First Leaping Wolves

Among the interesting articles on diverse subjects in The Island of Saturday 22 August 2020 was a fascinating contribution on the history of the Scout Movement in Sri Lanka. Among the wealth of detail presented was the contribution from Ceylon in the early years of the last century to the Scouting Movement in India (viz. by Gordon Pearce and Vincent Mendis). We must be grateful to ‘Ruhunu Putra’ for making this record available to the general public. It is especially valuable as the values inculcated by Scouting are solely needed in the world we live in.

When this contributor was a pupil at Royal Primary School, he was a member of the Royal Primary Wolf Cubs Pack. This was a group which was complete in itself but also prepared one to join the Royal College Boy Scouts Troop in due course. The Master-in-Charge of the Royal Primary Wolf Cubs Pack was Captain Vernon Halpe. Captain Halpe was devoted to the Scout Movement and spared no pains in developing his Pack of Wolf Cubs.

In 1953, the Royal Primary Wolf Cubs Pack had the honour of being the first in Ceylon to produce Leaping Wolves, the highest distinction awarded to Wolf Cubs for achievements. Three cubs qualified on the same day to become Leaping Wolves. The first two were Dudley Halpe and this writer. The honour was shared equally since the final of a series of qualifications was in sending messages by means of Semaphore, where communications are transmitted using flags from the ‘sender’ to the ‘receiver’. In this instance, Dudley first sent a message to myself and then the roles were reversed. (Dudley Halpe’s brother, Ashley, was in later life the distinguished Professor at Peradeniya.) The third Leaping Wolf was D.C.Amerasinghe, who was tested by Captain Halpe.

The investiture of the distinction of ‘Leaping Wolf’ to the above three awardees was performed in Colombo in 1953 by F. H. J. Dahly, Headquarters Commissioner.

To conclude, it may be noted that a knowledge of Semaphore by today’s youth should be encouraged to meet situations where a breakdown of public electricity supplies will render inoperable the sending of information by email etc.!

–Dr. Rohan H Wickramasinghe