17 Scout Recruit (IRESC)

Scout Recruit IRESC-09

This set portrays the induction of a newcomer into some sort of adult Scout Troop.  We don't have any sort of description of the story line, but in the pictures he is seen introducing himself with a sheet of paper. He seems far from enthusiastic about putting on the uniform, which suggests he's been sent there as a punishment or for some character training. It seems like a curious hybrid of UK National Service in the Army (which was just coming to an end in the 1960-63 period) and Community Service, which hadn't been invented then. The set culminates with an extended spanking scene which, surprisingly, is almost unknown.

Almost everything else about the set is obscure. We don't even have a title, so I made one up. The ordering code 'IRESC' appears on the thumbnail sheets we do luckily have.  I believe the first three letters are the models' initials (after the Royale custom) with SC denoting 'Scout'

There are three men in the cast, but the only one I have been able to identify so far is Ray Huggins, the 'R' in IRESC led me to him. He was a truly muscular model, who appeared in the beefcake press for Hussar in the dying days of the studio (Grecian Guild Pictorial for March 1963). That is the only clue we have to the production date of the set, which doesn't seem to have been advertised in the press. The obscurity of the other models' identities suggests it's a late, original work of Hussar, not a Royale revival. 

We are fortunate that there exist two different copies of the complete thumbnail sheet for this set and a complete copy of the 36 images in it (albeit small and afflicted by noise).  

View 'The Scout Recruit' 

(Under construction) 

 

There is no obvious connection with the Royale/Hussar Scout set modelled by Cliff Smith. Even the uniform is different.