Robert Baden-Powell (first Baron Baden-Powell, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB) developed a training scheme for boys which resulted in the publication of a book in 1908 entitled Scouting for Boys. It was such a run-away success that it lead to the development of the scouting movement.
A rally was held at the Crystal Palace in 1909 and although girls were told the movement was for boys only, a handful attended. Within a year some 6,000 had joined the scouting movement, much to the angst of their parents.
Victorian Britain had distinct roles for their women. Ideally young ladies from nice backgrounds stayed at home and learned such skills as embroidery from their mothers. They helped manage the household and did charitable work. They dressed in ankle length skirts and never ran as it was considered unladylike to perspire. Parents were up in arms, mothers worried that joining the scouting movement would undermine their daughter's femininity.
At Last, Girls Permitted to Join the Scouting Movement
In 1909, Baden-Powell, listening to all sides of the argument, agreed that girls shouldn't joint the scouting movement but asked his sister Agnes to lead a new organisation. A new name was chosen so as not to antagonise Boy Scouts, and in order to cultivate the support of parents by distancing the new movement from a tomboyish image completely. During his military career, Baden-Powell had been particularly impressed by the guides he encountered while in India. So the new movement became known as the Girl Guide Movement.
The following year, Baden-Powell retired and devoted his life to the scouting movement and it was while on a promotional tour that he met and married Olave Soames.
The Rosebuds are Formed
In 1914, a junior movement was formed for girls aged 8-10 years and was called the Rosebuds. They had a coded password 'dubesora uoyera' which translated to 'are you a rosebud?' The coded response was 'duba mai', which means 'I am a bud'.
In 1915, Agnes Baden-Powell suggested the name be changed to Brownies after the helpful little people she had read about in a story. The groups that made up the patrol where named after trees, but this was changed in 1917 when the groups became known as sixes with a 'sixer' in charge and a seconder in support. Individual sixes were named after fairy folk such as pixies, elves and gnomes, as trees were considered slow-growing and passive, the exact opposite to the Brownie.
Olave Baden-Powell took over as Chief Guide in 1918. And during this year a group of Guides accompanied the British delegation to the Paris Peace Treaty Convention where they carried confidential messages between delegates.
Guiding Gets a Royal Seal of Approval
The Girl Guide movement received the ultimate seal of approval when, in 1937 the Queen, or Princess Elizabeth as she was, and her sister Princess Margaret Rose joined the movement.
In 1946, the Queen's Guide award was introduced and is the highest award a Guide can achieve and in 1952, Her Majesty, the Queen became joint patron with the Queen Mother.
In 1994, the Girl Guide Association changed its name to the Guide Association and in 2002 it was renamed Girlguiding UK.
Royal patronage continues to this day as Sophie, Countess of Wessex became the President of Girlguiding UK in 2002.
Patrols usually meet on a weekly basis but also they participate in camps and conventions where Guides from around the world can meet one another.
BBC News reported the Celebration of 100 years of the Guiding movement on September 5th 2009, in which it is noted that 1 in 4 8-year-old-girls in Britain is a Brownie, which is a phenomenal achievement. With a waiting list of approximately 45,000, it looks as though Girlguiding UK could be in existence for many years to come.
Sources:
- 'You', Sunday Mail Magazine August 23rd 2009
- CBBC Newsround
- BBC News September 5th 2009
- Girlguiding UK
- World Association of Girl Scouts and Girls Guides
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