The Civil Defence Messenger Service requisitioned the Scout Headquarters on Main Street as part of the wider Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) network. Volunteer Boy Scouts, typically aged 14 to 18, were frequently enlisted to serve as messengers or runners. Their role was to carry verbal or written communications from air raid wardens and deliver them quickly to sector posts or control centres.
In September 1939, the Edinburgh Evening News published an appeal from the Boy Scouts Association seeking additional recruits for the service in the local area.
In Davidson’s Mains, which was known as Ward 23, Group A, those who enrolled in the Civil Defence Messenger Service served under the leadership of Mr J. R. Nesbitt, assisted by Gordon Watt. Both men were members of the 30th Midlothian Scout Troop.