Scouts in Scotland

It's been just over a century since the Scouts began thanks to the efforts of Robert Baden-Powell but did you know that the 1st Glasgow Troop has a good claim to being the first officially registered Scout Troop in the world? Or that the Girl Guides and the Boys Brigade both began life in Scotland?

Sir William Smith founded the Boys Brigade, the oldest youth organisation of its kind, in Glasgow in October 1883. Smith was born just 20 miles from John O'Groats and was a Lieutenant Colonel in the 1st Lanarkshire Rifles and a Mission Sunday School teacher.

A deeply religious man, Smith had noticed the restlessness and fidgeting many teenage boys displayed during Sunday School he set about establishing the Boys Brigade as a way to introduce discipline into young lives and to get boys more interested in the Sabbath.

Also an army officer, Baden-Powell had given Britain its first real victory in the Boer War and had returned home a national hero. He also discovered, to his surprise, that thousands of young boys were avidly reading his book 'Aids for Scouting'. The book had originally been intended as a military training manual; to teach techniques like observation, tracking and initiative. 'Scouting for Boys' was the teenage version of this book and it was published in six fortnightly parts beginning in January 1908.

Baden-Powell had imagined that his scouting scheme would supplement the work being done by Scotland's Boys Brigade - helping to bring focus and discipline into boys lives - however, boys were soon setting themselves up as informal patrols of scouts and it became clear that, almost spontaneously, a movement was being born.

Baden-Powell was asked to take the chair at the annual Boys Brigade display at the Royal Albert Hall, and was later asked to review the Brigade in Glasgow. He later said that it was the sight of all these keen, smartly turned-out boys who were focused, disciplined and well mannered that gave him the impetus to spread this kind of movement throughout the world.

A Glasgow cadet officer called Robert 'Boss' Young met Baden-Powell during his November 1907 tour of Britain. Shortly afterwards Young truly recognised the potential of Baden-Powell's ideas when he read about them in the first issue of 'Scouting for Boys'. Young must have acted quickly because the troop he founded, the 1st Glasgow Troop of Boy Scouts, still has its elaborate Edwardian registration certificate dated 26th January 1908.

Although there is evidence that there were unofficial Scout clubs operating prior to this date, no other Scout troop has documentation that pre-dates this, giving 1st Glasgow Troop a literally certifiable claim to being the oldest Boy Scout Troop in the world today. (Glasgow is also home to one of the world's largest Scout Groups: 24th Glasgow Scout Group, based in Bearsden, which comprises 5 'Beaver' colonies, 6 'Cub' packs, 2 scout Troops and an Explorer unit.)

Shortly after this, in the summer of 1908, a Glasgow schoolgirl called Allison Cargill founded the Cuckoo Patrol of Girl Scouts; the earliest recorded example of what was to become known as the Girl Guides. The movement grew quickly and by 1910 there were over 100,000 Boy Scouts in the UK.

Scotland can also lay claim to being the home country of one of the world's greatest Scouts: Thomas Corbett, the 2nd Baron Rowallan. Rowallan, who was Chief Scout of the British Commonwealth and Empire from 1945 to 1959 and World Chief Scout from 1947 to 1953 was born in London, but his family castle and seat was in Kilmarnock in Ayrshire. The Chief Scout is the leader of Scouting for all groups within the UK and its territories and is responsible for promoting the policies and benefits of scouting and determining how the movement evolves.

Rowallan was awarded the Bronze Wolf, Scouting's only honour, for his services to the movement, as was his successor Baron Charles Maclean from Argyll. Maclean served as Chief Scout from 1959 until 1975, meaning that, between these two men, a Scot was at the head of the Scouting Movement for thirty years! Indeed in receiving the Bronze Wolf Maclean and Rowallan join Baden-Powell in very select company: out of the half-a-billion people estimated to have passed through the ranks of the Scouts just over 300 Bronze Wolfs have ever been awarded.

Another Scottish Scouting connection is the RRS Discovery. This legendary Dundee-built ship the last wooden three-masted ship built in the British Isles was the vessel that carried Scott and Shackleton on their first successful Antarctic Expedition. In the early 1920's the Discovery first crossed paths with the Scout movement when she became the headquarters for 16th Stepney Sea Scouts. In 1936 she was presented to the Boy Scouts Association for use as a training ship. The Discovery was fully restored in 1985 when she was entrusted to the Dundee Heritage Trust, where she is now one of the city's most visited tourist attractions.

Today it is estimated that there are approximately 25 million men and boys involved in scouting organisations around the world. The United States, with four million scouts is the single largest member country, but this may change: following the collapse of communism, scouting began to spread like wildfire through many former Eastern Block countries, where it was formerly banned. In fact there are now only three books in the world that have sold more copies than 'Scouting for Boys'; the Bible, the Koran, and Mao Tse Tung's communist manifesto The Little Red Book, making Baden-Powell one of the most successful authors who ever lived!

His message carried into the hearts of millions of young people and today former Boy Scouts include the film director Sir Richard Attenborough, former England Captain David Beckham, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

On his death bed the movement he had founded was very much in Baden-Powell's thoughts and he sent a final message to millions of Scouts around the globe:

'The real way to get happiness is by giving it to other people. Try to leave this world a little better than you found it. 'Be prepared.' Stick to your Scout promise even after you have ceased to be a boy.'