King’s Scout award winner Will Raymond is carrying on a proud family legacy
For Will Raymond, joining the scouts when he was six years old was a simple way of getting to meet other people his age, and have some fun outdoors.
“It’s going to sound like a promotion, but you get to hang out with mates,” Will, 16, jokes. “It’s just a good way of getting kids together to actually get in the outdoors, and especially with today and devices, to actually get them out pitching tents and having fun in the bush.”
As Will moved into Venturers (Scouts for older kids) at his local First Balmoral Scouts, he realised much of his work made him eligible for the ‘King’s Scout,’ the peak award for Scouts in the Commonwealth.
Unlike a lot of awards given out annually on the King’s Birthday, a King’s Scout award is only given when an eligible Scout has fulfilled very specific criteria, meaning a new recipient is not crowned every year.
Comparing it to the Duke of Edinburgh Award, Will, from Mosman, highlights that a scout must complete a certain number of tasks and milestones to qualify. These include completing the Scout program essentials, achieving stage five in the three core skills (bushcraft, bushwalking and camping), six special interest area projects, an adventurous journey, a leadership or personal development course and a personal reflection.
While that might seem like a lot, Will found that given he was already such a committed Scout, he was already well on his way to the award: “I was reasonably close with it, so I could actually sort of jump in. There was still a fair amount to do, but it did mean I had a good head start and I could just keep on going with it.”
Will has been presented with a scouting award more than once by North Shore MP Felicity Wilson
Will’s journey towards the award led him down all sorts of exciting paths, from learning to ski, getting his recreational pilot’s licence, taking sailing lessons and undertaking many outdoor adventures. The reality that his hard work was about to pay off sunk in on his last activity.
“I think it came to a head when I did my hike,” Will recalls. “It was my last task. There were one or two things I needed to do and get signed off, like I did a leadership course afterwards, but that was the tail end of it.”
Will’s King’s Scout award is the first in Australia since the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Between 1952 and 2022, due to her being the patron of Scouts Australia, the award was known as the ‘Queen’s Scout’ award, with Will being the first recipient of the award in Australia since the coronation of King Charles under its new name. Gaining this recognition also happens to be part of a proud Raymond family tradition. When it was the Queen’s Scout award, Will’s father Anthony was bestowed the honour, and before that his grandfather during the rule of King George VI. Being a great Scout appears to be quite the family tradition: “I’ve also got a camp blanket with a bunch of badges, old badges sewn on from when I was a cub, and it’s got my dad’s old badges, and it’s got some of my grandfather’s old badges. So, it’s very much been passed down through the generations.”
Time will tell if another generation of Raymonds will inherit the blanket and earn themselves a King’s Scout honour, but for now, the young man is simply pleased to have joined the ranks, which include previous generations of his family, of Scouts who have achieved their organisation’s peak award.