Today marks the 109th anniversary of the first organized scout camp. On August 1st, 1907, Lieutenant-General Baden-Powell gathered 20 boys from all different social backgrounds and tested his ideas for the book Scouting for Boys at Brownsea Island, England. The activities were ce. Brownsea Island, where the first ever Scout camp was held, is the namesake of First Year Camper (FYC) programs across the United States. It is the name of the FYC program at Rodney Scout Reservation in Del-Mar-Va Council. The Brownsea program is aimed at 11-year old Scouts, or those that have recently crossed over from Webelos. New Scouts can enroll in the Brownsea Island program to have a lot fun exploring the Justice Scout Camp’s various program venues, while also working on their rank advancement. COPE & Climbing Develop your teamwork & communications skills through the obstacles at Project COPE or master your rope work and climbing at Boulder Cove. Brownsea Island was the site of Baden Powell's experimental 'Scout Camp' in 1907 when he was testing out his ideas. 106 years later, Scouts from Billericay & Wickford pitched their tents on the. Trainer/staff designed as the Scoutmaster for the training Scout Group - the 1st Brownsea Scout Group. This introduces the trainees to the small group method and patrol system used by traditional scouting through hands-on experience. The training is broken down into Troop wide activities and Patrol activities.
Origins
Brownsea Island Significance To Scouting
Robert Baden-Powell returned from the Second Boer War a national hero. As well as being a career soldier he was also an established author. One of his most successful books was a military manual “Aids to Scouting” which contained training exercises for military scouts. This book developed an unexpected audience amongst boys and youth groups who were mimicking the exercises to learn observation and tracking skills.
Edwardian society was plagued by the thought that Britain was not developing useful citizens. There was a concern that many people were physically weak due to a lack of understanding about nutrition and health and did not possess useful skills. Baden-Powell would have witnessed some of these issues first hand through the poor quality of recruits who joined the Army. There was an appetite for schemes that would help address these issues. Baden-Powell felt that given the right training young people could start to play an active role in their community from an early age and this training would have long term benefits in supporting employment and productivity. He had witnessed first-hand the role young boys “the Mafeking Cadets” had played during the town’s siege (Second Boer War) as they took on non-combative roles including stretcher bearers and messengers.
Baden-Powell was convinced by friends; including his publisher Cyril Arthur Pearson and the founder of the Boys Brigade, Sir William Alexander Smith, to create a youth focused version of the book. He started by creating a draft of his new book which swapped the military focus for adventure, exploration and survival skills. It was decided to test the ideas by running an experimental camp for a selection of boys.
Brownsea Island Scout Games
A week on Brownsea Island
On the 1 August 1907 twenty boys were encamped on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour to participate in an experimental project. Baden-Powell wanted to see if his proposed activities would appeal to a broad range of young people and so he recruited ten boys from a range of public schools and ten members of local Boys Brigades branches in Bournemouth and Poole. The boys were aged 10 to 16 years old, they were divided into four patrols; wolves, bulls, curlews and ravens, four of the older boys were given the rank of Patrol Leader.
Wolves | Bulls | |||
| Patrol Leaders | Bob Wroughton | Public School | Thomas Evans-Lombe | Public School |
| Cedric Curteis | Public School | Albert Blandford | Boys Brigade | |
| Reginald Giles | Boys Brigade | Marc Noble | Public School | |
| John Evans-Lombe | Public School | Arthur Primmer | Boys Brigade | |
| Percy Medway | Boys Brigade | James Rodney | Public School | |
Curlews | Ravens | |||
| Patrol Leaders | George Rodney | Public School | Herbert Emley | Public School |
| Terrance Bonfield | Boys Brigade | Herbet Collingbourne | Boys Brigade | |
| Richard Grant | Boys Brigade | Humphrey Noble | Public School | |
| Alan Vivan | Boys Brigade | William Rodney | Public School | |
| Herbert Watts | Boys Brigade | Ethelbert Tarrant | Boys Brigade | |
Brownsea Island Scout Camp Games
There was one more child in attendance, Donald Baden-Powell, nephew to Robert, aged 9 years old he was too young to officially join in so he served as Baden-Powell’s assistant and orderly. To support Baden-Powell with running the camp were Boys Brigade Captain George Walter Green and Baden-Powell’s friend Kenneth McLaren, with whom he’d served in the Army. Percy Everett from Pearson’s publishers also attended for a day to observe the activities, he would go on to be Deputy Chief Scout.
The boys were given shoulder knots of coloured ribbon to wear to mark their patrol and triangular pennants showing an image of their patrol animal. These would later become of standard Scouting uniform and kit. Patrol Leaders were given a white fleur-de-lys to attach to their hats to show their rank. Another item from Brownsea Island that would go on to become a Scouting icon is the Kudu Horn (made from antelope horn and brought back from South Africa by Baden-Powell). Producing a low deep noise that travels well over long distances it was perfect to call the boys to start activities. It was later used at Gilwell Park during leader training courses.
Over the week the group tried out various activities. These included: fire-lighting, navigation, observation and tracking, cooking, life-saving and boat management.
The Brownsea Island Camp is often called the first Scout Camp and Baden-Powell referred to it as a Scout Camp. This is sometimes contentious as the boys weren’t Scouts, they had not made their promise, but they were scouting by trialling the activity programme.
The response to the activities was sufficiently encouraging for Baden-Powell and his publishers to push forward with finishing the book.
After the Camp
Baden-Powell took what he had learnt from the camp and spent the next few months writing “Scouting for Boys” with the plan that it would provide a tailored training programme for use by other organisations. Initially published in January 1908 as a series of six booklets “Scouting for Boys” was supported by a lecture tour given by Baden-Powell. By the end of the month the response to the book and lectures was so great Baden-Powell became convinced of the need for a separate organisation dedicated to delivering the activity programme. An announcement was made to this effect at a YMCA HQ in Birkenhead, the Boy Scouts were born, within two years there would be over 100,000 Scouts in the UK.
We know some of the twenty boys who had attended the camp took up Scouting following the publication of “Scouting for Boys”. The boys were of the generation whose lives would be swept up by the First World War. Of the 19 boys who were still alive in 1914 five died during the War and a sixth died prematurely due to the effects of gas poisoning. Various reunions were held for the Brownsea boys including one to mark Scouting’s 21st birthday at the “Coming of Age” World Scout Jamboree held in Birkenhead in 1929.