Scouting's history
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Introduction
The history of Scouting is a story that has been told many times. It is a story that all Beaver Scouts, Cub Scouts, Scouts, Explorer Scouts and Scout Leaders of any form should know. The video below tells a lot of the story but it is a little old fashioned and doesn't necessarily cover what Scouting in the UK is about now. So... think you know Scouting? Watch the video to the right to see if you're right. Scouting is for everyone 6 years and upward who seek new challenges, are keen to learn, have a faith (any faith) and are prepared to take the promise. The days of "Boy" Scouts have long since passed and Scouting has sought to fully integrate those with disabilities almost since the beginning of the organisation. Scouting is the single biggest peace organisation in the world. |
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Before scouting...
The Scouting movement was started by Lord Robert Baden Powell. Baden-Powell was born on the 22nd February 1857 the eighth of ten children. He first came across wood-craft, scouting and art whilst at Charterhouse school. BP joined the military and as he rose through the ranks. During the 1880s and 1890s in India and Africa BP came across native scouts whose skills he greatly admired and tried to emulate. In 1896 he met Frederick Russell Burnham an American by birth who was the Head of the British Scouts. From him BP learnt a great deal about woodcraft and the skills that would later become known as Scouting. The skills he developed were in part based upon native American tracking and hunting skills as well as those of Indians and the tribal scouts in Africa. Burnham and BP noticed that the very nature of war was changing and that it was no longer appropriate for soliders to simply be lined up and expected to blindly obey orders. Conflicts in Africa demanded more intelligent and independent soliders capable of adapting to the terrain and the adversaries they met. They needed scout-craft. |
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Together they taught their scouts and soliders the method of scoutcraft and from their methods came great success. During this time BP's showmanship became very apparent as he put on small plays, would get his soliders to trick the enemy with elaborate charades (such as pretending to avoid barbed wire or minefields) and would make loud and amusing retorts to enemy commanders. His style, charisma and military success was making him famous in Britain but this was nothing compared to what would follow. During these campagins many things that would become important to Scouts first came into BP's life: the wood badge (from the necklace of a Zulu king); the Kudu horn; the writing of a Aids to Scouting; his change in dress to include the South African campagin hat and neckerchief; and soon after the first scout badges. When BP sent this first book to be published with the hope it would help those in the military he didn't expect what followed. As the book was published BP became the leader of one of the most gripping dramas in the Boer War; the seige of Mafeking. |
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The seige lasted 217 days as BP's forces held out against the massively larger Boer army. The press in Britain followed his progress regularly and BP quickly became known to all. Knowing that the seige would be hard on all the townsfolk, particularly the children and that every man needed to man the defences BP taught all he knew of scoutcraft to the boys of the town and used them as messengers and scouts. This kept the boys busy, gave them skills to practice and freed up men for defensive duties. His scouts were given regiment badges that consisted of the compass points and a spear head... very similar to a fleur de lis. When the seige was broken and BP was victorious he became a national hero. During the seige his book was published and was hugely popular but not necessarily with the audience he intended. BP moved on from the conflict to organise the South-African police force. It wasn't until 1903 that he returned to Britain and was taken a-back by what he found. |
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Back in Britain he found that youth groups across the length and breadth of the country were using his book to help plan activities for their meetings. He also discovered that boys were reading the book themselves; a book aimed at soldiers. BP was taken aback. The Boys' Brigade a Christian youth club that employed rigorous discipline as part of their philosophy made BP their Vice-President. Whilst inspecting Boys' Brigade BP became convinced that they would benefit from scout-craft. This was then followed in 1906 when Ernest Thompson Seton sent BP a copy of The Birchbark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians a book he had written. Seton and BP met up many times to discuss how scout-craft could be used in youth groups and what benefit they would get from it. There is some controversy tied up around Seton. Unlike Burnham who happily accepted his role as the "father" of Scouting and was happy to stand in the shadow of BP (Burnham's family are still heavily involved in Scouting today) Seton felt that BP cheated him out of a lot of the credit and that he later plagarised his work. BP however always gave credit to Seton and never denied his importance in the development of the movement. It was the public who grabbed hold of BP's heroic and dramatic image and really threw him to the front. BP being in part a frustrated actor was simply guilty of allowing them to do this. |
The logo of the Boys' Brigade. BP was
Vice-President of the group and a great admirer of them. |
Ernest Thompson Seton. If Burnham is the father of Scouting and BP the founder then Seton is perhaps the midwife that helped BP deliver it to the world.
