Your memories: Brownies led to a life of outdoor adventures

WHEN Elizabeth Lavery joined the Brownies in the 1930s as an enthusiastic eight-year-old, she had no way of knowing it would change her life forever.

The 81-year-old, from Oxgangs, believes Girl Guiding was the reason she developed a lifelong love of camping and mountaineering – inspired by the many outdoor excursions she enjoyed.

"I was eight when the 27A Brownie pack was started at the Reid Memorial Church," the former George Watson's College pupil explains. "It must have been one of the first Brownies."

She later joined the Girl Guides at the church and became a Brown Owl in adulthood.

Her list of interests does not stop there, as Mrs Lavery (ne Alexander) was also a keen Sea Ranger, loving nothing more than swimming and boating, and often rowing down the Union Canal with friends.

One of her most treasured memories was when, in 1947, her group of Sea Rangers went to camp on Guernsey. "Only two or three years before, it had been occupied by the Germans," she says. "The people there were very pleased to see us and it was quite an adventure."

She laughs as she recalls trying to teach a group of local Scouts how to do traditional Scottish dancing.

"We had a party one night. One of the dances was The Flowers of Edinburgh. They really weren't very good – it was a case of, 'Just follow me'."

On the way home from the holiday, the girls stopped off in London and Mrs Lavery fondly treasures a photograph taken of the group in Trafalgar Square.

"My time in the Girl Guides and Sea Rangers really started off my lifetime interest in walking and camping as I later joined the Edinburgh Mountaineering Club where I met my husband Bill."