The First Beecroft Girl Guides was well established by at least 1939 when Mrs F P Pines held a fund raising function for it at her home ‘Red East’ in Cheltenham. At that stage Mrs Durley Layton was the President.[1]
An entertainment was organised by the Guides in the School of Arts on 17 October 1931 in the presence of Lady David, the State Commissioner. Speakers were Miss Aspinall and Mrs
Maxwell Little with the program arranged by Captain Chatfield and Lieutenant Ohlsen. The entertainment consisted of “Morse signalling with flags, ambulance work, folk dancing, a one act play and part singing.”[2]
In 1935 a dramatic incident drew attention to the Guides when Kathleen Thatcher, 16 years old, was forming part of the guard of honour to welcome the incoming wife of the Governor Lady Hore Ruthven at Man of War Steps, Farm Cove. Kathleen fainted and fell into the harbour. Another guide dived in to help her but the aide de camp needed to then dive in, in full dress uniform and sword, to keep both afloat as they struggled in the water.[3]
[3] Cumberland Argus 25 March 1935
For more history of Guides in Beecroft and Cheltenham See Girl Guides NSW and ACT Beecroft District History Notes