Swanage’s Guiding principal
Audrey Pembroke looks at Irene Makin’s 90-year association with the Guiding movement
Published in April ’18
1942 January, Irene just after her wedding
The Girl Guide movement was in its infancy when eight-year-old Irene Lewis joined the 1st Swanage Brownie Pack in 1929. Asked for her favourite memory as a Brownie, Irene produced her treasured photo of HRH Princess Mary, sister to King George VI. The occasion was the Dorset County Rally on May Day 1930 at Kingston Maurward. Each Brownie pack made paper flowers and 1st Swanage chose delphiniums and poppies. The idea was to present a ‘Brownie Land’ flower garden. Two girls were chosen to be suns, with golden pointy headdresses, and two were rainbows with colourful headdresses. Irene was a raindrop, wearing a gauze veil over her head.
‘No one went anywhere in those days,’ she recalls, ‘and not many little girls got to meet a real live princess.’ She was so excited, she kept jumping about in her headdress in front of the mirror in the hallway and singing, until her father said, ‘If you don’t dry up, this little raindrop won’t be going!’
The rally began with a march-past of the Rangers and Guides, accompanied by the Dorchester Town Band. All the Brownies danced up to the Princess Royal, then curtsied. Irene found herself gazing at a smart pair of brown lace-up shoes. Shyly she lifted her eyes, to look up through her veil at the tall figure in front of her. The princess wore a smart navy blue uniform, belted at the waist with a shiny buckle and decorated with her cord of office. Pinned to her lapel was the Guide badge, and on her hat was a gold and white cockade. The Princess smiled down at the Brownies, and whispered, ‘Hello.’
When she got home, Mrs Lewis asked, ‘Did you see the Princess?’
‘Yes,’ said Irene. ‘She looked just like Brown Owl.’
1970 2nd June At Buckingham Palace Irene is the small one on the right
In 1932 Irene ‘flew up’ to join the White Rose Patrol of the 1st Swanage Girl Guides Company. They met at the Liberal Hall, Chapel Lane (now the Day Centre) until a hut was built specially for them at Prospect in 1936. Mr Scott of Encombe asked only a peppercorn rent.
The girls were tutored in first aid, and tested at Steepways, the children’s hospital in Seymour Road. When Irene failed her test because she didn’t know the answer to the question ‘What is a laxative?’ she cried all the way home.
‘You’ll have to do it again,’ her mother told her. So she did, and next time she won the coveted badge. Such was the movement’s influence that Irene decided to become a nurse.
When Irene joined the Sea Rangers in 1936, the navy blue uniform, with its tie and its white lanyard around the neck, was her pride and joy. She even wore it to a dance at the Church Hall. Irene confesses that she wasn’t great at rowing the six-oar boat, SRS Diamond, but did obtain her swimmer’s badge.
1985 With dignitaries Sir Joseph Weld and councillor Mrs Doreen Parsons
In 1938 Irene began her nursing career at the Cornelia, as Poole Hospital was then known. She moved to Winford Orthopaedic Hospital, Bristol, for the duration of the war. There she ran a Brownie pack for seriously ill children who were in hospital for a long time, once they could sit up.
On her rare weekends off, Irene came home. On one occasion, when her leave built up to four days, she met Flt Sgt Bertie Makin at an RAF dance in the Craigside Hotel. They began writing to each other and on a snowy 20 January 1942, they were married at St Mary’s Parish Church, Swanage. It was mid-week when they both had leave. Next day, the newly-weds journeyed to Fazakerley in Lancashire for Irene to meet her in-laws. Irene tells of the miserable journey in freezing conditions, with no heat or lighting on the train. At their destination the snow was six feet deep, but she was given a warm welcome: Bertie’s mother threw her arms around Irene, and gave her a drink of hot milk laced with whisky. After she had removed her court shoes, Mr Makin picked them up and said to his son, ‘Buy her some boots!’ So Irene was supplied with a pair of burgundy boots to match her burgundy coat, and matching hat trimmed with black fur. ‘Hats were one of the few things you didn’t need coupons for,’ she says.
Three weeks later, Bertie was posted to Burma, and Irene didn’t see him for four years.
When the Makins settled back in Swanage, as well as bringing up a family, Irene worked part-time in private nursing and joined St Mark’s Church choir. Meanwhile her Guiding star was ascending. In 1957 she became Brown Owl for the 1st Herston Pack and, although a trained nurse, she had to pass a test to qualify as camp first-aider to the Girl Guides.
In 1964 Irene was made Captain of the 1st Swanage Company, then District Assistant Commissioner in 1967 until she became District Commissioner in June 1976. Before that, in 1970, came an invitation to a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. In her new uniform and brand new court shoes, Irene travelled with a guider from Weymouth and one from Dorchester.
‘I enjoyed every minute, although my new shoes were killing me,’ she remembers. At three o’clock, when the Queen and Prince Philip appeared, Irene forgot her aching feet. The Queen wore a sky-blue suit and matching hat, with long white gloves and a diamond watch on one of her gloved arms.
‘Speak only when you are spoken to,’ they were told. ‘If Her Majesty speaks to you, you may answer with, “Your Majesty”, and should you have to reply a second time, say “Ma’am”.’
Irene got her chance. As she curtsied, the Queen asked her, ‘Where are you from?’
‘Swanage, Your Majesty,’ said Irene, and was pleasantly surprised when the Queen rejoined, ‘That’s very near to Brownsea Island, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, Ma’am,’ said Irene, bubbling with excitement.
2014 Irene still has her christening gown
Her next encounter with royalty was the Guides’ AGM at the Barbican, when she met their President, Princess Margaret, in 1985. During tea the princess mingled with the crowd. When three tall commissioners blocked Irene’s view, she tapped one on the shoulder, saying, ‘When you curtsey, can you stay down, please?’
‘Who said that?’ Princess Margaret asked, smiling from ear to ear.
The occasion was Irene’s ‘last fling’ before she retired from active Guiding. But once a Guide, always a Guide; like many others she joined the Trefoil Guild. At age 97 she still attends meetings, gives talks to school children and sings in the church choir.
