A brief history

The Thirty-ninth was founded in August 1914 by the then Rector of St. John's Church, Rev. George Terry, who held the post of Scoutmaster for five years. He died in the great flu' epidemic of 1919, and after a brief spell under the acting leadership of Dr. Evan Balfour Melville, the Troop was taken over by the new Rector, Geoffrey Gordon. In 1920, Geoffrey also founded the Wolf Cub Pack and ran the Troop from 1919 to 1926, when he left Edinburgh. He was followed in the role by Hector Gooderham (1927-1928), Bill Blyth (1928-1930) and George Anderson (1930-1932). Hector Gooderham also appears to have been the Thirty-ninth's first warranted Group Scout Leader during this time as well.

The Thirty-ninth then entered a more stable period. Willie Lord took over the Troop in 1932 and was Scoutmaster until the War broke out in 1939, making him the longest ever serving Scoutmaster or Scout Leader. During the war years, the Troop was run by Ernest Cook, 'Cookie' (1939-1941) and the Rev. Sidney Harvie-Clark (1941-1946), the Rector of St. John's. Sidney also became the Group Scout Leader in 1942. At the end of the War, Willie Lord returned for a brief spell followed by Alistair Cameron-White from 1946-1947.

After a period of uncertainty, the Troop was run by Alec MacIntosh (1951-1953), until it was taken over by Robert Frost (1954-1958). In 1954, the role of Group Scout Leader was taken on by Peter Jeffrey, who remained in that post for two years until the post was taken on by the Rev. Keith Arnold in 1956. Also in 1954, the Baby Boom hit Scouting and the Wolf Cub Pack was split into two, the 'X-Pack' and the 'Y-Pack'. The Cubmasters at this time were Keith Frost followed by Tom Kerr (X-Pack) and Eric Gray and Norman Jeffrey (Y-Pack).

In 1957, the Troop too entered a new prosperity and was run by a series of strong teams, starting with Eric Gray (1957-1963). Frank Stewart took over as Scoutmaster from Eric in 1963 'for one year only' but it was not until 1965 that the post was filled by ASM Quentin Jackson. At about this time, Keith Arnold left the post of Group Scout Leader and this was taken on by Robert Frost.

Quentin ran the Troop until 1972, with Thomas Gough taking over for a while during 1969. Quentin took the Troop through the significant changes in Scouting in 1967 becoming the first 'Scout Leader' of the Thirty-ninth. In those changes, the first Venture Scout Unit was created with Frank Stewart as Venture Scout Leader. The Unit started with a large number of official members, the younger part of the old Rover Crew. After the first year, numbers had dropped but they were joined by Venture Scouts from the 34th Haymarket and the 126th Haymarket, making them a strong Unit.

After Quentin left to become a District Commissioner in Portobello in February 1972, his ASL, Ranald Macdonald, took over running the Troop until September, when Clifford Koch became Scout Leader, paving the way for Ranald to become Group Scout Leader. Clifford stayed in post until Spring 1973, when he left to go to Canada. Bruce Stuart, an ASL for several years, then took over, but only for a few months, and in December 1973, Alan Fyfe became the Scout Leader. He stayed with the Troop until the end in 1979, but had to resign as SL in March 1977 because of increasing time spent offshore.

The last true Scout Leader of the Thirty-ninth was Matthew Aitken, who ran it for a year until April 1978 but left because of University exam commitments. Ranald Macdonald took over again as Acting Scout Leader and remained in that position until the Group closed in February 1979.