E. E. Reynolds, Boy Scouts, 1944

EXPANSION

It has already been explained that B.-P.'s original idea was to provide a system of attractive activities which could be used in any Boys' Brigade, Club, or other boys' organisation. This modest intention was quickly shattered by facts. The number of boys doing Boy Scouting on their own grew so rapidly that some kind of organisation was obviously necessary. So with great daring, a small office was opened and a stock of twelve Scout hats was laid in, with a similarly cautious amount of other equipment. (In 1938, some 30,000 hats were sold in the Scout Shop.)

Numbers, however, soon overwhelmed all such timid arrangements. By 1910 there were over 100,000 Boy Scouts in the United Kingdom alone. B.-P. found it necessary to give up all idea of a further army career in order to take in hand the organisation and development of this rapidly growing Movement.

There were extensions in several directions. At the first big rally in 1909 at the Crystal Palace, B.-P. (who paraded in General's full uniform) was startled to see some girls present who insisted that they were Girl Scouts. Something clearly had to be done about them, and so the Girl Guides came into existence.

Other arrivals were small brothers and their friends who wanted to be Scouts, but their diminutive size brought ridicule on the bigger boys as well as restricting their activities. Out of this difficulty arose the Wolf Cub section. Here B.-P. made ingenious use of Kipling's Jungle Books as an imaginative framework. The importance of this youngest section is considerable; during the war years attention has been largely concentrated on the 14-18 year-olds, and there has been a tendency to overlook the fact that successful later training must be based on successful early training.

After some years the original Boy Scouts grew older and wanted to retain their connexion with the Movement, so a new section-the Rover Scouts -was formed. Some of them have become Scouters (a general name for officers), others have acted as Instructors or have helped to run Scout Camping Grounds. At special times they have proved of great service to the Movement while at the same time continuing their training as citizens.

An International Rover Camp in Sweden, 1935 Rover Scouts of India and Norway

B.-P.'s eldest brother, Warington, was a keen yachtsman, and he had taken his younger brothers on many a boating expedition. It was therefore natural that B.-P. should want to form a Sea Scout branch for boys who felt the call of the sea. Warington B.-P. wrote the official handbook. The Boy Scouts are the proud owners of Captain Scott's ship Discovery. It is now moored in the Thames off Temple Pier and serves as a training centre for Sea Scouts.

Wolf Cubs At the Jamboree held in Holland in 1937

Other special needs have been met as they arose; two may here be mentioned as examples. The Deep-Sea Scouts is a scheme by which a former Scout who goes to sea can get into touch with the Scout representatives at ports all over the world; it is hardly necessary to point out how valuable such a linking-up can be to a lad who has just left home and is plunged into a strange life. The second need is that of the boy who is physically handicapped and may have to spend much time in hospital.. Scouting comes to him in a form adapted to suit his limitations and he learns to feel that he can, after all, share some of the activities of those who are fully fit. Doctors have testified to the psychological value of this kind of Good Deed.

Such have been the expansions of the original scheme to satisfy growing demands. A note has already been made of the expansion beyond Great Britain. There is nothing very surprising in the spread of Scouting to the Dominions, but it has proved of equal-possibly of greater-value in colonies and protectorates and even in such a remote island as Tristran da Cunha.

March Past of the Nations At the Jamboree held at Arrowe Park in 1929

The methods of Scouting have proved adaptable to the varied needs of boys of many races, for neither colour nor creed is a bar. Probably the Movement has gone as far as is practicable at present in bringing together boys of different colours. Scouting, generally speaking, keeps them in separate Troops for their training and brings them together on certain occasions when they can all feel that they are members of one Movement.

In the matter of creed, Scouting has again adopted a practical policy which has made it possible for all sections of the Christian community as well as of other religious communities to work happily side by side without conflict. This has been achieved by insisting that each member has a duty to God to perform which he is expected to carry out according to the instructions of his spiritual teachers and guides. Where this policy is loyally carried out, there has rarely been any difficulty. For boys who do not belong to any religious body-an increasing number-there is still the guidance of the Scout Law, and for them there is a simple service called a Scouts' Own. Few experiences are more memorable than a Scouts' Own held out of doors in camp; the joining together in plainly expressed prayers, the singing of the hymns and the short talk on some aspect of the Scout Law help to produce the atmosphere in which. religious faith can grow.

No attempt was made to urge foreign countries to accept the method when the Nazis suppressed the Movement in the Netherlands-as they have done in other occupied countries—they gave as one reason that the Boy Scouts were "an instrument of English influence." The truth is that foreign countries began Boy Scouts without any urging. Naturally' visitors interested in the training of boys studied the working of the Movement here, just as foreigners studied the Hitler Youth before 1939- Sometimes a private citizen of another country read Scouting for Boys by chance, and this persuaded him to try the method at home-with the astonishing result that in a year or two he found himself head of a large organisation!

The explanation is that B.-P. had discovered certain principles and methods of universal application in the training of boys; these could be easily adjusted to meet the particular circumstances of any country from Iceland to New Zealand, and round the world from China to Peru.

The Movement expanded in another direction. In 1919 Gilwell Park, a beautiful estate on the edge of Epping Forest near Chingford, was presented to the Association as a camping ground. It was found to be particularly suitable also as a training centre for Scoutmasters. B.-P. at once saw the possibilities and since that day a system of training has grown up which has spread all over the world. It had the marks of individuality that one always expected with B.-P.'s work. The obvious way to run a Training Course is to give lectures, but B.-P. wanted to achieve something more than just giving information. He, therefore, laid it down that the Training Course would be run in camp with the Scoutmasters forming a Scout Troop, or in the case of Cubmasters, a Cub Pack.

Campfire Circle and Training Ground at Gilwell Park Water colour by Kenneth Brookes, 1943

The Scoutmasters are divided into Patrols, each Patrol having its own tent and cooking place. The members of the Patrol take it in turn to carry out the different jobs which are normally done by the boys : thus each Scoutmaster is for one day the Patrol Leader, on another day the cook, and on another day he may be the general errand boy of the Patrol.

As far as possible instruction is put into practice to make quite sure that the training of the boy is also kept very practical and very active. Thus the Scoutmasters not only play various games, practice tracking, and learn the use of the axe, but they finish up their Course with a 24-hour hike in Epping Forest when they take with them all the necessary gear for the night. On their return they hand in reports of the journey with sketch maps and so on. For successful Scoutmasters, B.-P. decided that there should be a special award of what he named the Wood Badge. This consisted of a couple of beads from a necklace which he captured in one of the minor Zulu wars. Now, of course, that more than 15,000 men and women have earned the Badge, replicas of the originals are used. But before gaining the badge, the Scoutmaster must also pass a Theoretical Course done by correspondence to ensure that he knows the chief principles and methods of the Movement thoroughly. There 19 also a third and final part which is the practical application of his training to the work of the Troop, and here his District Commissioner has to certify that he has proved that his training has been of value and that he can apply it sensibly.

It was not long before Scoutmasters from other parts of the British Empire and also from foreign countries began to come to Gilwell to go through this training. These men then returned to their own countries and started similar systems worked on the same principles as at Gilwell. They have started training centres, sometimes naming them Gilwell, modelled on the parent Training Camp. In this country it has been possible to acquire other camping and training centres. An interesting example of this is the Youlbury Training Camp, which was given to the Movement by Sir Arthur Evans, himself a very enthusiastic supporter of the Boy Scouts.

	Chapter 4. Organization
	Introduction and Table of Contents
	The Baden-Powell Library

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