Games Played At Brownsea Island4/24/2021
B-P wrote to him every day and, knowing that the Boers would read his letters, B-P used them to give misleading information.Brownsea certainly ranks very highly and, because of its prominence, it is perhaps surprising just how little detail is generally available.I hope this contribution will help to shed light on the happenings at what is generally billed as The Worlds First Scout Camp.It must be remembered that the Brownsea participants were not Scouts in the true sense of the word - they had not taken the Law and the Promise.
Some did go on to become Scouts, but others did not join when eventually the opportunity was presented, preferring to remain in the Boys Brigade or their Schools Cadet Corps. All of the original participants that left any sort of written record seem to agree that what happened on Brownsea was very special and stayed with them throughout out their lives. He had toured Britain extensively and spoken to a wide range of audiences about his ideas of using Army Scout training to motivate what he saw as disaffected youth. He had involved other youth organisations - notably the YMCA and the Boys Brigade. Games Played At Brownsea Island Manual Aids ToHe had a populist publisher waiting for the drafts of his latest book, which was a revision, designed especially to appeal to the young, of his army manual Aids to Scouting. He had the support of the great and the good throughout the land. What he did not have was practical experience in working with young people True, his ideas had worked on Army Scouts. The Mafeking Cadets were, in the main, much younger and though inspirational were not trained by Baden-Powell. As far as boys of scout age were concerned, B-P only had the word of others, young and old alike, that his ideas would work. They got on very well and invited B-P to visit them in their London home or at their castle on the 500-acre Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset. It seemed to him to be the ideal place to conduct his experimental camp. On his return to London, B-P wrote asking for permission, and was sent back van Raaltes recently-published little booklet about Brownsea. Yes it had everything he needed, particularly isolation. He wrote. B-P insisted that the camp was a small experimental one and in no way worth publicity at that stage. He skilfully manipulated the situation by promising full co-operation when the scheme was in its complete form. I am sure that the Editor of The Daily Mirror understood by this that no such co-operation would be forthcoming had he dared go against B-Ps wishes and report on the Brownsea experiment. As far as education was concerned, youngsters from the different classes were well segregated. On Brownsea there were ten of town boys and eleven were the children of his friends who were mainly at (fee-paying) public schools. To make this social mix a reality a sliding scale of fees was charged, the town boys paying three shillings and six pence (17p) whilst the public schoolboys were charged 1 per boy. He was wounded in the relieving of Mafeking and made a prisoner-of-war.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |