Baden-Powell in the early days of Scouting British Scout Association From: Scouts! The Rise of the World Scout Movement, Video Documentary, Clear Horizons, 1986

Chapter X
Life Number Two — The Boy Scouts and Girl Guides
Part  II

King Edward and the Boy Scouts — Development of the Movement — India — Kandersteg —Empire Scouts — South Africa — G.C.M.G. — The Jamboree — Australasia — Girl Guides

KING EDWARD AND THE BOY SCOUTS

After writing my book, Scouting for Boys, I naturally thought that boys' organisations would use it for their work and there would be little more for me to do in the matter. But before very long, in the spring of 1909, I realised that quite outside such organisations, hundreds of boys were forming Scout Troops on their own.

It was in 1909 that King Edward had had his talk with me regarding the movement. Although it was then only in its embryo stage His Majesty saw such promise and possibilities in it as encouraged me to try to push on with it — even if it did cost me my nest-egg of hard-earned savings (which it did).

So I made up my mind and pushed.

An invitation was sent out to all Scouts to meet me on a certain day at the Crystal Palace, and this resulted in a parade at which over 11,000 Scouts made their appearance; the biggest muster of boys that had ever taken place so far — and the movement was not two years old I

This was a bit of a bombshell for me.

I saw that I could not do both soldiering and Scouting. I must drop one or the other. But which?

From the personal point of view, I was fifty-two and a lieutenant-general, and therefore high up in the professional ladder for my age: at the same time it would be a pity to let this new growth falter and fade, and yet I could see no one who could or would take it in hand just then.

As I have said, the King questioned me on this point and knowing that he had fully grasped the idea I put myself in his hands to say which course I should take. Eventually be agreed that the Scout experiment was the more important.

So I resigned from the Army.

His Majesty continued to show his interest in our progress. On the 5th May, 1910, I was directed to b2 at Buckingham Palace between three and four in the afternoon as the King wished to see me about having a Scout Rally at Windsor.

The Marquis de Soveral was with him when I arrived and I waited in an adjoining room. When Soveral went out an Equerry came to me and said that the King was not feeling well and merely wanted to tell me that he would. have a Rally of the Boy Scouts in Windsor Great Park in June.

just previous to my visit that afternoon Lord Islington had kissed hands on his appointment as Governor of New Zealand, and Sir Thomas Robinson, the Agent-General for Queensland, had presented a gold inkstand from the government of that State. He was the last official visitor to see the King as I only heard him through the open door.

The following day the King, though very unwell, insisted on getting up and dressing. He sent for Sir Ernest Cassel and had a talk with him. His Majesty's horse, "Witch of the Air," won at Kempton Park that day. He received the news gaily at about five o'clock, but in the evening he fainted and was put to bed. At 11:45 he died.

The encouragement that King Edward gave was fully seconded by H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught, who, seeing its possibilities, even in those early days, accepted the Presidency of the movement and has wholeheartedly supported it ever since.

From prominent men like Lord Roberts, Lord Rosebery, Lord Grey, Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, and others, I received most encouraging letters, but most encouraging of all was the experienced approval and advice I had from my Mother. An educationist herself, she saw greater possibilities in Scouting than even in my dreams I had foreseen.

King George carried out the review of the Scouts in Windsor Park as had been planned by King Edward, and has given frequent expression of his close interest in the movement.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOVEMENT

Such was the origin of the Scout Movement. Its subsequent history and growth have been fully related in the book by E. K. Wade, entitled Twenty-one Years of Scouting.

The War

The movement was still very young, only six years old, when War broke out. But it was sound. The boys had developed the right spirit and were all keen to do service for the country. Men and ladies came forward to take the places of Scoutmasters who had gone to the front, and, where these were not forthcoming, the senior boys themselves took command and carried on the Troops.

Rovers

After the War, in 1919, we made a start with the senior branch of the Movement for Scouts over 17-1/2 whom we called Rovers. This branch gradually took shape under the direction of Colonel Ulick de Burgh, and promised to meet a great need. I therefore wrote a book called Rovering to Success, in which I said, much as I have done at the beginning of this book: "It always seems to me so odd that when a man dies he takes out with him all the knowledge that he has acquired in his lifetime while sowing his wild oats or winning his successes. He leaves his sons or younger brothers to go through all the work of learning it over again from their own experience.