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All of this made BP think a great deal. He admired discipline and felt it was central to helping young boys to develop into decent and honest citizens but there was something in the Boys' Brigade that didn't quite sit right with him. His book, the work he did the cadets in Africa and the training he and Burham had given soliders kept gnawing at him. Scoutcraft. He and Seton had many ideas that they discussed about youth training programmes. Finally BP brought it all together and in 1907 he wrote the first draft of what would become Scouting for Boys. Before he could publish it he felt he had to test it. Re-enter the Boys' Brigade. Around 20 boys (there is some evidence that there may have been 21 boys in total) from Boy's Brigade units and Eton (very different backgrounds to say the least) were gathered for an experimental camp. Each lad paid according to their means. Now all BP needed was somewhere isolated enough to try out his ideas but close enough to a major city or town to make travel practical... |
The birth of scoutingBrownsea island was selected as a place BP knew from his childhood and that would keep away the press until he was ready to use them to spread the word. The boys were arranged into a Patrol system with a Patrol Leader and they remained within their Patrols for sleeping (in bell tents) and all activities.
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The memorial to the first ever Scout Camp. The birth of the Scouting movement.
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Each day began at 6am with BP blasting on the Kudu horn and the Scouts having a mug of Coco. The day was then devoted to a series of activites based on a scoutcraft theme of the day. The Scouts had a siesta in the afternoon and went to bed strictly at 9pm but these two breaks aside the day was packed full of activities, songs, prayers and fun. The basic outline of all Scout camps was laid down here and Scouting had begun.
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After Brownsea...
The camp was a spiritual success and brought BP even more publicity. Financially it ran at a loss but this was covered by one of the Etonian parents. The stage was set for BP to unveil what he had been working on all this time; what Brownsea had been testing: Scouting for Boys The remainder of 1907 saw the already famous BP frantically touring the UK to promote the camp and his forthcoming book. January 1908 saw it arrive in fortnightly parts (later collected as a book) at a mere 4d for each of the six parts. Some were expecting a sanitized version of Aids to Scouting but that is far from what they got. The whole work was redone with boys in mind and whole new stories were inserted to inspire the minds of Boys and men alike. |
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Various covers to the different parts of Scouting for Boys
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The book was an enormous success becoming the best selling English language book of all time (second only to the Bible) for decades and currently being the fourth greatest selling English language book of all time. It was lapped up by boys and girls of all ages and BP's distinctive clipped speaking style translated to an easily accessible text that read like a ripping yarn in the pulp tradition. BP had written it with groups like the Boy's Brigade in mind thinking that Scouting could work within these organisations but it soon became apparent that this wasn't the whole story. Boys and girls all over the country were arranging themselves into patrols without leaders and youth groups were becoming Boy Scout groups. It was an incredible revolution like nothing the world had ever seen before. Scouting spread throughout the nation faster and harder than any revolutionary fever had before or since. Later in 1908 The Scout magazine started and work progressed behing the scenes to form The Boy Scout Association. |
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Humshaugh and the scout
In April 1908 C. Arthur Pearson launched The Scout magazine with an advert calling inviting Scouts to apply to go on a camp with BP himself. The advert stated that all applicants had to be in The Scout movement (in a Group that followed the Law and Promise as laid out in Scouting for Boys) and would be elected by vote. Many (including BP himself) felt that this was a cynical ploy to raise sales of the magazine but it worked and the first place winner had over 29,000 votes. To offset this the first 50 placed Scouts got a Scout camera from BP and to the next 50 he gave away copies of Scouting for Boys. |
Various issues of The Scout Magazine including issue 1 on the left. |
The Boy Scouts at Humshaugh saluting the flag that BP brought from Mafeking
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The magazine itself was not directly associated with BP but was Pearson's reward for fronting up the money for BP's speaking tour to promote Scouting for Boys. It was a huge success and the weekly league tables of boys eager to be on the camp created enormous interest. Pearson further drummed up interest and sales by offering hundreds of votes to those who'd subscribe to the magazine. On the 22nd August - 4th September 1908 BP and a number of other instructors led the 30 (36 in the end as BP himself nominated a further 6 more Scouts himself). The structure of the days were quite similar to those on Brownsea Island (but with lights out being half an hour later). The weather conditions weren't as good as on Brownsea but it didn't damp their spirits. The camp is now considered to be the first true Scout camp. The movement was truly underway. |
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Other organisations
William Alexander Smith's challenge to BP to produce instructions to help the Boy's Brigade and other similar organisations (such as the YMCA and Church Boys) had produced Scouting for Boys and a revolution. BP was already the Vice-President of the Boy's Brigade and the Brigade was grabbing Scouting with both hands issuing BB Scout badges and certificates. Some BB groups became more and more into Scouting and some abandoned the BB uniform in favour of the Scout uniform laid down in Scouting for Boys. BP quickly realised he had a movement on his hands and he invited Smith (repeatedly) to join him in the Scouts or to merge the BB with them. Smith refused as he didn't feel that the Scouts pushed their Christian agenda as firmly as he'd like. The two remained friends but the groups went their seperate ways with the BB gradually abandoning all mentions of Scouting even though BP remained Vice-President. Very quickly Scouting eclipsed the BB and all other youth groups. The YMCA, however, proved to be a great source for recruitment and meeting halls especially in the US. |
Boys' Brigade Scout Certificate and badges. |
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In 1908 Gibraltar became the first place outside of mainland Britain to form a Scout Group. Soon after Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Chile followed. 1909 was a busy year for BP. He was still in the army having been commanding some reserve forces and later being the Inspector General of the cavalry. The Scout Movement set up a Head Quarters in Victoria Street, London and BP held his 3rd camp. The third camp was held on the TS Mercury at Bucklers Hard. BP had a great love of the sea and felt that Scouts should be encouraged to love it too. The Mercury already had a long history as a training ship but this was going to end with the death of the owner. CB Fry a friend of BP's took it over and it struck no one as a surprise that BP picked it as a venue for a sea camp. 1909 also saw BP host a rally of 11,000 Scouts in Crystal Palace. He was stunned to see that many of them were girls. Later that year he attended another rally in Glasgow where he met 6,000 Scouts in kilts. Scouting was growing. |
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1909 BP was knighted. Later that year he published Yarns for Boy Scouts. 1910 saw Denmark, France, Finland, Greece, Germany, Argentina, Malaya, India, Russia, the Netherlands, Mexico, Norway, Sweden and finally the United States all open Scouts. With 1910 Scouting was taking over BP's life and he resigned his commision to work on it full time. He spend the early months touring the UK and later went to America and Canada to help organise their Scout movements. Later that year Seton was appointed Chief Scout of America. The Scout movement made its first appeal for dontations at this time. Thanks to the success of the TS Mercury camp BP started the Sea Scouts. He later published Scouting Games. A census was taken of Scouts in the UK and they found over 100,000 Scouts and nearly 8,000 leaders. Scouting had well and truly arrived. |
The Crystal Palace rally
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George V
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Scouts were also present at the corination of George V and in 1911 the King became the official patron of the movement. He then inspected 33,000 Scouts at Windsor Great Park. By 1910 the Movement was already issuing formal paperwork and had Counties and Districts divided up. Evidence for the NW Wilts district being formed for the first time can be see to the right of this text. 1910 also saw the formation of the Girl Guides (still at that time called Girl Scouts by many). BP was stunned by the reaction to the movement by girls but didn't think it was right for them to join in besides boys due to the standards of the time. With his sister Agnes the Guides were formed and proved extremely popular from the onset. The groups were growing too fast for BP and there was no way he could visit or advise them all. He needed a method of teaching teachers so in 1911 he held his first leadership camps in London and Yorkshire. 1912 brought tragedy and joy for BP. The Scout movement had its first major disaster with 9 scouts losing their lives drowing off Leysdown. BP also married Olave. |
Group Return for NW wilts district in 1910. Click on the picture to see an enlarged version. Image used with thanks to the Swindon and Wiltshire History Centre and the Scout Association.
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