2009/01/25

It has been confirmed! B-P was here!

A few years ago, one of our then cubs' father, who was at that time working at the local museum, found some old photos in their collections. The photos were to be thrown away, but he had a last look through them. He picked up this photo, that had the words (is Swedish) "B-P salomon fishing in Ätran" written on it.


We talked about it a few times, but for various reasons I never came to see the photo. He spend a lot of time trying to verify that it was "the real thing", but could only conclude in the end, that it wasn't impossible that B-P had once visited Falkenberg, that has been renouned for it's salmon on both sides of the North Sea for more than a hundred years.


In the process of planning our centinary next year, some in the group had a real rummage through the old "archives" in the basement of the hut. And found a similar photo. Also claiming to be of B-P, in Falkenberg, fishing, dated 1927. Now there was more to go on!


Last night, after spending several hours in the archives of the Scout museum at Kjesäter, the Scout movement's folk high school/leader academy, Marcus Agbrant found the proof he had been seeking for the last few months: An article from 1927, Saltsjöbadstidningen, 1927:


After a few words concerning the visit to Norway, the general writes about his stay in Falkenberg: “I visited here for two days for salmon fishing, but the weather was unsuitable and the water level in the river was too high for sport. I was however lucky and had a beautiful, good sized salmon on the hook, but it was to heavy for my line, that he broke, after which he disappeared. Nevertheless I enjoyed having had met him!" My translation


Hopefully, we can now get the local news paper interested, and perhaps find eye witnesses still alive from those days. The boys in the forground of the picture should be in their ninties, but might still be alive! Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could come forward to tell their story?

2 comments:

Nick Wood said...

It's great that you've been able to prove BP has visited your town!

Please excuse my ignorance, but is it your Scouts or Scouting in Sweden that is celebrating 100 years next year?

I don't know if you are interested, but my Group celebrated its own centenary last year. You can see all about us here - http://history.porthillscouts.org.uk

All the best

LottaN said...

Our group was not registered until sometime like 1913, but we have a a dated photo and stories about a small group of boys under the leadership of a man called "Mr Martin", an English gentleman who lived in Falkenberg. I'll get back to you with more details as we start compailing the facts.

Thanks for the tip! I'll have a good look!