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A little bit of self-promotion
Thank you to my friends in New York for sharing this article with me, published locally… Celebrating John May: A Trailblazer for LGBTQI+ Inclusion in Scouting The world of Scouting, often associated with outdoor adventures and community service, is also a space where values of inclusivity and diversity are nurtured. Among the champions of these…
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20 of life’s little lessons
I was chatting today to an old friend in Nairobi. We come from different backgrounds and different cultures. We disagree about many things, but we have remained steadfast friends since early adulthood. We started to talk about the advice we would offer our younger selves. We began to make a list. Here are a few…
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24 tips for surviving the long, long journey to the World Scout Jamboree
In just a few short weeks’ time, thousands of teenagers will be traveling to South Korea to attend the World Scout Jamboree. They’ll be flying in groups of around 36 young people, with each group accompanied by four long-suffering and truly wonderful volunteer adult leaders. If you’re one of those teenagers, or one of those…
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Farewell to the Award
On the 14th October, I had the opportunity to say a few thank yous as I bowed out as Secretary General of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award… Thank you. Two little words that truly say exactly what I want to say this evening. Thank you to the young people and their leaders around the…
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The best of times, the worst of times
On the 12th October, I delivered this speech to the delegates at The Award’s Forum in Cluj, Romania: Many of you will know the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ novel, A tale of two cities. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… it was the spring of hope, it was…
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Harrods Christmas Bears
For a whole host of reasons, I have become increasingly interested in the history of Teddy Bears – not something you’d normally expect of a balding, middle-aged charity chief executive. But, over lockdown, the adventures of Ben the Bear were chronicled on Facebook, as he helped me with shopping, eating and other tasks of daily…
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Thoughts at the start of a new term
As so many children have started back at school today, I found myself reflecting on the story of one child I taught, many years ago. Let’s call him Christopher. He was in my Y6 class in the late 1980s, back when we called them 4th year juniors. He was attention seeking, usually using poor behaviour…
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A new hat
I was honoured this week to receive an Honorary Doctorate in Social Science from the University of Bolton. As one friend commented – “Dressing up and a show; perfect way to celebrate, John!” It wasn’t quite the normal show of a graduation ceremony that you’d expect to see. Covid rather put paid to that… Instead,…
