Museums collect and interpret a variety of artifacts, ensuring that history is preserved for the future. Here at the Kingston Scout Museum, we care for artifacts related to Scouting and we share this history with all of our virtual visitors. Every so often, we receive an artifact donation that we struggle to share with our community because its story is a complete mystery to us.
This past summer, we became the caretakers of our latest mystery: the 2e St. Jean Bosco flag.
The Flag
The 2e St. Jean Bosco flag was donated to the Kingston Scout Museum in the early summer of 2026. Its donor, a Kingston resident named Richard, was a Scout leader in the early 1970s outside of Montréal, Québec. The flag came into his possession sometime in this period, though he isn’t exactly sure when, how, or why he received it.
The flag is possibly homemade and constructed from fabric and felt. The symbol and slogan for L’Association des Scouts du Canada is on both sides of the flag with “2e St-Jean-Bosco” on only the front. One edge has gold-coloured fringe and the opposite edge has bunches of green and yellow fabric strips.
There are no other clues on the flag itself and a dozen more questions. Where is the 2e St. Jean Bosco troop from? Who made the flag? Is the troop still active? With these questions in mind, we began to research.
Our Findings
We began our research with St. Jean Bosco himself. His name was our primary clue.
St. Giovanni (John or Jean) Bosco was born in Italy in 1815. As a priest, he focused on caring for and educating children until his death in 1888. Pope Pius XI canonized St. Jean Bosco as a saint in 1934.
In the years following St. John Bosco’s canonization, many new Catholic schools and churches took on his name as a way to honour the new saint.
There are countless places in Québec that are named after St. Jean Bosco with many of them first appearing in the mid to late 1930s. We are unable to identify if the 2e St. Jean Bosco troop was connected to a particular school, church, or town because there are too many to choose from!
Our research hit a dead end very quickly. We were unable to verify the present-day existence of the 2e St. Jean Bosco troop or find a person connected to the original troop.
What Now?
We are still left with two major questions: who originally owned this flag and does the group still exist today? The flag is unlike any other artifact in our collection and it deserves to have its story told.
If you or someone you know recognizes this flag or the group it belonged to, contact the museum today. Email us at contact@kingstonscoutmuseum.ca or leave a comment below.
Acknowledgements and References
Thank you to Richard for entrusting us with the care of the 2e St. Jean Bosco flag, and to Dave Cunningham for coordinating the donation and assisting in research.
For more information on St. John Bosco, visit these links:
- https://vaticanstate.va/en/component/content/article/31-january-saint-john-bosco.html?catid=51&highlight=WyJib3NjbyIsImJvc2NvJ3MiXQ==&Itemid=216
- https://salesiansisterswest.org/life-st-john-bosco