Putra Rovers

Origins of Scouting

As a military officer, Baden-Powell was stationed in British India and Africa in the 1880s and 1890s. Since his youth, he had been fond of woodcraft and military scouting, and—as part of their training—showed his men how to survive in the wilderness. He noticed that it helped the soldiers to develop independence rather than just blindly follow officers’ orders.[1]

In South Africa during the Second Boer War, Baden-Powell was besieged in the small town of Mafeking by a much larger Boer army (the Siege of Mafeking).[2] 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 defense of the town (1899–1900), and were one of the many factors that inspired Baden-Powell to form the Scouting movement.[3][4][5] Each member received a badge that illustrated a combined compass point and spearhead. The badge’s logo was similar to the fleur-de-lis that Scouting later adopted as its international symbol.[6]

In the United Kingdom, the public followed Baden-Powell’s struggle to hold Mafeking through newspapers, and when the siege was broken, he had become a national hero. This rise to fame fueled the sales of a small instruction book he had written about military scouting, Aids to Scouting.[7]

On his return to England, he noticed that boys showed considerable interest in the book, which was used by teachers and youth organizations.[8] He was suggested by several to rewrite this book for boys, especially during an inspection of the Boys’ Brigade, a large youth movement drilled with military precision. Baden-Powell thought this would not be attractive and suggested that it could grow much larger when scouting would be used.[9] He studied other schemes, parts of which he used for Scouting.
A 2007 British fifty pence coin commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Scout Movement

In July 1906, Ernest Thompson Seton sent Baden-Powell a copy of his book The Birchbark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians. Seton, a British-born Canadian living in the United States, met Baden-Powell in October 1906, and they shared ideas about youth training programs.[10][11] In 1907 Baden-Powell wrote a draft called Boy Patrols. In the same year, to test his ideas, he gathered 21 boys of mixed 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) and held a week-long camp in August on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset, England.[12] His organizational method, now known as the Patrol System and a key part of Scouting training, allowed the boys to organize themselves into small groups with an elected patrol leader.[13]

In the autumn of 1907, Baden-Powell went on an extensive speaking tour arranged by his publisher, Arthur Pearson, to promote his forthcoming book, Scouting for Boys. He had not simply rewritten his Aids to Scouting, but left out the military aspects and transferred the techniques (mainly survival) to non-military heroes: backwoodsmen, explorers (and later on, sailors and airmen).[1] He also added innovative educational principles (the Scout method) by which he extended the attractive game to a personal mental education.[11]

Scouting for Boys first appeared in England in January 1908 as six fortnightly installments, and was published in England later in 1908 in book form. The book is now the fourth-bestselling title of all time,[14] and is now commonly considered the first version of the Boy Scout Handbook.[15]

At the time, Baden-Powell intended that the scheme would be used by established organizations, in particular the Boys’ Brigade, from the founder William A. Smith.[16] However, because of the popularity of his person and the adventurous outdoor game he wrote about, boys spontaneously formed Scout patrols and flooded Baden-Powell with requests for assistance. He encouraged them, and the Scouting movement developed momentum. As the movement grew, Sea Scout, Air Scout, and other specialized units were added to the program.[17][18]

—————————————————

1. ^ ^{a b} Baden_Powell, Robert (1933). “Chapter X”. Lessons from the varsity of life. http://pinetreeweb.com/bp-vars.htm. Retrieved on 2007-02-04.
2. ^ “The Siege of Mafeking”. British Battles.com. http://www.britishbattles.com/great-boer-war/mafeking.htm. Retrieved on 2006-07-11.
3. ^ “The Mafeking Cadets”. Scouting Milestones. btinternet.co.uk. http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/cadets.htm. Retrieved on 2007-02-04.
4. ^ “The Mafeking Cadets”. The African Seeds of Scouting. Scout Web South Africa. http://www.scouting.org.za/seeds/cadets.html. Retrieved on 2007-02-04.
5. ^ Webster, Linden Bradfield. “Linden Bradfield Webster’s Reminiscences of the Siege of Mafeking”. . The South African Military Society (Military History Journal) 1 (7).
6. ^ “Scouting Milestones — The Evolution of The World Scout Badge”. http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/fleur.htm. Retrieved on 2009-01-17.
7. ^ “Scouting Milestones — Aids to Scouting — Scouting for men”. http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/aids.htm. Retrieved on 2009-01-17.
8. ^ “Robert Baden-Powell: Defender of Mafeking and Founder of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides”. Past Exhibition Archive. National Portrait Gallery. http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/robert-baden-powell.php. Retrieved on 2006-12-03.
9. ^ Jeal, Tim (1989). Baden-Powell. Yale University Press. pp. 360–362, 371.
10. ^ “Ernest Thompson Seton and Woodcraft”. InFed. 2002. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/seton.htm. Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
11. ^ ^{a b} “Robert Baden-Powell as an Educational Innovator”. InFed. 2002. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-bp.htm. Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
12. ^ Woolgar, Brian; La Riviere, Sheila (2002). Why Brownsea? The Beginnings of Scouting. Brownsea Island Scout and Guide Management Committee.
13. ^ Johnny Walker. “Scouting Milestones — Brownsea Island”. http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/brownsea.htm. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
14. ^ “The birth of an idea”. The History of Scouting. The Scout Association. 2005. http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/history/. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
15. ^ Baden-Powell, Robert (1998). “Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys, 1908″. Pinetreeweb.com. http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bp-scouting-for-boys.htm. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
16. ^ Peterson, Robert (Oct 2003). “Another youth organization, the Boys’ Brigade, was flourishing when the first official troops of the Boy Scouts of America appeared in 1910″. Scouting Magazine. Boy Scouts of America. http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0310/d-wwas.html. Retrieved on 2006-05-22.
17. ^ Masini, Roy (2007). “A Short History of Sea Scouting in the United Kingdom”. http://www.seascout.org/about/history-uk.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-17.
18. ^ Walker, Colin “Johnny” (June 2007). “The Early History of Air Scouting”. Scouting Milestones. http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/airscouts.htm. Retrieved on 2009-01-17.