A 12-year-old boy from Chippenham was awarded his Chief Scout’s Gold Award on the steps of 10 Downing Street.

Jean-Benoit Semichon, a pupil at Hardenhuish School, was in London on October 5 with the 10th Chippenham Air Scout Group.

It spent the night on HMS Belfast with a visit to the First World War exhibition at the Imperial War Museum.

It was with a Scout group from Buckinghamshire, with which it travelled to Belgium in August for the First World War centenary commemorations.

Jean-Benoit read one of the readings in French in front of dignitaries at Le Cateau, after a 40-mile hike from Mons following the route of the British Expeditionary Forces 100 years before.

To earn his gold award he completed all nine of the Scout Challenge Badges. These involved a two-day expedition around Iron Bridge in Shropshire, activities such as archery, camping, canoeing, gliding and film-making, as well as a hard day’s graft painting fence rails around the football pitch in Pewsham Park, behind King’s Lodge School.

Scout leader Chris Jones, who presented the award, said: “It’s the highest award you can get as a Scout. We only give a handful each year and not everybody gets it, you have to put in real effort.”