A LEADING valley scout official has been awarded the movement’s highest honour.
Long-serving leader Leslie Chadwick received the Silver Wolf award for his work with the Holme Valley District Scouts’ group.
The presentation was made by County Commissioner for Scouts Neil Leatherland at the Holme Valley Scouts St George’s Day parade and service in Holmfirth on the Sunday morning.
Leslie has had a long uninterrupted association with scouting. He became a Cub Scout in 1951 with the 37th Huddersfield (Almondbury) Group. He began his role in leadership in 1961 as Assistant Scout Leader at Almondbury and in 1966 he established a new cub pack there and took over as leader.
In 1967 he began his long association with the 6th Holme Valley (Honley) Group as their cub leader. Over the years as well as having his own cub pack he also carried out duties as District Cub Scout Leader and Assistant District Commissioner for Cubs.
He gained his Scout and Cub Wood badges, Medal of Merit, and Silver Acorn with Bar.
Throughout all the years of devotion to scouting Leslie has had a distinguished professional career. He began in 1958 as a clerical officer with Huddersfield Passenger Transport Department becoming a certified accountant in 1965.
The following year he became management accountant at Holset Engineers, then spent a year with Smith and Garton, chartered accountants.
His entry into academia was preceded by a year’s training at Hollybank Teacher Training College and in 1970 he became senior lecturer in accounting at Huddersfield Polytechnic, and from 1970-2008 he was senior lecturer in accounting and finance at Bradford University School of Management, and course director of master of science in finance.
In addition Leslie has somehow found time to write many books on accounting and finance, some of which have been translated into several European languages as well as Chinese. He also contributes to the Collins Dictionary of Business.
In recent years Leslie has presented lectures at venues around the world, particularly in Europe and the Far East. He retired from work in 2008.
Throughout his career Leslie has retained his love of scouting. When asked to point out some of the highlights Leslie said: “Starting the cub pack at Almondbury, and going as a scout to Jersey for two weeks in 1957. It cost £12 all in!”
More recently he recalled the happy days from the mid 1970s to mid 1980s when the 6th Holme Valley Group had a very successful scout car racing team which competed at races throughout the country.
Father of two grown up children, Leslie lives with his wife Jean in Honley and still turns up on Thursday evenings to encourage and motivate his pack of cubs.
