Company History - p6
The 1990's
The 1990's saw a further decline in popularity, and numbers at one point dropped to as low as 20 total members. This is unfortunately the trend in uniformed organisations as a whole in recent years.
Talking of Uniforms. In the late Nineties BB HQ decided to re-examine the appropriateness of the 1963 uniform with the youth of today. This resulted in the new uniform which our members now wear. For some more traditional people this has been a hard thing to take and some companies did not change to the new uniform until 2006 when it became compulsory. We adopted the new uniform in 2000 and on the whole it has been successful for us as a company.
There were a lot of staff changes at the company during this decade including four Captains starting with Walter Brown, continuing with Adrian Fuller, then Trevor Barnes and lastly Barry Precey.
• Lt. Barry Precey joined the company when he was 9 years old and became an officer upon turning 18. In 1996 he took up the role of Captain and he would say he does not know what he did to deserve that, but during his time as the second longest serving Captain in company history he proved to be up to the task and kept the company going through these difficult years. Barry stepped down from the position of Captain in 2007 but continues to work with Company Section members and is currently officer in charge of the Seniors. Barry was the creator of the original 3rd Basingstoke website.
• Lt. Michael Holley, eldest son of Anchor Boys' officer Susan Holley, he joined the company as a boy and became an officer in the early 1990's. Mike left to join the Army when he was 19 and four years later returned to BB helping at 6th Basingstoke in Popley with their Junior and Company sections on a Monday evening. He would often visit us on a Friday evening as well so eventually we persuaded him that if he was going to keep loitering he might as well rejoin the 3rd as staff! Mike has been officer in Charge of the Company section since 1997 and is still doing a great job with this demanding role today.
• Lt. Iain Strachan also joined the Company as a boy, in fact at the same time as his mother Theresa began as an officer and has stayed with the company long enough to become an officer himself. Iain took over responsibility for the Junior section in 1997 and has been the officer in charge ever since. Iain has worked as a Senior Lifeguard and Swimming Instructor at the Sports Center for many years and his experience and enthusiasm in teaching children to swim is invaluable preparation for working with our Anchor Boys' and Juniors.
Some of the other members of staff during the Nineties included Margaret Brown, Sue Brown, Marc Brown, Martyn Brown, Mike Freeman, Martin Dawson, Linda Worth, Sharon Barnes and Caterina Cottrell (who would later go on to marry Adrian Fuller).
The Chaplins during the decade were Rev. Mark Roper, Rev. Bob Whorton and Linda Worth.
Helpers and friends/family of the 3rd
The company has had many helpers over the years and the BB records do not do these people justice because until recently they were not required to register as member of the brigade. Many of our helpers used to be boys or are ex members of staff, or even family of ex members who come back from time to time, like Martin Dawson who assists with canoeing and Doreen Payne (Sid's Mum) who helps out with Jumble Sales. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the friends and family of 3rd Basingstoke who have given up their time to help us over the years.
• One such Helper is Phillip Lowles who has been a member of 3rd Basingstoke since he was 7 years old and became a member of staff when he turned 18. Phillip left the company for a short time in 1995 but rejoined the following year as a Helper with the Company/Senior Sections and has remained with us till the present day and can often be found organising the evenings' sports activities. Phillip is the creator of this website having successfully completed professional training in website design in 2007.
The Millennium Project
For our Millennium Project the Company section boys and staff built a new cupboard for storing sports equipment in the Boys' Brigade room and redecorated the room in our colours with a large version of our Anchor Emblem painted on the wall.
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