Bibles and Dummy Rifles: The Boys' Brigade

Victor Bailey look at the movement that began on the evening of October 4th, 1883, when a young Glasgow Sunday School teacher, William Smith, opened the doors of his Free Church Mission Hall for the first meeting of a voluntary, uniformed youth organisation concerned with the Christian development of adolescent boys.

Victor Bailey | Published in History Today Volume 33 Issue 10 October 1983

Here comes the Boys' Brigade

All smovered in marmalade,
A Tup'ny 'apenny pill-box
David Newsome, Godliness and Good Learning (Murray, 1961)
  • Olive Anderson, 'The growth of Christian militarism in mid-Victorian Britain', English Historical Review , volume 86 (1971)
  • H.J. Hanham, 'Religion and Nationality in the Mid-Victorian Army', in M.R.D. Foot (ed.), War and Society (Elek, 1973)
  • Hugh Cunningham, The Volunteer Force (Crook Helm, 1975)
  • John Springhall, Youth, Empire and Society (Crook Helm, 1977)
  • Donald McFarlen, First For Boys. The Story of the Boys' Brigade 1883-1983 (Collins, 1982)
  • Victor Bailey is currently the R.T. French Visiting Professor of History at the University of Rochester, New York.

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