"Why can't he pass it on so that they start with his amount of knowledge to the good to begin with, and so get on to a higher stage of efficiency and sense right away?"

In the book I warn the young men of the various rocks against which they are likely to come up in their voyage through life, and these rocks may be summed up generally as Horses, Wine Women, Humbugs and Irreligion.

The book then goes on to describe the organisation of the Rovers, as a Brotherhood of Cheerful Service for others.

That book Rovering to Success has brought me as, great a return, if nor a greater than Scouting for Boys. seeing that it has induced a very large number of young men to write to me personally and privately seeking further advice.

These letters I have treated entirely in confidence and have answered them myself to the best of my ability. It has been an eye-opener to realise how great is the need for some such advice for the adolescent lad, when so very many of them explained that they had been left in ignorance and were shy of asking their parents or pastors, but having read the book had come to me for sympathy.

These many human documents appealed directly to one's heart, for it is so astounding to find that they will adopt me as a father confessor when in person I was a total stranger to them. But I accepted their trust.

Gilwell

In 1919, Mr. de Bois Maclaren presented to our Association the estate of Gilwell Park, adjoining Epping Forest. His idea was to provide a camping ground within easy reach of London for the poorer class of boy, but, seeing that there were suitable buildings on the estate he consented to my suggestion that we should make it also the Training School for Scoutmasters, which I looked upon as an all important step in the development of the Movement.

Captain Frank Gidney was appointed Camp Chief in charge of the training, and no better selection could have been made.

It is mainly thanks to this school and its curriculum that our methods have become thoroughly understood and practised not only throughout the United Kingdom but in all the countries in the world, since foreign nations have sent their representatives to be trained at Gilwell and to go back to their own countries as organisers of the same system there.

Administration

In 1920 most of the civilised countries of the world had taken up Scouting and had modelled their organisations on our lines generally. With this widespread development it became necessary to decentralise our administration as much as possible. Imperial Headquarters was divided into Departments dealing respectively with such branches as:

British Overseas Dominions
Training of Officers Foreign
Countries
Equipment
Kindred Associations
Wolf Cubs
Publications
Finance
Rovers
Sea Scouts

These departments were each managed by a selected Head, a man specially qualified for the work, acting in a voluntary capacity.

International Growth

After the War a great meeting of Scouts from all countries was organised in London to bring the nations together through Scouting and to signalise the peace.

It was something bigger than a Rally so we called it a jamboree. I have often been asked: "Why call it by that name?" And my reply has been: "What else could you call it?"

This took place in Olympia and lasted for ten days. Some twelve thousand boys were present, representative groups coming from a large number of foreign countries for the occasion.

The show proved popular beyond our expectations. Not having foreseen this our accommodation for the public was too limited and we lost money, but at the same time gained a reputation.

On the final day representatives of all the foreign countries met and elected me to be Chief Scout of the World, and this was enunciated by a wonderful procession of the nations in their national dress and bearing the colours of their countries. It was a very marvellous parade, to which dramatic effect was given by two majestic ladies, representing Britannia and Columbia. I was told to march along behind these.

In the midst of the procession round the arena an American boy came forward bringing me a carved chair. I asked him what it was for, and he said it was to sit down on, so I sat down then and there.

The Master of Ceremonies and Marshals rushed at me from various sides and ejected the boy with his chair, as I was upsetting the whole show. It turned out to be an unauthorised presentation by the boy himself, who had carved this chair for me and thought this an opportune moment for presenting it!

Honours. Travelling up in the train one morning from my home in the country I brought my mail with me to read on the journey, when a bombshell struck me.

One letter marked "O.H.M.S." looked uncommonly like an Income-Tax Return, and so I left it till the very last before opening it. When I did so it was to announce that the King had conferred a Baronetcy upon me.

It was a bombshell because it was so absolutely unexpected and, so far as I was personally concerned, so undeserved, for all this Scout organisation had been a mere joy to me.

