2 July 2022: John Scammell Memorial Walk

Report by Jenny Black

On 2 July 2022 Peter Kemp, Mo Sadiq, my husband Richard and I met Pam Scammell and Ron Mehta at Stone Sailing Club, St Lawrence Bay. We were given a very warm welcome and were joined by some of Pam’s friends.

Ron was very well organised and had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that everyone enjoyed themselves. We were given quiz sheets to do whilst we were waiting for everyone to assemble, and then at 2 pm nine of us set off for a walk along the sea wall to the Marconi Sailing Club. There were a lot of little sailing boats and kayaks on the river and we could also see the Radio Caroline ship.

It was a warm sunny afternoon, skylarks sang in the sky and we saw buzzards and avocets too. As we walked along, many stories and memories of John were shared.

Along the way we had to find some Ikea food bags which had been hidden along the path - these contained “John’s Jigsaw Challenge”. Obviously we couldn’t complete the jigsaws as we went along so they had to wait until we got back to the clubhouse. At the Marconi Sailing Club we turned inland and walked a little further until we reached a layby where we waited for Maggie, Ron’s wife, to come and pick us up. Maggie ferried us, four at a time, to another layby on the main road - this avoided everyone having to walk a section of busy road with no footpath. We then walked across fields to St Lawrence Church, where there is a telescope giving good views of Osea Island.

When we reached the church Maggie was waiting for us and again ferried everyone back to the Stone Clubhouse. We were quite hot and thirsty by the time we arrived, so we were very pleased that the bar was open. Even better, the kayakers and other members had set up a barbecue which they very generously invited us to share.

As we sat and chatted we assembled the “jigsaws” we had collected. They were, of course, all pictures of John which Ron had cut up. This led to more memories and stories being told.

When it was time for us to leave, Ron said we would all be very welcome to come back to visit the sailing club any time. We had a very enjoyable afternoon, and it was a lovely tribute to John, who is obviously very much missed by the Stone club as well as by our Rotary Club.