A HISTORY OF THE BRITISH BOY SCOUTS

© The Rev’d Dr Michael John Foster

The British Boy Scouts and British Girl Scouts are a real part of the Scout
Movement and their origins are part of the origins of the Scout Movement.
If you lived in 1910 you would have had a good chance of meeting a
British Boy Scout. The Boy Scouts Association’s membership in that year
stood at around 100,000. The membership of the BBS was around 50,000.
In other words, there was a one in three chance, that if you were a scout in
that year, it would be a British Boy Scout! At the same time there was an
organisation called the National Peace Scouts’ with a membership of
85,000, who were these ? Early Scout histories mention the Empire Scouts,
who were these?
You may know that Wolf Cubs developed from Junior Scouts and they
began in 1913/14. Did you know that there were Junior Scouts from 1909?
You may know that Baden-Powell started a training section for older scouts
during the First World War, eventually to become Rover Scouts, but did
you know that there was a Scout Scheme for those 17 years and over in
1910 ? Did you know that there was a World Scout Council in 1911?
The answers to these questions are found in the history of the British Boy
Scouts. The formation of the BBS owes itself to those who were
discontented over the emerging organisation and were disgruntled with the
bureaucracy of the Scout Headquarters and alleged overt influence from the
National Service League (A pressure group canvassing Parliament for
compulsory Military Conscription).
H Moore secretary of the Battersea Scouts writes to HQ “the brief
statement of our grievances is this that the B-P Boy Scouts as at present
administrated is run on such lines and is intimately connected with other
schemes so foreign to the spirit of the movement we feel we are unable to
remain in it” May 7th 1909. The reference to the “other schemes so
foreign” may be a reference to the National Service League.
Within the month, on May 24th (Empire Day) 1909 the Battersea Boy
Scouts had become the British Boy Scouts. The BBS managed to secure the
assistance of Cassell & Co the publishers of a Boy’s paper CHUMS. Some
20 months earlier, in September 1907 CHUMS had covered B-P’s
experimental Camp and had reported that an experimental corps was to be
formed by Baden-Powell. In February 1908 a CHUMS reader had written
in to say he had read B-P’s ‘Scouting for Boys’ and was interested in
forming a Scout Patrol.

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In the following edition the Editor said he would discuss with Baden-
Powell, the request of a number of CHUMS readers to form the ‘CHUMS
league of Scouts’. The next edition published an article on the Brownsea
Island Camp with a promise of more information on the CHUMS league of
Scouts. Nothing further appeared on Scouting until June of 1909 when the
Editor reported that the CHUMS Patrols were still going strong and that a
scheme was being launched to draw the various CHUMS Patrol into closer
union. The proposed scheme for this ‘closer union’ was the national
launching of the BBS through the pages of CHUMS as a definite peace
movement (June 21st 1909). Thus the BBS incorporated the CHUMS Scout
Patrols founded in February 1908.
The first President appointed by the BBS was Colonel Frederick Charles
Keyser (1841-1920) followed by Sir Frances Vane Bt (1861-1934). Sir
Francis had been the Honorary Organiser for B-P in London, and who held
the rank of London County Commissioner. On advice from Baden-Powell,
Vane sought to heal the breach, insisting on the fact that the Scouts were
not military. Such was his conviction, that he had brought the Cadbury’s
and other eminent Quakers into the movement. The BBS were reconciled
through Sir Francis’ mediation and became an affiliated organisation (as
were such as the London Diocesan Boy Scout Corps). In October 1909 a
Conference was held amongst all the Boy Scouts organisations, at which it
was agreed that the B-P training tests would become the standard tests.
Friction soon arose over Sir Frances’ style of operation, that HQ abolished
his post, without considering his popularity with the Scoutmasters,
especially in working class districts. On the 16th November at a protest
meeting Vane secured a vote of 198-2 in his favour and B-P promised that
Vane should continue, only to dismiss Vane by letter 6 days later. At a
further meeting of London Scoutmasters, Vane joined the British Boy
Scouts taking with him numerous Scoutmasters and the Quakers. Some of
the trouble had surrounded the fact that Vane advocated a more democratic
government and was unhappy about the appointment of National Service
League members to the Scout HQ.
In February 1910 the BBS linked up with the Boy’s Life Brigade to form
‘The National Peace Scouts’ with a combined membership of 85,000
(45,000 BBS 40,000 BLB). Because the BBS were the principle members,
the term ‘The National Peace Scouts’ was practically synonymous with
‘The British Boy Scouts’. The interest in Scouting within the BLB was
never very great and the BLB remained ‘silent partners’ in the National
Peace Scouts.

