The 17th Hull Company was founded in January 1939 by Mr Don Gibson, and was originally based at Kingston Methodist church in Witham. The company's first camp was as a part of the Battalion camp that went to Holmpton, near Withernsea. In spite of war being declared on 3rd September, the company continued to meet on Tuesday evenings and despite evacuations, air-raid alarms, blackouts and the possibilities of impending call ups of the Officers, the 17th remained open. Later during the war the Company changed its meeting times to Saturday afternoon due to the increased air raids and blackouts.

In 1941 the Kingston chapel was bombed and the Company joined with the 18th Hull Company at the Wesley chapel, but held joint Bible Classes on a Sunday afternoon. In the late summer the 2 companies amalgamated and the new company became known as the 17th Hull.

After the war some of the older boys returned from the forces to become Officers, and in 1948 Jeff Wilmott became Captain of the Company, and it went from strength to strength. In 1960 Ernie Addicott became the first member of the Company to gain his Queen's Badge, and it was the first of many.

In 1965 the 17th were asked to take part in a display at Scarborough to try and start a company there, and was successful as there is one of the largest Companies there within the Yorkshire District. Several boys took part in a PT item and a drill item, the latter being very prominent even today. Around this time the company changed its meeting night to a Friday from a Wednesday and here it has stayed since. This was initially due to the senior group studying at night class; this still serves well as boys don't have school in the morning.

The mid '70's saw the company dominate the competitions and win the Battalion Colours for 4 years on the trot. In 1977 Jeff Wilmott stood down as Captain and Geoff Patrick took charge of the Company until 1986 when Graham Sowden took over and built the company numbers up after a lean period. At this time Sue Sowden started up the Anchor Section along with Gill Holmes and had a success with the initial group that went right through the Company culminating in 6 gaining their Queen's Badge in 1999.

In 1990 Graham stepped down as Captain and Derek Robinson took over as Captain and his first task was to take a group of boys to Rosedale to enter the Challenge Hike for the first time. Fiona Cranwell took charge of the Anchors and after a brief spell joining with the Juniors reverted back to a Friday night. The mid 90's saw the Company win the Battalion Colours 4 years in succession, and have one of its most successful periods since the mid 1970's. In 1999 the Company celebrated its 60th anniversary where Alan Dyer (District President) was the guest of honour at a reunion on the Saturday night, where many of the past members joined us for a get-together. He also led the Sunday morning worship where the 6 Queen's Badges were presented. The company has regularly won competitions and has had their name on just about all of the trophies at one time or another in the last 65 years.

In 2010, Derek stood down as Captain after 20 years and Mike Fish took over as Captain. After a few years of lower numbers, the Company is building up again with high numbers in the Anchors, which will hopefully feed through into the other sections over the coming years. In 2014 we celebrated our 75th Anniversary with an activity day for children and a celebration service, which was followed by lots of reminiscing by members old and new.

Although the numbers are not in the upper 80's as we had in the early 60's, we are still one of the stalwarts of the Battalion, entering the competitions and events throughout the year.

If you want to find out more about the Company, please come along during term time on a Friday night or contact the 17th Hull Company.