Dawn of the World Scout Movement by Colin Walker

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Dawn of the World Scout Movement is an apt sequel to the work on the Brownsea Experimental Camp. It documents the significance of the events of 1908, starting with an analysis of Baden-Powell’s diaries that the author has transcribed from the originals. This provides a unique insight into Baden-Powell’s life at the inception of the Scout Movement.


The major influences on the Founder are examined including the much-understated roles of the ‘Brother Organisations’; the Boys’ Brigade, Church Lads’ Brigade and the YMCA. The controversial contribution of US pioneer Ernest Thompson Seton is evidenced and placed in its rightful context. Equally significant, though short lived, was the involvement of the little known Legion of Frontiersmen, which for the first time in a Scouting context, is demonstrated beyond dispute.


The phenomenal spread of Scouting in 1908 is illustrated through the history of significant founding troops, both at home and abroad, supported by an appendix listing 350 such groups. In conclusion, the history of the highly significant first national Scout Camp, held at Humshaugh in Northumberland, is told definitely, with reference to no less than four original diaries, and previously unpublished photographs.


On their 100th anniversary Scout Historian Colin Walker recalls the events of 1908 through the eyes of Baden-Powell and his Scouting pioneers. This book is a ‘must have’ for serious Scouting historians and all those with a love of the Movement written as ‘a labour of love’ for Scouts by a Scout.