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Fred Lewis started Chipping Norton's pioneer scout troop before the official launch of the Boy Scouts movement. Their annual fundraising show at the Town Hall carried on throughout the war, missing just one in 1915. In 1916 it was reported that 38 former members of the troop were serving King and country.

Fred was a showman, a Punch and Judy man, builder, carpenter and undertaker – the last two not an unusual combination in rural areas at the time. He was 35 at the outbreak of the war and as younger men enlisted (or, after conscription in 1916, were called up) he put his energy, imagination and humour to work on the home front organising and inspiring the scouts.

The content of the annual shows ranged from sketches, songs and recitations to boxing displays, and in 1916 two scouts demonstrated the use of bayonets. The sketches included skits about a Belgian refugee and one about a scout troop gallantly intercepting a Morse code message about an approaching Zeppelin and, in the absence of adult soldiers, shooting it down.

Fred is also credited with introducing baseball to the town. He chose baseball because it needed little in the way of equipment or ground preparation and could be played on reasonably equal terms whatever the age or size of the participants.

The first baseball tournament between local scouting teams was held at Churchill in 1917. After the war, when the men returned, the town took baseball to its heart and a team even beat an expat American team at Chelsea Football Club's ground.

Fred continued to champion baseball, the scouts and to perform - including Punch and Judy shows until the late 1950s.

He died in 1960 and, as is customary, his 'Mr Punch' was buried with him in his coffin.

Location: Chipping Norton Town Hall, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire OX7 5AD
Photograph of Fred Lewis courtesy of Chipping Norton Museum
Presented by Jane Markham, Podcats Productions

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