Some people like golf and others horse-racing, and I took up Boy Scouting. But that I should be rewarded and honoured for having a hobby was beyond all that I had ever imagined. Nor could I reconcile myself to it till I realised that it meant a mark of the King's appreciation of the voluntary work of this vast army of men who were devoting their time and energy, and, in many cases, money, to training boys to be better citizens for the country.

INDIA

In the same year we received a cablegram from Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy of India, inviting my wife, who was Chief of the Girl Guides, and myself to visit that country, and to help to establish the Scouts and Guides on a proper footing.

We stayed not upon the order of our going but went, and had a wonderfully interesting and successful time. We found about six different organisations calling. themselves Scouts, working on very sketchy lines, and many of them strongly impregnated with politics, and all agreeing to differ from one another.

We visited most parts of the country and saw great promise if only they could be brought together and consolidated into one general body.

Many of the leaders had totally mistaken notions as to the aims of the Movement, and when one came to talk matters over with them they proved amenable to reason.

Eventually Mrs. Annie Besant, who headed a very considerable contingent, agreed to join up with the parent Movement, and as she commanded the respect of the Indians generally, there was little doubt that her action in doing so would prove a very persuasive example to the remainder.

So it was arranged that we should have a great Rally of all the sections of the Movement, and Mrs. Besant would come out into the centre and take from me the Scout Promise.

With all the dramatic force at my command I called upon her in my most impressive manner to repeat after me the words of the Scout Promise.

At that moment my mind wandered. I thought of other things, and for the life of me I could not myself remember the words of the Scout Promise I There was an awkward pause. I felt a perfect fool; I swallowed once or twice and tried to begin; but the actual words had vanished.

However, Mrs. Besant recognised my dilemma and rose nobly to the occasion. With all the ability of a trained theatrical prompter she gave me the cue, whispered my words to me, which I then roared out in ringing tones, with as much confidence as if I had never faltered.

Thanks to this initiation by Mrs. Besant, the diverse sections joined in amalgamating into one movement for All India, and from that day it has gone on and prospered even under the abnormally difficult times through which that country has been passing.

We further visited Burma and Ceylon, and on our homeward voyage called in at Egypt and Palestine, inspecting the Scouts and Guides in each country.

KANDERSTEG

In 1913 our International Bureau obtained possession of a large chalet at Kandersteg in Switzerland, which was made into a hostel for Scouts of all nations. Here they could lodge in large or small numbers for hiking and mountaineering in the district. It is in lovely surroundings and a convenient centre for Europe. It has never ceased to attract Scouts from all countries at all times of the year, and the boys of the different nations come together there in the friendliest spirit of comradeship.

Mortimer Schiff, one of the leading lights of the Boy Scouts of America, shortly before his death added to the amenities of the place by presenting a neighbouring piece of ground capable of camping about two thousand boys.

This has given tremendous encouragement to the development of international Scouting.

EMPIRE SCOUTS

In this same year the Chief Guide and I were invited to Canada by the National Council of Education. We visited nine centres, delivering addresses and visiting the Scouts and Guides.

In 1924 we organised an Empire Rally of Scouts at the Empire Exhibition at Wembley, for which a camp was arranged for the lodgment of 12,500 boys. These came from all parts of the Empire, while 28,000 came by train from different parts of the country, apart from local and London Scouts.

Some idea of their number on parade may be grasped by the fact that it took two and a quarter hours for them to enter the arena, marching in fours.

The occasion was of sufficient importance for the Arch. bishop of York to talk to the boys at the special Thanksgiving Service on Sunday. It was the more important also because the Prince of Wales, when asked if he would visit the camp, not only accepted the invitation but volunteered to stay in camp himself.

After seeing the Rally he dined with the Scouters in their tent and attended the boys' camp-fire in the evening. When he saw the Scottish boys dancing a reel he could not resist the impulse and springing down from his "throne" joined in the dancing with great zest.

On retiring to his tent after a heavy day's work, when he might have taken his well-earned rest, he called me in to have a long talk about pig-sticking and sport in India and elsewhere.

His Royal Highness had, unknown to him, a voluntary guard of Rover Scouts keeping watch over his tent. After I had left him and turned in, one of these Rovers came to my tent and asked what they should do. The Prince had gone for a walk; should they follow him as his escort? They did so unobtrusively and afterwards reported that he went and called on the farmer whose land we were occupying, and had half in hour's genial talk with him before going to bed himself.

When I turned out the next morning I found I the Prince already up and, to my horror, that he was surrounded by Scouts, every one of whom carried a camera and was snapshotting him.

He had told me that he did not want any more photographers after this first day's experience, but apparently he was talking of press photographers, since, with the boys, he was quite at home and seemed almost to be enjoying it, posing for them, and advising them where to stand to get the best light and so on.

In this way he made himself beloved by these lads and, coming as they did from far corners of the Empire, he established a personal touch of far-reaching value.

SOUTH AFRICA

In 1925, my wife and I again visited the United States of America to attend the Girl Guide World Conference, at which was inaugurated the World Bureau.

In the autumn we sailed for South Africa for a tour of inspection of Scouts and Guides. This took us seven months and was in itself a pilgrimage of intense interest, both in reviving memories, in noting the progress, and in realising future possibilities.

G. C. M. G.

On our return home in 1927 I was surprised by the King conferring upon me the high honour of the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George.

As I have shown elsewhere I had more than once — in fact three times I believe — been recommended for the C.M.G. (Companion of St. Michael and St. George, or nicknamed "Colonial Made Gentleman") for services in Ashanti, Swaziland, and Matabeleland respectively. These having been denied naturally provoked the desire for this Order, though as a rule I have no liking for Orders (and consequently find myself plastered with them). But the C.M.G. I did covet. And here I found myself suddenly invested with the Grand Cross, I wrote very baldly to the King's Private Secretary, who was a personal friend, telling my delight and my reason for it — and I believe he went and showed my letter to His Majesty. This was scarcely fair on me but at any rate it told truthfully my appreciation.

THE JAMBOREE

1929 saw the biggest event in our Scout History since the inauguration of the Movement, when we opened a camp for 50,000 Scouts of all nations at Arrowe Park, near Birkenhead.

This was to mark the coming-of-age of the Movement.

The summer of 1929 had been an exceptionally long period of sunshine and drought till the actual day of the opening of the camp, when the rain came down in sheets and continued to do so for the three following days.

But, though it should have ruined the occasion, it didn't. The boys rose superior to it and seemed to enjoy the misadventure and the mud. It certainly put them to the highest test of camp-craft and one soon realised that they had all been trained on the right lines, viz., of open air camp-life.

There was no sickness, no grousing, and international friendships were developed on every side to a remarkable degree among the thousands represented there.

The Duke of Connaught opened the camp. The Prince of Wales attended it as the representative of His Majesty the King. Numerous men of distinction, foreign as well, as British, also visited the camp.

Again the Prince elected to live under canvas with the boys in spite of the wet, and once mote added to his. popularity among them.

His Royal Highness hurled a bombshell at me when he announced that the King had been pleased to raise me to. the Peerage as a mark of His Majesty's approval of the Movement and its aims.

This fresh honour was overwhelming and for a time I could not make up my mind to accept it. I vainly pleaded that it was not I but the thousands of Scouters who had by their devoted work made the movement what it is.

The bombshell was immediately followed by another from the boys themselves in the shape of the presentation of a motor-car and camping caravan, and a portrait of myself by Jagger—and last, but not least, a pair of braces.

The reason for this last was that these presents were the result of a general subscription throughout the Movement of one penny per boy. It was got up quite secretly by Denmark. In order to find out what sort of present I would like they approached my wife and asked her to find out, without letting me into it, what 1 most wanted.

She accordingly asked me one day what I would like most if a present were offered to me. I thanked her blandly, but replied that I was not in want of anything.

"But," she said, "think again, you surely would like something."

I reflected for a moment and remarked: "Yes, my braces are getting past work, if you like to give me a new pair I should be thankful."

So the braces were presented in due course — as also a motor-car and etceteras.

What a wonderful gift, coming from a million and a half of youngsters of all countries! And given, as one had reason to know, with wholehearted enthusiasm and loyalty to an Idea. It made one feel very humble, very inadequate to the vast possibility revealed of bringing about peace and goodwill among men of the oncoming generation in the world.

Here lies an opening for somebody who has the power and the vision to do it. We Scouts at any rate are putting in our little bit towards the great end.

At the last parade on the conclusion of that wonderful fortnight the boys of the different nationalities were all mixed up together and formed into an immense wheel—a great circle with files of Scouts in lines radiating from centre to rim like so many spokes. My part, at the hub of the wheel, was to bury an axe — the axe of war and ill will—and then to hand out to the leading boy of each spoke a golden arrow — the sign of peace and goodwill — to be passed from one to another till it reached the head of each national contingent, to be taken by him back to his own country so that the message of the jamboree should be conveyed to all nations and there developed.

I gave a short exhortation in which I urged them to carry this symbol of Peace and Fellowship into all the world, each individual Scout being an ambassador of love and friendship to those around him.

Of course, when one is trying to be sublime the ridiculous is sure to arise. I gave my address to the whole circle, but the boy standing directly opposite me and who got therefore the main force of my remarks, looked preternaturally unmoved by them. I assumed that he must be a foreigner ignorant of English. I found that he was the one boy out of the 50,000 who was deaf and dumb I just my luck!

AUSTRALASIA

The following year my wife and I visited the Scouts and Guides in New Zealand and Australasia and, on our way home, in South Africa again. This was a most interesting if somewhat strenuous tour but at the same time well worth the effort.

The journey took us some seven months, and, within a week of our return to England, we were off again abroad. First to an International Scout Conference at Vienna, then to an International Moot of some 2000 Rovers at our camp ground at Kandersteg in Switzerland. This last, the first of its kind, proved a palpable step forward in the promotion of international goodwill through mutual personal acquaintance and comradeship among the young men of different countries. To this end we have now (1933) in the movement 2,159,984 Scouts distributed in 45 different countries, and several millions more of young men in the populations who have been through the training.

THE GIRL GUIDES

Rapid as has been the rise of the Scout Movement, and surprising as has been the measure of its adoption by foreign countries, the Girl Guide movement has surpassed it in both these particulars.

We are the Girl Scouts," was the announcement made with a certain air of confident self-assertion by a pert little person of some eleven years at the first Rally of the Boy Scouts. This was at the Crystal Palace in 1909.

She was the spokeswoman of a small group of girls dressed as nearly as possible in imitation of their brothers, the Scouts.

The presence and the quite evident keenness of these girls opened one's eyes to the fact that here lay an opening for a further application of the Scout method of character-training and self-development.

At this time, over twenty years ago, women were only just coming into their own in the work of the world. Character development was actually more needed by them than by their brothers since they had had less opportunity of forming it in their comparatively more secluded life.

They needed it for their growing responsibilities in social life, they needed it also in their capacity as mothers for imparting it to their offspring.

The school education of girls had been put on a higher and steadily improving footing, but the problem of their character training was as yet unsolved.

Character cannot be taught in a class. It has, necessarily, to be expanded in the individual, and largely by effort on the part of the pupil herself. With the Boy Scouts we aimed to help them to develop their character by sporting activities and outdoor adventures with which a: moral code of chivalry was carefully linked. One had long realised that girls generally preferred to read boys' literature, that stories of Wild West dramas appealed to them far more than those about heroines in academies for young ladies.

Now the girls were coming forward of their own volition to get the same adventure as their brothers.

This has since become the usual thing — in 1933 — but it was a big innovation in 1909.

With such spirit, however, meeting one half-way, it was not a difficult task to devise a scheme similar in principle to that of the Scouts while differing in detail to meet the requirements of the girl's life.

Miss Charlotte Mason, the founder of the House Education for training women teachers, had to some extent foreseen this when she adopted as a text-book for their instruction a little book called Aids to Scouting, which I had written for young soldiers. She found in it something educative, so after my encounter with these self-assertive Girl Scouts I was not without hope in suggesting a sister movement to that of the Boy Scouts. To this we gave the name "Girl Guides."

The term "Guides" was intended to give an idea of romance and adventure while it indicated also their future responsibilities for directing their menfolk and bringing up their children on right lines.

