Scouting for Boys, and the girls who read it
Published in parts in early 1908, the handbook prompted young people to form their own patrols, including girls who called themselves Girl Scouts.
Scouting for Boys appeared in six fortnightly parts between January and March 1908, and as a single book in May. There is some doubt about the exact day the first part came out: sources give 15, 16 and 24 January, and we have not yet checked an original. Readers did not wait for permission: groups of children formed patrolsA small group of Guides (today usually four to eight) led by one of the girls themselves. The basic unit of peer leadership in Guiding. of their own, and among them were girls who called themselves Girl Scouts.[1]
Girls as early adopters
Some girls registered with Scout Headquarters, reportedly using only their initials so that their sex was not obvious.[3] By 1909, according to widely repeated accounts, some 6,000 girls were on the register.[2] Evidence status: Unconfirmed There is doubt about this figure: it is repeated in many histories, but we have not yet traced it to a source of the time. It is thought to come from Scout Headquarters’ own announcements in 1909.
If girls were already running patrols in 1908, the “gatecrashing” at Crystal Palace the following year looks less like a surprise and more like the public appearance of something already happening.
Tammy Proctor’s work on uniforms and youth in this period is a starting point for how girls’ participation was seen at the time.[4]
People and objects
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22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941
Robert Baden-Powell
Army officer and founder of Scouting, who set out the girls' scheme with his sister Agnes, wrote Guiding's handbooks from 1918 and signed them as "Founder".
Sources
- Sarah Mills, “Scouting for girls? Gender and the Scout Movement in Britain”, Gender, Place & Culture 18, no. 4, 2011, pp. 537–556.
- Little Gem Museum (West Lancashire Scouts), “Story of Guiding – 1908 to 1929”, 2022-03-15. Accessed 25 September 2026. A volunteer-run heritage timeline; a useful lead, to be checked against primary sources.
- Girl Guides of Canada–Guides du Canada, “History of Guiding (fact sheet 14.3.1.3)”, Girl Guides of Canada. Accessed 25 September 2026. Another national organisation's own history; useful for early dates, not an independent evaluation.
- Tammy M. Proctor, “(Uni)Forming Youth: Girl Guides and Boy Scouts in Britain, 1908–39”, History Workshop Journal 45, no. 1, 1998, pp. 103–134.