World War One unleashed a hitherto unknown horror on Britain: the destruction of civilians from the air by Germany's Zeppelin airships. The Comet called them "air murderers", "machines of frightfulness" and "engines of destruction", and raged against "wild beast methods in which peaceful civilians are suddenly bombarded from the clouds with the odious weapons of war which rend the air and the earth, destroying buildings and firing them, taking human lives and mangling human forms."

The first Zeppelin raid on the London area was in May 1915, and continued over the next few years. Navigation was still primitive, and only a fraction of the bombs hit their targets. Nevertheless, Zeppelins had a huge psychological effect on Kingstonians, who had to face the fact that their deaths could literally come out of the blue.

A great comfort in those stressful years was a bugle call. For Boy Scouts, established in Kingston only six years before the war, played a valuable role on the Home Front.

Their duties included warning of Zeppelin raids with maroon flares, then, at the end of each raid, cycling round the streets blowing the "all clear" on the bugles that were part and parcel of most early scout troops.

They also helped to guard strategic places such as river and railway bridges (the train service to Kingston had just been electrified) and the Thames-side wharves (Kingston in those days was still a busy inland port).

Another of their tasks was to rush out urgent notices to residents and businesses, concerning wartime requisitions.

For example, firms found their horses commandeered for war service on the Front, while householders in Surbiton had more than a thousand London Infantry troops billeted on them.

When the Chief Scout, General Robert Baden-Powell, came to Kingston in 1913 he had been impressed by local scouts' mastery of wireless and signalling.

These skills were useful throughout the war, when scouts liaised with police and the military (The East Surrey Regiment had its depot in Kingston) in conveying messages..

First aid and ambulance work were key scout qualifications, so the boys were able to give valuable help as orderlies at Kingston Hospital, which was coping with a large intake of military casualties, and helping at first aid stations.

And in order to be on call at the centre of things, Kingston and District Boy Scouts Association rented an office at 8 Richmond Road, opposite Kingston station.

Those early scouts are among the curiously unsung Home Front heroes of World War I.

Records of their achievements are few and far between and even the Imperial War Museum admits that, though it has a wealth of written and pictorial material on scouts voluntary efforts in World War II, it has little or nothing nothing on the previous conflict.

The reason for that is also the reason why I've found the early years of Kingston scouting the most arduous local history project I've ever attempted.

As Graham Coombe, the Scouts Associations's former archivist, explains: "There was no central information base until 1919. Until then records were at best kept by the district committee concerned - and often lost - or at worst not written down at all. So there are big gaps that will never be filled."

But it's important, he says, to remember that the young scouts' contribution was of key importance at a time when most able-bodied men were away on military service.

This was particularly true of farming. Kingston was still rich in farmland, with three farms in New Malden and several more in Tolworth. In addition, Richmond Park was under the plough for much-needed food production. So scouts' help in planting and harvesting crops (flax was particularly in demand as a covering for aircraft wings) was eagerly sought and given.

However, I gleaned two early Comet references to the energy and initiative of local scouts in the Great War, both pertaining to the 1st Kingston Hill Troop.

One was in November 1915, when the troop was presented with a bugle by Basil Philpott, organist of the Chapel Royal, and mention was made of their help to "the military authorities, the Mayor and Corporation, the Education Committee and the Hospital Committee."

The second was in December 1918 when the troop received a silver bugle from Norbiton Bowling Club in what the Comet tartly described as "the first, and so far only, public recognition of the useful work which scouts have performed during the war".

The Commander of the British Army, Sir Douglas Haig, whose home was on Kingston Hill, made a point of praising their role in providing "all clear" buglers after raids.

"The welcome call on raid nights brought comfort to thousands," he said, adding: "I am sure that many of the soldiers who have contributed to the present victorious issue owe a great deal of their efficiency to their training as boy scouts."

He was right!