The general aim of its training was similar to that of the Scouts, generally to develop character and health and sense of service to others, while in particular it would give girls practical instruction in home-making, mother-craft etc.

This aim was to be pursued largely by self-education through outdoor recreation in good companionship. The training would be under the direction of a "Guider," that of is, one who in relationship was neither a schoolmistress nor a martinet, but, rather, an elder sister.

The Guides, like the Scouts, were organised in small Companies not exceeding thirty-two in number so that each individual temperament could be studied and educated.

Then the girls are grouped progressively according to age, as Brownies, Guides, and Rangers.

In the first two or three years little could be done in the way of organising the Guides since one was fairly snowed under by the phenomenal growth of the Scout movement; but in the hands of a committee of energetic ladies things then began to take shape and before long the movement had its own headquarters, its uniform, and its handbook and rules as a chartered association.

The uniform was an important item, not merely as an attraction, as it undoubtedly was, to the girls but because under it all differences of social standing were hidden and forgotten.

One of our tenets is to extend our goodwill and toleration so that we pay no regard to differences of class or country or creed. All are accepted in the sisterhood who can subscribe to our religious policy, which is on the simple basic foundation of most of the beliefs in the world, namely, Love of God and Love for one's neighbour. The actual form in which these are expressed is left to their pastors and parents; it is immaterial to us so long as they are expressed.

Thus, starting upon the initiative of a few enthusiastic girls, the movement has, like Topsy, automatically growed."

To-day it has been adopted in practically every British State overseas and in most of the Colonies and Dependencies. Further than this it has also been keenly taken up in most foreign countries. So that to-day our family numbers some 1,094,000 in forty different countries. Of these girls 885,000 are British. Looking back on what has thus been accomplished in twenty-one years, after starting from nothing, one can to a certain extent visualise what possibilities may lie before the movement within the next twenty-one years. It is continually growing (147,990 increase in 1931) and sending out into the stream of life tens of thousands annually, trained in the service of God and their neighbour and developed in health of body and mind and in comradeship.

Thus in our own country if the girls respond to the training (as they certainly appear to be doing) we shall have a considerable leaven in the population of women trained in thrift, housekeeping, mother-craft, as well as in character and efficiency for work in the world, and in friendship with their sisters in other countries.

The question has often been asked: "Why did God send the Great War?"

Was it possibly to bring home to us that neither education nor religion are being conducted on the right lines for raising man to the higher plane designed for him — that in spite of our boasted civilisation and in spite of two thousand years of Christianity we have gained as yet but a veneer of civilisation and that the Christianity which we profess is not that which we really practise in our lives and actions; that self-interest and mistrust rule the world instead of love and goodwill.

The War showed that the most civilised nations were ready to fly at each other's throats with all the vigour of primitive savages.

The League of Nations is doing what it can, by mutual consultation and legislation, to bring about the rule of peace. But it is rather through fear of consequences of war that it has to press its aim.

Whereas the only sound basis on which to build is the spirit of love and goodwill among people in the place of mutual jealousies and mistrust. This can only be secured by bringing up the next generation in a changed outlook.

The modern St. George,

The meaning of these pictures is that the young modern knight could tackle his dragon of evil more effectively if he were better mounted and better equipped by his fellow countrymen.

Is he to be St. George or merely Don Quixote?

This sounds like an Utopian dream and might reasonably be laughed out of court were it not that the experiment we are making with the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movement has already shown — if only on a small scale — that it should not be impossible.

If we have been able in twenty years, under all the handicap of first initiation and of the set-back of the greatest war in history, to train approximately some nine millions of young people distributed in forty-two different countries in the spirit of mutual toleration and friendship, it needs but the patriotic co-operation of patriotic men and women (and there arc lots of them) in all countries so to extend the movement that it influences the greater proportion of the youth of the world.

I don't pretend that the Scout and Guide movement alone can bring it about — but they can help.

If the Churches and Schools do their work we may ere long see a truer type of civilisation and a real step to the establishment of God's Kingdom of Peace and Goodwill upon earth.

Wake up England and help your young people

	Lessons from the Varsity of Life Chapter X. The Boy Scouts & Girl Guides Part One
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