Scouting for Empire

Seventy-five years ago the Scout movement started in Britain, explains Victor Bailey, an authentic expression of the Edwardian age of Empire.

'There suddenly appeared in my world – I saw them first, I think, in 1908 – a new sort of little boy, a most agreeable development of the slouching, cunning, cigarette-smoking, town-bred youngster, a small boy in a khaki hat, and with bare knees and athletic bearing, earnestly engaged in wholesome and invigorating games up to and occasionally a little beyond his strength – the Boy Scout. I liked the Boy Scout, and I find it difficult to express how much it mattered to me, with my growing bias m favour of deliberate national training, that Liberalism hadn't been able to produce, and had indeed never attempted to produce anything of this kind.' H.G. Wells, The New Machiavelli (1911)

To continue reading this article you will need to purchase access to the online archive.

Buy Online Access  Buy Print & Archive Subscription

If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.

Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.