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By May 1910, Vane had pushed up the membership of the BBS to 50,000,
and was responsible for the creation of Scouting Organisations in other
Countries. In Italy, the home of his wife, Vane founded the Italian Boy
Scouts (1910-The Exploratori) and gained for them Royal patronage. Vane
also linked with others abroad, E P Carter and H C Edwards-Carter in
South Africa. E P Carter had been running an organisation called ‘The
Boys’ Guide Brigade’, based on Woodcraft and Cadet Corp drill. He wrote
to B-P about his scheme as early as 1902. Other small Scout organisations
abroad linked with Vane (India, Hong Kong, South America, Australia,
France, Egypt). All these organisations with the BBS formed ‘The Order of
World Scouts’ in 1911. The Order was launched on November 11th 1911.
This pre-dated the Boy Scouts Association’s World Organisation by some
nine years. Baden-Powell was keen to establish such an organisation to
follow in Vane’s steps, but the events of 1914-18 prevented this.
From the beginning of the BBS in 1909 both Girl Scout and Junior Scout
sections were a full part of the BBS.
Due to public criticisms over the issue of Girl Scouts, the BBS formed ‘The
British Girls’ Nursing Corps’ in December 1909 as an alternative.
However, through the intervention of Sir Francis Vane, a number of Girl
Scout Troops continued under their original title, to become by 1913, the
only Girls section within the BBS in the UK, but continued in Australia.
From the start of the movement the younger boy had been attracted by
Scouting, and to allow younger boys to join, Junior Scout Troops were
formed late 1909 for boys 7 - 11 years of age. Attention was given six
months later to the other end of the age scale. The BBS Leadership thought
that lads 17 and over should be given their own training scheme and the
Imperial Scout Corps (or Empire Scouts) was formed in May 1910.
Probably due to disagreements with Vane, the original leaders of the BBS,
H Moore and W G Whitby disappear from the scene mid-1911, alongside
this was the BBS’s disappearance from the pages of CHUMS. Vane set up
a new Headquarters at 124 New Bond Street. Owing to of the loss of the
main financier - W G Whitby, by mid-1912, Vane was in financial
difficulties and was declared bankrupt due to his financing of the BBS.
This brought the BBS into turmoil. Individual Troops under Captain
Masterman joined the B-P Scouts at the end of 1912. In 1913 Mr Barrow
Cadbury led a number of troops, as a corporate organisation into the Boys’
Life Brigade, forming the BLB Scouts. By the 1920’s these Troops had
formed ordinary BLB Companies. Masterman’s defection along with the
Troops he sponsored had introduced into the Boy Scouts’ Association a
number of Junior Scout Sections.
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This practice extended within the B-P Organisation until numerous Juniors
Scouts existed, and they were provided with their own training scheme and
identity as ‘Wolf Cubs’.

