Australian Youth Groups: Unknown Groups

Figure 1.--We have found an undated Australian cabinet card portrait showing a uniformed boy. The portrait is enscribed, "Uncles Chas. son -- Scout boy of Australia". We are not sure how to interpre this. The first part is obvious, the boy is Uncle Charles' son. But we are not sure about the second part. It may be a sloppy way od writing Australian Boy Scout or if there was an Australian group known as Scout Boys of Australia. We say this for several reasons. The boy is not wearing a standard Scout uniform with Baden-Powell hat and short pants. Also we are not ure when the portrait was taken. The cabinet card is one of the new styles appearing after the turn-of-the 20th century, but it is a little differentbthan the cards we are used to in America and thus difficult to date.

We have found some images that we can not identify. The boys seem to be wearing youth group uniforms, but we are not sure what the group was. For some countries this is a complicated topic with many small groups for which little information is available. It is less of a problem for Australia as the youth movement has been so identified with only two groups, the Boys' Brrgade and Boy Scouts and of course the Guides for girls. Hopefully our Australian readers will be able to offer some information.

Scout Boy of Australia

We have found an undated Australian cabinet card portrait showing a uniformed boy. The portrait is enscribed, "Uncles Chas. son -- Scout boy of Australia". We are not sure how to interpre this. The first part is obvious, the boy is Uncle Charles' son. But we are not sure about the second part. It may be a sloppy way od writing Australian Boy Scout or if there was an Australian group known as Scout Boys of Australia. We say this for several reasons. The boy is not wearing a standard Scout uniform with Baden-Powell hat and short pants. Also we are not ure when the portrait was taken. The cabinet card is one of the new styles appearing after the turn-of-the 20th century, but it is a little differentbthan the cards we are used to in America and thus difficult to date. It could be the 1900s, which could be before Baden-Powell founded tghe British Scouting movement, but it also could have been the 1910s. The iniform has a military look to it and there is a bush hat on the table. The portrait was taken at the Swiss Studios in Sydney.