to do this was by bringing the entire group together through a ‘Gang Show’. As initiator and owner for this huge event the group have produced 4 Gang Shows from 2001 to 2016 performed at the Ifield Barn Theatre over 4 performances (3 days).

- As mentioned above, Brian was fundamental in raising money for the new building through fund raising and grant applications but Brian alone has managed to raise personally through grant applications over £150k between 2004 and 2023 initially for the new building but also significantly after the building opened in 2015 for our climbing wall, replacement kayaks and trailers, supporting young people on international trips, new tents and camping equipment.

In addition to Brian’s immense involvement in Scouting, Brian has always made time to be involved in other areas of the community. These have included: -

- Brian was a member of Crawley Community Volunteer Services for over 10 years and served on their board becoming Company Secretary before he left

- He has always been an active member of St Alban’s and the Parish of Ifield, where he has served as Head Server, a couple of stints as Church Warden at St Alban’s and Parish Warden for the Parish of Ifield where he developed the parish to be one unity rather than four separate churches.

- He has been a member of Ifield Barn Theatre for many years, and until recently been the set designer and painter, recently he has moved to be more of a consultancy position, advising and designing the specialist parts of the sets.

- He has worked with Ifield Conservation Trust

- He was a member of the Tilgate Lake Association which worked towards managing the Lake, its usage and Conservation

Mark Eastman, Deputy Group Scout Leader, said: “Without Brian the group would not be what it is today with 2 of each section, great kit and young people that get great experiences all within a family focussed environment..”