When I came home that day, I spoke to my mother about it and wondered if I would be able to join. At that time I attended a small Methodist Mission in the Plungington area with my parents. They had attended there from childhood days. My mother asked Jean’s mother to make enquiries if I could join. The answer came back "Yes", providing I attended Church Parade on the first Sunday of each month.

The new Brown Owl who started Brownies was Miss Nora Robinson. We all idolized and admired her. She was disabled because as a child, she’d had Polio. She used a wheelchair and a special motorised vehicle. She taught us many interesting things including, a love of nature, names of wild flowers, birds and trees and how to identify them.

It was during World War II when Brownies began at Fulwood. Because the streets were so dark due to the blackout, with no street lighting, it wasn’t thought safe for young Brownies to be out at night, so in winter we met on Saturday afternoons and on Monday evenings in Summer.

As soon as I started, I needed a uniform. Due to wartime rationing and the need to use clothing coupons when buying new clothes, most Brownies were obliged to wear second hand uniforms from friends and relations’ children, which they had grown out of when attending other Brownie packs.

However, I wasn’t able to have a second hand one because I was tall and none fitted! The problem was solved by an uncle of mine worked in a factory in Higher Walton making army uniforms. He found a remnant and asked if he could have the piece of material. It wasn’t the exact colour, a brown Khaki cotton material, but it sufficed. My mother said she would make my uniform and wrote to Girl Guide House in London for a pattern.

The Brownie uniform in those days was a brown dress with long sleeves and a collar, drawn in at the waist with a leather belt. My older cousins in Freckleton were Guide Captains and they found a belt. We wore a brown tie which mother bought at the same time she sent for the patterns. The tie was brown and like a triangular bandage which was folded in a special way, with two loose ends fastened under the collar at the back with a reef knot. We wore a brown bobble hat which my mother knitted.

My uniform ready, I was enrolled into the pack. We were in teams of six called Sixes. They had names, Pixies, Elves, Gnomes and Sprites. Each Six had a leader called a Sixer. I was in the Pixies. Eventually I became a Sixer myself.

At the beginning of each session we lined up in our Sixes and said 'The Brownie Promise'.

            I promise to do my best.

The words of The Brownie Promise have now been changed, as we promised to serve the King, who at that time was George VI, the Queen’s father.

After saying The Brownie Promise, we each went up to Brown Owl to be inspected. Tidy hair, clean hands and nails, clean shoes and to see if we had tied the real knot on our tie. We had a tie pin with a bar and a dancing Brownie. We cleaned our tie pins so they shone and we were given points for all these items. A check of the points was carefully recorded and at the end of each year the Six with most points were each given a small gift.

When we had been inspected we played team games and in summer we went outside to do French Skipping. After playing we were taught our Compass Points and Semaphore and worked towards various badges for which we were tested and presented with cloth badges which were sewn on our sleeves. We also practised how to tie various knots.

At the end of each session, Brown Owl would read a short story before we were dismissed. I really enjoyed being a Brownie and sorry when I was eleven and had to leave.

One of the our original Brownies