Belfast Battalion Camp
Overview.
Battalion Camps were inaugurated in 1904 and held annually thereafter until 1972. Prior to the acquisition of Ganaway the favourite camping sites in those early years were to be found at Millisle, Castlerock, Cairncastle and Ballyferris. Peak attendance was in the 1930’s with over 1000 Boys’ and Officers in Camp, following a break during the war, camps resumed, but attendance numbers never recovered, and by the early fifties, a new generation of Boys and Officers were looking farther afield to spend annual holidays. The Battalion Camp continued through into the early 1970’s, with the final Camp being 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 contingent from the 12th Belfast (St Thomas’ Parish Church) and a few Boys from the 9th Belfast were also present. The Camp Party numbered between 50 and 60. The charge to Boys was nine shillings per head and to Officers one pound per head. Generous subscriptions from friends meant that 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. At intervals and until 1903 the 1st Belfast organised further joint Camps at Killough with neighbouring Companies, namely the 6th, 9th, 12th and 20th Belfast.
Battalion Camps were inaugurated in 1904 and held annually thereafter until 1972. The first and second Camps were held at Ballywalter by kind permission of Lord Dunleath. There was no Camp in 1906. Millisle was the venue for the 1907, 1908 and 1909 Camps, and the 1910 Camp was held at Castlerock. The Castlerock Camp would appear to have been one of the wettest experienced, for it is recorded that the tent poles sank 18 inches into the ground. Battalion Camp had to be abandoned on account of war in 1917, 1940 and 1941. With this exception camps were held each year, at Millisle, Catslerock, Cairncastle and Ballyferris before the move to Ganaway.
From 1924, the Belfast Battalion Camp was held at Ganaway which had been purchased specifically for the use of the annual Battalion Camp. The popularity of the Ganaway Camp increased as each year succeeded and in the mid-1930’s an attendance of more than 1,000 in all ranks was recorded. Moving 1,000 Boys and Officers from Belfast to the Ards Peninsula was a logistic task of its own. Boys would muster at various points in Belfast and make their way to the train station to board the Belfast and County Down Railway train that would take them on their journey to Donaghadee. Whilst the luggage was loaded onto lorries, 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
Inspection Day at Ganaway was always the highlight of camp when hundreds of parents and friends attended and a distinguished visitor carried 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 who honoured 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, if required, in the evacuation of school children. In the event it was not found necessary to use Ganaway as an evacuation centre. With the site being available 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. Numbers approaching 400 attended the Battalion camp at Ganaway in July 1943- the first Battalion Camp to be held since 1939.
Following the resumption of the Battalion Camp at Ganaway in 1946, attendance numbers never managing to get close to that of pre-war Camps. The Executive was informed at its May Meeting in 1948 that 206 Boys had registered for the Battalion camp, which was a considerable drop on the previous year. The Executive agreed that further consideration would require to be given to future camping policy. The 1950 camp attracted 140 Boys and Officers, and this further drop in numbers indicated that future policy in regard to Battalion camping would soon require critical examination.
By the early fifties, however, a new generation of Boys and Officers were looking farther afield 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, Isle of man and a host of other seaside towns the length and breadth of ‘the Mainland’.
The Battalion Camp continued through into the 1960’s, and whilst attendance was low, it was felt that a camp under Battalion auspices had still an important role to play. The Battalion Treasurer reported a loss of £134 on the 1970 camp, accounted for by a further drop in the numbers attending. The Study Group on Camping which had been appointed in December 1971 presented its final report to the Battalion Executive in January 1973. It noted the steady decline in the numbers attending the Ganaway camp and the corresponding increase in the numbers camping under Company/Joint Company auspices, together with the growing attraction of cross-channel sites, concluded that Battalion camping at Ganaway should cease. The 1972 Camp at Ganaway was the last Battalion Camp, and whilst the site continues to be used for many Battalion activities and events, the big Battalion Camps of the 1930’s no longer have a place in the Belfast Battalion.
