ONE of Britain’s oldest Scouts was given a farewell church service following his retirement after 80 years.

Reg Hayes, 95, of Normandy Crescent, Cowley, first became a member of what was then the 2nd Oxford Wolf Cub pack in the mid-1920s before moving to the SS Mary and John 2nd Oxford Scouts in 1930.

On Sunday, the congregation at SS Mary and John Church, in Cowley Road, celebrated Mr Hayes’s contribution to Scouting in Oxford.

The former Cowley car worker met the movement’s founder, Lord Robert Baden Powell, when he came to Oxford Town Hall in 1923.

Mr Hayes, who also worked at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, in Headington, served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Second World War.

He said he would still pop in and visit his old troop.

Mr Hayes added: “It’s been an exciting time. I will miss the friendships most, and meeting people.

“I’m an honorary Scouter of the group, which I shall always be, so if I wish to look in, I shall do so.”