After the losses to the Boy Scouts’ Association and to the Boys Life
Brigade, about 100 BBS Troops continued to exist under the leadership of
Albert Jones Knighton (1860-1947), the Grand Scoutmaster (a title used by
Vane). Jones Knighton continued within the Order of World Scouts, led by
Vane until the Order’s demise with the advent of the First World War.
Vane maintained some contact with the BBS as in 1915, he visited and
inspected a London Troop in Balham run by a London Commissioner Mr
Percy Herbert Pooley (1886-1971). From 1913 onwards the title ‘The
British Boy Scouts and British Girl Scouts Association’ was used. Through
Vane’s influence the BBS attracted Christian men and women, and through
the leadership of Jones Knighton and Pooley, the BBS became a definite
Christian Association.
After the War Vane moved back to Italy where he continued to work for
the Italian Boy Scouts. He regained contact with Baden-Powell through the
work of the Italian Scouts and its contact with the World Scout Bureau,
founded by Baden-Powell’s movement in 1921. Despite this Vane never
regained B-P’s friendship, and the Italian Scouts were denied membership
of the World Bureau. A smaller non-Catholic organisation founded in 1912
‘The National Scouts’ was granted membership instead.
In 1927, Vane also sought to pursued B-P to extend a hand of friendship to
the BBS, to incorporate them into the main movement, but the Boy Scouts
Association failed to offer the BBS any hand of friendship. Other means of
bringing the BBS to an end were being employed. In 1921 the Boy Scouts
Association gained sponsors for a Bill in Parliament ‘The Boy Scouts
(Protection of Name and Uniform) Bill’. It sought to outlaw such
organisations as the BBS from using the name ‘Boy Scouts’ and from
wearing Scout uniform and badges. The Bill failed as it was seen to
specially favour the Boy Scouts Association. Work continued behind the
scenes and in a broader approach to legislation, ‘The Chartered
Associations (Protection of Names and Uniforms) Act was passed in 1926.
As a result of seeking to gain an Act of Parliament, in 1922, Jones
Knighton, urged the BBS to transform into a non-scouting organisation
called ‘The British Boy Sentinels’.
No heed was taken by the Commissioners and Scoutmasters of the BBS.
When the Act was passed in 1926, Knighton demanded the change, but the
request fell on deaf ears. The ‘Grand Sentinel’ was on his own.
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The main number of Troops were under the control of P H Pooley, an
Evangelical Churchman, who disagreed with the action of Jones Knighton,
and took over as Chief Commissioner with the support of the BBS
Executive Committee and appointed the Right Honourable Lord Alington
(1851-1935) as the Grand Scoutmaster. In the same year, Scout Troops
based in Shoreditch, East Ham and Lewisham, which had broken away
from the main Association, formed with the BBS, ‘The Independent Scout
Alliance’. By 1932 all of the ‘break-away’ Troops had returned.
In the same year as the formation of the Independent Scout Alliance (1926),
the Boys’ Life Brigade amalgamated with the Boys’ Brigade, and a number
of BLB Companies declined to join the Boys’ Brigade and instead formed
the ‘Young Life Pioneers’ affiliating to the BBS. By the 1930’s the YLP
Companies had either joined the Boys’ Brigade or had become Scout
Troops within the BBS. The BBS strength in the UK in the late 1930s was
around 40 Troops mainly sponsored by Free Churches. Isolated BBS
Troops appeared to be in existence in Australia. The 1920 BBS Letterhead
gives Jones Knighton’s title as Grand Scoutmaster of England and
Australia. The Chief Scoutmaster for the Southern Australian
Baden-Powell Scouts was J. A. Ivett, who prior to the Boy Scouts had run a
series of Boys’ Athletic clubs. In 1910, he suddenly resigned and became a
Commission in the Australian BBS. Ivett ran what was the remaining BBS
Troop in mainland Australia, until December 1917, working under Jones
Knighton. Gilbert Rowntree and Roye ‘Sped’ Johnson ran a BBS Troop
from around 1923 into the 1930s in the basement of the Friends Meeting
House in Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania. No further information exists
about the BBS organisation in Australia, or if it ever extended beyond the
1930s.
By March 1920 Ivett was running a boy's athletic club, but this came to an
end quite quickly. Ivett and Jones Knighton kept in contact, and in 1927,
Jones Knighton persuaded Ivett to start a Boy Sentinels Troop. Akin to all
of Ivett’s work with youth, the venture came to an end in March 1930.
Jones Knighton was well meaning but failed to hold his nerve.
It was not only the B-P Headquarters that had been working hard behind
the scenes in creating legislation. The BBS also had its people in high
places. Herbert Dunnico a Labour MP, and a BBS Scoutmaster had at the
Committee stage of the Chartered Associations Bill had successfully
inserted a clause exempting ‘bona fide national organisations’ from ceasing
to use such uniform, badges or titles, if they had been in regular use at the
time of the passing of the Act. Thus the BBS still enjoyed its freedom to
use ‘Boy Scout’ as part of its title.

