Figure 1.--

Americans and Brits tend to think of the Scouts as one united national association. This is not how Scouting developed in many other countries and there were competing associations in both America and Britain. The most significant challenge to Baden Powell's Scout Association was the British Boy Scouts. Few people today have ever heard of the BBS, but for several years the organization posed a major threat to Baden Powell's desire for a unified national Scouting movement. While the BBS through finacial mismanagement was eclipsed by Baden Powell's Scouts, there is substantial historical evidence to suggest that the competition with the BBS significantly changed the nature of the Scouting movement reducing its miliitary orientation and expanding its international outreach.

Military Orientation

Baden Powell in 1909 was still an army officer on active duty and did not work full time with the Scouting movement that he had founded. At the time some early Scout leaders felt that the evolving Boy Scouts Association (BSA) was too much oriented toward the military. After all it had been founded by an army general. Some feared that he movement was being influenced by the National Service League, an organisation which advocated compulsory military conscription.

Chums

The Battersea District Scouts, disatisfied with the attitude of national Scout officials and concerned with the close connection of Baden Powell with the military, decided to withdraw from the BSA and form a new Scout association--The British Boy Scouts (BBS). Battersea is a subub of London. A popular boys' publication Chums, decided in 1909 to sponsor the BBS. Chums (Cassell and Co. London) was a boys' paper with comics launched in 1892. The editors had been working with Baden Powell, but when approached by the break-away BBS, they were impressed with the anti-militarism peace message. As a result the editors of Chums decided to promote the BBS. As Chums was read throughout Britain as well as the overseas Dominions, it proved highly successful in spreading the BBS, both within Britain and in British Dominions overseas. Baden Powell's BSA had no comparable overseas outreach.

Break with the BSA

Efforts were made to reconcile the differences between the BBS and BSA, but they failed. The result was that the BSA's Commissioner for all of London, Sir Francis Vane, joined the BBS. He became the BBS President and brought with him most of the London troops and many Birmingham troops. Vane helped to arrange an alliance with the Boys Life Brigade (BLB) in 1910 to create the National Peace Scouts (NPS). The BBS's break with the BSA over militarism was the same issue which caused the Boys' Life Brigade to break off from the Boys' Brigade. The two organizations shared a non-military approach and were closely associated with sponsoring churches. The combined membership in 1910 was about 85,000 boys, about equal numbers from the two organizations. The NPS never developed into an important groups, however, the BLB has a primary religious focus and were not interested in secular Scouting.

The BBS, after the brek with the BSA, consituted about one-third of the Scouts in Britain. A major difference with the BSA was that virtually all the BBS troops were sponsored by churches. The BBS under Vane also decided to sponsor Girl Scout troops.

World Order of Scouting

There was also a competing internatioanl Scout group. In fact, the short-lived Order of World Scouts (OWS) founded in 1911 was the earlist international Scouting organization. While the OWS organization was short lived, they made have well played an important role in incouraging Baden Powell's British Scouts to expand their international outreach. For a few years the OWS competed with Baden Powell's Boy Scout Association, but today is little remembered.

Uniform

HBU at this time has no information at this time on the BBS uniform and to what extent it differed from that of Baden Powell's BSA uniform.

Collapse

The BBS collapsed in 1912 when Bance had to declare bankruptsy. Baden Powell's BSA refused any kind of corporate union with the BBS. They insisted that individual BBS troops apply to the local BSA unit for membership. At first only a few did so.

Impact

While largely forgotten today, the BBS appears to have had a major impact on British Scouting and because British Scouting was so indluential in the eraly years, on the world Scouting movement. The BBS through finacial mismanagement was eclipsed by Baden Powell's Scouts, there is substantial historical evidence to suggest that the competition with the BBS significantly changed the nature of the Scouting movement Baden Powell was developing. The major impetus for the creation of the BBS was objection to the military orientation of early Scouting. The military orientation of early Scouting has been debated. It is true that unlike the Boys' Brigade at the time, the Scouts did not engage in close order drill and they certainly did not persue weapons training as the Hitler Youth were to do in the 1930s. Baden Powell's original vission, however, does appear to have been a more militarly inspired movement then eventually developed. HBU can not persue this discussion in detail, but readers may want to consult MILITARISM AND THE SCOUT MOVEMENT for a fuller historical discussion. The competitio with the BBS also appears to have expanded Baden Powell's focus in British Scouting to a much wider, international Scout movement.

References

Tim Jeal, Biography on Baden-Powell (Hutchinson: London, 1989) pages 408, 428 and 544).

Michael Foster, "Scout History: Militarism and the Scout Movement," 1997.