ERIC JONES

A few extras!

SCHOOL
BOYS’ BRIGADE
Earlier on in life Eric attended Battersea Grammar School beyond 11+ and became an enthusiastic member of The Boys’ Brigade, eventually becoming a youth leader and Boys’ Brigade Captain, conducting local badge tests and examinations, training others, running regular camps and so on. He was an organiser for the London District – helping First Aider examinations, and being one of the producer/directors of the annual Display at The Royal Albert Hall for some years.

TRAVEL ABROAD
He attended, as leader/driver to an international youth conference in Sweden, taking two dozen British youngsters to mix and learn with Scandinavian boys and girls, and also managed to raise enough money to send four British Boys’ Brigade members to Australia for a Pan-Australian camp. Eric was one of the early leaders who organised international camps for members of groups in Britain running a camp for UK boys and girls, inviting their Danish counterparts over for two weeks, followed by running a camp ‘the other way round’ taking the British youngsters to a camp in Denmark for a fortnight.

ROYAL YOUTH GALA
In 1985, what now seems such a long time ago, he promoted the idea of a Youth Gala to The Save The Children Fund, and produced for them an entire Gala evening at The Royal Albert Hall, supported by youth organisations from around the world. Over 800 children and young people were flown in from the USA, Mexico and Germany, bussed in from the Greater London area and from Wales to take part in the Gala which was attended by HRH The Princess Anne, and which raised, with the help of Nat West Bank, nearly £30,000 that evening.