Origins In the late 19th and beginning of the 20th century, popular interest in frontier and military scouts existed. Boys and girls read fictional and nonfictional stories about scouts and emulated these scouts in dress and activities and used self-help manuals. Some teachers and youth leaders instructed boys and girls in scout craft.
Reconnaissance and Scouting (1884) and
Aids to Scouting, books on military scout training written by
Robert Baden-Powell, were among the sources used for instruction. Sales of
Aids to Scouting were fueled by Baden-Powell's fame as hero of the
Second Boer War. Inspired by the interest in his books on scout training and urged by the
Boys' Brigade founder,
William A. Smith and leaders, some of whom had adopted Scout training, and by the publishers,
C. Arthur Pearson Ltd, Baden-Powell began writing a book for boy readership. Baden-Powell was also motivated by his experience with the Mafeking Cadet Corp and the poor physical standards of recruits and their poor preparation for colonial wars. He studied other youth training schemes. In July 1906,
Ernest Thompson Seton, a British-born Canadian raised naturalist, artist and writer living in the United States, sent Baden-Powell a copy of his 1902 book
The Birchbark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians and they met in October 1906 and shared ideas about youth training, providing Baden-Powell with a scheme for delivery of scout training. commemorating the
first experimental Scout camp In August 1907, Baden-Powell led a week-long experimental
Scout camp on
Brownsea Island in
Poole Harbour, Dorset England to test his ideas. Twenty-one boys from various social backgrounds, from boy's schools in the London area and a section of boys from the
Poole,
Parkstone,
Hamworthy,
Bournemouth and
Winton Boys' Brigade units attended the camp. Following Seton's scheme, the boys organized themselves in small groups with an elected leader. The camp was accompanied by advertising and followed by an extensive promotional speaking tour arranged by
C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. to promote the forthcoming book. In 1908, Baden-Powell's book,
Scouting for Boys, was published in six fortnightly parts, followed in April by
The Scout magazine. These omitted many military aspects of
Aids to Scouting and transferred the techniques (mainly
survival skills) to non-military heroes: backwoodsmen, explorers He also added innovative educational principles (the
Scout method) by which he extended the attractive game to a personal mental education. Later in 1908,
Scouting for Boys was published in book form and a revised edition was published in 1909 and was the basis for the 1910
Boy Scout Handbook of the
Boy Scouts of America by Seton. The various editions of the book are now the fourth-bestselling title of all time. The original edition and magazine described a scheme which could be used by established organizations, particular the various Brigade Movement organizations. However, because of the popular image of scouts and desire for adventurous outdoor activities, boys and even some girls formed their own Scout patrols and troops, independent of any organization. In 1909, a Scout Rally was held at
Crystal Palace in London, which 11,000 Boy Scouts and even some Girl Scouts in uniform attended. Local and national Scout organizations were formed. In 1910, Baden-Powell formed
The Boy Scouts Association. The Boy Scouts Association's first census in 1910 claimed 100,000 registered Scouts.
Girl Guides 's second head Many girls took up being Girl Scouts and were part of the Scout Movement as soon as it began. Common Edwardian values of the time would not accept young boys and girls to "rough and tumble" together. Baden-Powell with the help of his sister,
Agnes Baden-Powell, formed a separate organization for girls in 1910, the
Girl Guides Association, which was followed in other countries forming the
Girl Guides. However, by the 1990s, two-thirds of the Scout organizations belonging to WOSM had become co-educational. near
Humshaugh, the first proper Scout Camp
Original Scout Law The scouts law is for boys, as follows; • A Scout's honour is to be trusted – This means the scout will try as best as he can to do what he promised, or what is asked of him • A Scout is loyal – to his king or queen, his leaders and his country. • A Scout's duty is to be useful, and to help others • A Scout is a friend to all, and a brother to every other Scout – Scouts help one another, regardless of the differences in status or social class. • A Scout is courteous – He is polite and helpful to all, especially women, children and the elderly. He does not take anything for being helpful. • A Scout is a friend to animals – He does not make them suffer or kill them without need to do so. • A Scout obeys orders – Even the ones he does not like. • A Scout smiles and whistles • A Scout is thrifty – he avoids unnecessary spending of money. • A Scout is clean in thought, word and deed (added later)
Promise of 1908 Scouting for boys, introduced the Scout promise, as follows: "Before he becomes a scout, a boy must take the scout's oath, thus: :'On my honour I promise that— :#I will do my duty to God and the King. :#I will do my best to help others, whatever it costs me. :#I know the scout law, and will obey it.' While taking this oath the scout will stand, holding his right hand raised level with his shoulder, palm to the front, thumb resting on the nail of the little finger and the other three fingers upright, pointing upwards:— This is the scout's salute".
Worldwide spread The Boy Scout Movement swiftly established itself throughout the
British Empire. By 1908, Scouts were established in
Gibraltar,
Malta,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand,
Malaya (YMCA Experimental Troop in Penang) and
South Africa. In 1909 Chile was possibly the first country outside the British dominions to have a national Scout organization. By 1910, Argentina, Denmark,
Finland, France,
Germany,
Greece,
India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States had Boy Scouts.
