The beginnings of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides can be traced back to events during the Boer War. This war took place between England and what is now known as South Africa, at the end of the nineteenth century, and beginning of the twentieth.
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Lord Baden-Powell's Boy Scout Band, ca. 1908 G-07476 |
Every single one of the 1000 soldiers was required, and Baden-Powell attempted to find ways to relieve soldiers from duties such as messengers, signallers, and first aid attendants, so that they could assist in defending Mafeking.
He requested that boys, too young to work as soldiers, assist him by working as messengers, lookouts, runners, signallers, and first aid attendants. The boys who helped were usually around the ages of 11-15, and called themselves the Mafeking Cadet Corps.
After 217 days of siege, Mafeking was saved by the arrival of other British troops. Baden- Powell (or B-P, as he was later known) became a national hero in Britain. The role the boys played in the Cadet Corps also became well known, particularly among young boys.
They started using an army training manual that had been written by B-P, to learn the same things that had been done by the Mafeking Cadet Corps. These activities were called "scouting", and when B-P discovered the keen interest in his book and in "scouting", he decided to rewrite the book and make it more suitable for boys.
To rewrite the book, B-P met with various educators, including Madame Montessori, and other youth leaders of the time, conducted an experimental camp of scouts, and then set his ideas down in a book called "Scouting for Boys". Boys in the movement became known as "boy scouts" , and ranged in age from 11-15. The ideas quickly caught on in Britain, and in Canada by 1908. The movement caught on so quickly, in fact, that it reached even very small towns like Port Alberni, within the year.
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Port Alberni Boy Scout troop in front of City Hall, ca. 1908 D-07358 |
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AAAA0297, BC Archives, MS-2768, Box 15 file 18, Boy Scouts Stamps of Greece, 1963 |
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