I don’t know about you, but the 1970s seems barely more than a whisker away to me – and yet this week our return to 1974 takes us back 40 years!

Hardly seems credible. Anyway, first, from the Watford Observer of November 8, 1974, this feature about the Girl Guides.

The piece, headed "Watford has special place in Guides’ history", begins: “It was Empire Day 1913 and the group of Watford girls in Hyde Park were there to represent the Girl Guides Movement. There were other girl guides in the throng, but they were the largest group and the smartest dressed, and Agnes Baden-Powell asked them to lead the parade. The captain of the Watford girls was very flattered but then she thought: ‘Whatever do you do?’

“The procession started off with her contingent in the lead and herself at their head. As she drew level with Lord Roberts, who was taking the salute, she saluted smartly and shouted at the girls ‘Eyes right!’ – because it seemed the right thing to do.

“But it must have impressed the onlookers for the troop subsequently received warm congratulations from Miss Baden-Powell, sister of the founder of the Boy Scout Movement.

“That captain is now 88 and living in California. But Mrs Dorothy Burns was visiting friends in Watford last week and vividly recalled the days of the pack she founded, who celebrated their diamond jubilee in 1970.

“A small, silver-haired woman, Mrs Burns is still filled with the vigour she must have displayed when she answered an advert put in the Watford Observer by Miss Baden-Powell asking for volunteers to start girl guide troops.

“Mrs Burns, then a young woman living with her family in a big house in The Avenue, is sure the Watford troop must have been the first in the country because of the alacrity of her response to the advertisement and her speed in forming the group.

“‘She put the ad in the paper and my father told me to reply right away. I liked the idea because I was already in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry.’

“Miss Baden-Powell wrote back telling her to find eight ladies of good standing and good character to form a committee. ‘I got busy right away and got the eight ladies.’

“It seems that starting the troop was as easy as that, for there were girls a-plenty to join it. Some had been going along to the boy Scout meetings because there was no group for them to join and they gravitated to the new Watford group.

“The troop was started in 1910 and seems to have been more or less autonomous, making their own decisions at committee level and telling headquarters in London what they were up to.

“For instance, they were told to carry staves as the boys did, but they didn’t like them and soon gave them up. They altered the guide uniform for guide officers, designing a wide hat with a turned up brim. They would meet wherever they could, paying a penny a week for a room for their meeting.

“As the troop’s first captain, Mrs Burns had to take things as they came. She had lessons from the St John Ambulance Brigade so she could teach first aid to the girls.

“But as far as deportment went, the girls, who soon numbered about 60, had a teacher second to none.

“‘There was a regular army sergeant whose daughter was in the troop and he offered to help us,’ said Mrs Burns. ‘He was marvellous and taught us signalling – semaphore, Morse and lantern – and then he taught us how to shoot. The girls really took to it.’ Mrs Burns added she is still a crack shot today as a result of this training, and recently surprised her relatives by beating them on a rifle range.

“So the organisation of the first pack was rather military; their marching and smartness of appearance were second to none – they once had a contest with the boys which proved just that.

“The girls bought their own uniforms but to raise money for extras, like their flags, they decided to have a bazaar. So Mrs Burns went to a Watford estate agent and asked if she could borrow an empty house for three days – one to get it ready for the bazaar, one to have the bazaar and one to clear up afterwards – and was lent one at once. The bazaar attracted great crowds.

“Another way they raised money was by Mrs Burns writing, entirely by hand with a mapping pen, a monthly magazine by the troop. There was no hope of getting it printed so it was passed from hand to hand at a halfpenny for the girls, a penny for their parents.

“The Watford troop must also have provided the first guide camps, for Mrs Burns has warm memories of taking the girls to Scotland for 17 days. They took it in turns to keep watches at night.

“One of her most treasured memories is her wedding day at St Andrew’s Church when the guides and scouts formed an arch for the newly-married couple to walk under.

“It is not uncommon now for guides and brownies to attend the weddings of their leaders but the little ceremony at her wedding was undoubtedly another Watford first.

“She led the troop for about five years and has never lost touch with a few of the original members. She still has a keen interest in guiding and, in America, is often asked to lecture on the formation of that first guide troop in Watford.”