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After 1931, Dunnico was no longer an MP and the Boy Scouts Association
sought to use the claims of the Act as there was no longer any person of
substance behind the BBS. In November 1931 Samuel N Manning (1889-
1967) was appointed Grand Scout. In 1932 as a result of discussions
between Manning, Pooley and the Boy Scouts’ Association, the BBS
changed its name to ‘The Brotherhood of British Scouts’, to avoid further
conflict, but more to the point, to avoid costly legal fees in the BBS’s
defence. The change of name did not find agreement with all the Leaders
within the BBS and W Hanley, Assistant Chief Commissioner led some
Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Troops as a break-away organisation under
the original name. The break-away only lasted a year with many Troops
subsequently returning under Pooley’s leadership.
The War years saw a fast erosion to the number of BBS Troops. A number
of Troops existed in London where the evacuation of young people and the
calling up of Scoutmasters had reduced the BBS to emerge from the War
with only eight Troops. By 1950 this had reduced to about four Troops. In
1953 a Boy Scouts Association Troop 10th Lewisham (St Stephen’s)
located at Loampit Hill under the Leadership of Charles A Brown. Brown
worked closely with Manning (who ran his own troop at Wimbledon),
living nearer to him than did Pooley who was a distance away at
Cirencester. In 1966 Manning appointed Brown as Assistant Chief
Commissioner being a younger man than Pooley now aged 81. Brown
became firmly in control of the administration of the BBS. Manning died in
1967 but no further appointment of a Grand Scout was made. P H Pooley
died in 1971 at 85 years of age and after sixty years of service to the BBS.
Charles A Brown took over as the Chief Commissioner. In April 1982 an
Old Boys Association was formed and held a re-union at Cirencester hosted
by Ron Holden. A further re-union was held in 1985.
In 1978 a further Group joined the BBS, 30th Oxford (St Stephen’s House)
which became in 1979 the Oxford University Rover Crew. The Rover
Scout Leader was Michael Foster. Other BBS Groups resulted from the
University Crew, such as the North/East London Rover Crew in 1981.
When as a Priest within the Church of England the Reverend Michael
Foster was Vicar of Holy Trinity Church at Clifton, Nottingham, Brown
appointed him as Chief Commissioner handing over to him the
administration of the BBS in 1983.
Brown took over the long vacant office of Grand Scout. From 1983
onwards new Troops were launched (Nottingham 1983, Aylesbury 1986,
Forest Gate in the East End of London 1988, Oxford 1989, Lydbrook 1989,
1st Phoenix Beaumont Scouts (Leyton), Frenni Ventures (Senior Scout
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Troop) Wales 1996, 1st Winterton-on-Sea 1998. In 1985 an Independent
Scout Group (1st Waltham Forest) affiliated with the BBS, and the
Outlanders (an Independent Scouting Charity founded in 1979)
amalgamated with the BBS in 1988.
In the 1990s a number of Troops belonging to the break-away Baden-
Powell Scouts Association (created in 1970 by disgruntled Troops from the
B-P Headquarters post 1967 termed ‘The Scout Association’) joined the
BBS. 1992: 1st Norwich (St Marks) and 8th Wavertree (183rd Liverpool),
1993: 18th Midland (Longridge Methodist Church), 18th Midland (Cofton
Community Centre), 1st Dormansland, 1994: 2nd Goring and Streatley
Scout Group, 1995: 3rd Tyneside Scout Group, 1997: 21st Derby (St.
Albans), 1998: 1st Hill Lane, Briercliff, Lancashire.
Charles Brown, the Grand Scout died in November 1992 and Ted Scott, a
member of the BBS since 1926 and a life-long friend of Mr Pooley, became
Grand Scout, in January 1993.
The beginnings of the BBS saw rapid expansion at the cost of a turbulent
history that was to follow. The BBS settled down to become a Christian
youth movement. Despite its turbulent history the foundation principles of
the BBS, that of serving the Kingdom of God by promoting the
Brotherhood of Man through its uniformed youth work have ensured it’s
continuing part within British youth work. In addition to the troops that
exist today there is a wider group of individual members, some of whom
were members of troops as long ago as the 1920s and who still take an
active interest. Other individual members exist abroad in such countries as
Australia, Ireland and Hawaii.

Main Office Holders.

President.
Colonel Frederick Charles Keyser 1909.
Sir Francis Vane bt 1909-1913

Grand Scoutmaster.
Sir Francis Vane bt 1911-1912.
Albert Jones Knighton 1913-1926.
Rt Hon Lord Alington 1926-1932.
Samuel Nalty Manning 1932-1967.
Percy Herbert Pooley acting ad interim 1967-1971.
Charles A Brown acting ad interim 1971-1983.
Charles A Brown 1983-1992.

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Edward E Scott 1993-2000.
The Rev’d Dr Michael Foster 2000-2016.
David Cooksley 2016-.

Honorary President.
Mrs G White Brebble 1932.
Viscount Milton 1939.
The Rt Hon The Earl of Fitzwilliam 1948.
The Reverend Bill Dowling 1997.

Assistant Grand Scoutmaster.

Chief Commissioner.
W G Whitby 1909-1911.
Percy Herbert Pooley 1926-1971.
Charles A Brown 1971-1983.
Rev’d Michael John Foster 1983-2000.
David Cooksely 2000-2016.
Paul Stevens 2016-.

Notes:
Vane introduced the title of ‘Grand Scoutmaster’. The office of Assistant
Grand Scoutmaster replaced that of Chief Commissioner but this was
restored under P H Pooley. The title of President (lapsed with Vane) was
re-introduced by Manning and Pooley as an honorary position
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BBS History 20th Edition August 2019. Details from research by; Dr John
Springhall, David Grace, Edward Shields, Tim Jeal, Fr Michael Foster, Peter
Dudley, Alec Radwell, Robert Campbell. Archives consulted; The Scout
Association, The British Boy Scouts, The Boys’ Brigade, The Girls Brigade, The
Society of Friends, The British Library, The Public Record Office.