Belfast Battalion Camp
Overview.
Battalion Camps – the large-scale gatherings of Boys from multiple Companies in a Battalion – started in Belfast in 1904, and were held annually since then up until 1972. The favourite camping sites in those early years were Millisle, Castlerock, Cairncastle and Ballyferris, until Ganaway was acquired, taking the crown.
The 1930s saw peak attendance at these camps, with over 1000 Boys and Officers in total. While camps resumed following a break during the Second World War, attendance never fully recovered, and saw a decline in the 1950s and 1960s, with the final Camp held in 1972.
The story in more detail.
The first ever Boys’ Brigade Camp in Ireland was organised by the 1st Belfast in 1892 at Killough, Co Down, in a large granary, kindly lent by Lord Bangor. A good many of the Boys from 12th Belfast (St Thomas’ Parish Church) and a few Boys from the 9th Belfast were also present, with the Camp Party numbering between 50 and 60 in total.
Boys were charged nine shillings per head and Officers one pound per head, with subscriptions from friends meaning the total cost of the Camp (£75 13s 8d) was met. Although not ‘camping under canvas’ the grain store was not inappropriate as a starting point as thus was sown the seed of BB camping in Ireland. The 1st Belfast organised further joint Camps at intervals until 1903, taking place at Killough with neighbouring Companies, namely the 6th, 9th, 12th and 20th Belfast.
Battalion Camps were held from 1904 and held annually thereafter until 1972, bar 1906, and were abandoned on account of war in 1917, 1940, and 1941. The first and second Camps were held at Ballywalter by kind permission of Lord Dunleath. Millisle was the venue for the 1907, 1908, and 1909 Camps, while the 1910 Camp was held at Castlerock. The Castlerock Camp appears to have been one of the wettest experienced, with it being recorded that the tent poles sank 18 inches into the ground at the time.
From 1924 camps took place at Ganaway, purchased specifically for the use of the annual Camp. The popularity of the Ganaway Camp increased every year, reaching its peak attendance of more than 1,000 across all ranks in the 1930s. Moving 1,000 Boys and Officers from Belfast to the Ards Peninsula was a logistic task of its own. The Boys would assemble at various points across Belfast, then make their way to a local train station to board the Belfast and County Down Railway train that would take them on their journey to Donaghadee, the first rest stop of the journey.
Whilst their luggage was loaded onto lorries, the Boys would form up and parade through Donaghadee towards Millisle, where they would stop for refreshments. Stories are told of how the roads would be lined with onlookers watching The Boys’ Brigade pass by, with women providing water and lemonade for the weary marchers along the way. From Millisle, they would continue the march onto Ganaway.
The highlight of Ganaway was Inspection Day: a day that saw hundreds of parents and friends of the Boys attend, with a distinguished visitor invited to carry out a thorough inspection of the camp. The Honorary President (The Viscount Bangor, DL), high-ranking military Officers, and the Brigade Secretary (Mr G. Stanley Smith, MC) were among those honouring the camp in this way.
The outbreak of war in 1939 caused the abandonment of the 1940 camp, and at this stage the Battalion Executive offered the Camp Site to the Government for use as required in the evacuation of school children.
At this time, a number of small joint Company camps were organised by the Battalion Secretary and held at Ganaway in July 1942, and proved so successful that the experiment was repeated each year until 1946.
In the same period many Company camps were held, and in 1943 it was estimated that a total of 900 Boys in the Battalion went to a camp – numbers which compared favourably with the big Battalion camps of the thirties.
After the Company camps, the larger Battalion Camps resumed with the Battalion Camp at Ganaway in 1946. Unfortunately, attendance numbers never managed to recover to anything close to that seen by the pre-war Camps, with The Executive informed at its May meeting in 1948 that 206 Boys had registered for the Battalion camp – a considerable drop from the previous year.
In wake of the declining numbers, The Executive deemed it would be required to carefully consider future camping policy. A further drop in numbers in the 1950 camp to 140 indicated that Battalion camping would soon require critical examination.
By the early fifties, however, a new generation of Boys and Officers were looking elsewhere to spend annual holidays. Belfast and Larne became the transit ports for individual Companies taking Boys out of Northern Ireland in large numbers to experience camping and fun-days in Ayr, Troon, Girvan, Millport, Morecambe, Blackpool, The Isle of man, and a host of other seaside towns far and wide across in ‘the Mainland’ of England.
The Battalion Camp continued through into the 1960s despite poor attendance, with the Battalion sponsorships taking centre stage. The Battalion Treasurer reported a loss of £134 on the 1970 camp, accounted for by a further drop in attendees.
The Study Group on Camping, which had been appointed in December 1971, presented its final report to the Battalion Executive in January 1973, where it noted:
- The steady decline of attendance at the Ganaway camp
- The corresponding increase in the numbers camping under Company/Joint Company patronage
- The growing attraction of cross-channel sites.
This led to the conclusion that Battalion camping at Ganaway should cease, and in 1972 Ganaway saw the last Battalion Camp.
While the big Battalion Camps of the 1930s no longer have a place in the Belfast Battalion, the site continues to be used for many Battalion activities and events.