Associated programs for younger children Younger children, particularly younger siblings, too young to be Scouts and take the Scout Promise attended some Scout meetings and so programs for younger children were developed by some troops and organizations. Baden-Powell's
Boy Scouts Association launched its
Wolf Cubs in 1916, which Baden-Powell wanted to be distinct from Scouts in name, uniform and identity to ensure they did not give Scouts a juvenile image. In the United States, attempts at Cub programs began as early as 1911 but formal recognition by the Boy Scouts of America was not made until 1930. Some Scout organizations have associated programs for even younger children and infants.
Associated programs for older adolescents Some Scout organizations developed programs for those who had grown too old to be Scouts but wanted to remain associated with and support Scout Troops. Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts Association formed its
Rovers in 1918 for young men and its Guild of Old Scouts. in Turkey in 1937 in August 1920, 500 Wolf Cubs perform a
Grand Howl in the arena at Olympia, London
Leader training Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts Association held
Scoutmaster training camps in London and
Yorkshire in 1910 and 1911. Leader training was delayed by
World War I. The Boy Scouts Association acquired
Gilwell Park near London in 1919 as an adult training site and Scout
campsite and held its first
Wood Badge training there in 1919. The Wood Badge was copied in many other national scout organizations. Baden-Powell also wrote
Aids to Scoutmastership to help
Scout leaders.
Influences greeting 1500 Boy Scouts making an annual trip to the Capitol, 1927 Important elements of Scout training have their origins in Baden-Powell's experiences in education and military training. He was a 50-year-old retired army general when he wrote
Scouting for boys and his writing inspired thousands of young people from all parts of society to get involved in activities that most had never contemplated. Comparable organizations in the English-speaking world are the Boys' Brigade and the non-militaristic
Woodcraft Folk; however, they never matched the development and growth of the Scout Movement. At
Charterhouse, one of England's most famous
public schools, Baden-Powell had an interest in the outdoors. Later, as a military officer, Baden-Powell was stationed in
British India in the 1880s where he took an interest in
military scouting and In 1896, Baden-Powell was assigned to the
Matabeleland region in
Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as Chief of Staff to Gen.
Frederick Carrington during the
Second Matabele War. In June 1896 he met here and began a lifelong friendship with
Frederick Russell Burnham, the American-born Chief of Scouts for the British Army in Africa. This was a formative experience for Baden-Powell not only because he had the time of his life commanding reconnaissance missions into enemy territory, but because many of his later Boy Scout ideas originated here. During their joint scouting patrols into the
Matobo Hills, Burnham augmented Baden-Powell's
woodcraft skills, inspiring him and sowing seeds for both the programme and for the code of honour later published in
Scouting for Boys. Practised by
frontiersmen of the
American Old West and
indigenous peoples of the Americas, woodcraft was generally little known to the British Army but well known to the American scout Burnham. During this time in the Matobo Hills Baden-Powell first started to wear his signature
campaign hat like the one worn by Burnham, and acquired his
kudu horn, the
Ndebele war instrument he later used every morning at Brownsea Island to wake the first Boy Scouts and to call them together in training courses. Three years later, in
South Africa during the
Second Boer War, Baden-Powell was
besieged in the small town of Mafikeng (Mafeking) by a much larger Boer army. The
Mafeking Cadet Corps was a group of youths that supported the troops by carrying messages, which freed the men for military duties and kept the boys occupied during the long siege. The Cadet Corps performed well, helping in the defence of the town (1899–1900) and were one of the many factors that inspired Baden-Powell to write
Scouting for boys. Each member received a badge that illustrated a combined
compass point and
spearhead. The badge's logo was similar to the
fleur-de-lis shaped arrowhead that later adopted by Scout. The siege of Mafeking was the first time since his own childhood that Baden-Powell, a regular serving soldier, had come into the same orbit as "civilians"—women and children—and discovered for himself the usefulness of well-trained boys. In the United Kingdom, the public, through newspapers, followed Baden-Powell's struggle to hold Mafeking, and when the siege was broken he had become a
national hero. This rise to fame fuelled the sales of the small instruction book he had written in 1899 about military scout training and survival,
Aids to scouting, Frontier and military scouts inspired interest in playing and training as Scouts. Baden-Powell wrote his military training book,
Aids to scouting because he saw the need for the improved training of British soldiers and army scouts, particularly in initiative, self-reliance, and observational skills. The book's popularity with young boys surprised him. He adapted the book as
Scouting for boys. "Duty to God" is a principle of the Scout Movement, though it is applied differently in various countries.
Scouting America takes a strong position, excluding
atheists.
The Scout Association in the United Kingdom permits variations to its Promise, in order to accommodate different religious obligations. While for example in the predominantly atheist Czech Republic the Scout oath does not mention God altogether with the organization being strictly irreligious, in 2014, United Kingdom Scouts were given the choice of being able to make a variation of the Promise that replaced "duty to God" with "uphold our Scout values",
Scouts Canada defines Duty to God broadly in terms of "adherence to
spiritual principles" and leaves it to the individual member or leader whether they can follow a Scout Promise that includes Duty to God. Worldwide, roughly one in three Scouts are Muslim. ==Scout Movement characteristics==