A brief history.....

Welcome to over the ranger-bow, this is a blog co-authored by the members of 1st Birstall Rangers as part of our blogging badge but also in an attempt to spread some goodwill in these uncertain times. I’m Eleanor and I wanted to take some time today to talk about the history of girl guiding. I think that a lot of it can be applied to our present times. Most of the information in this post comes from Janie Hampton’s book ‘How the Girl guides won the war’. It is a heartwarming and entertaining book, if you’re looking for something to read.

You may be wondering what on earth Rangers is, Rangers are the eldest section of Girl Guiding aged 14 to 18. Rangers aims to encourage girls to build their skills, find their voice, support their peers and travel the world. You might be surprised to discover these aims haven’t changed much since Guiding was founded in 1910.

Lord Baden-Powell

Robert Baden-Powell was a general in the British army who, like a lot of people at the time, was

worried about social and moral decline. Baden-Powell believed that the way to avoid this was to give young people something else to do. In 1908 he wrote ‘Scouting for boys’ which was based on his military experience and an experimental camp he held on Brownsea island in 1907. The book was one of the most popular books of the 20th century and the scouting movement took off immediately. Although the organisation would not be officially formed until 1910, girls were involved in scouting almost as soon as it began. Famously turning up at the first Scout Rally, which was held at Crystal Palace, and demanding Scouting for girls.

The Original Guide Uniform 

In 1910 the Guides were set up as a separate organisation, with Baden-Powell’s older sister Agnes at the helm. Agnes was a rather eccentric woman, fifty-one, unmarried, whose hobbies included ballooning and bicycle polo. Although a little Victorian in her views Agnes was keen to establish guiding as a separate organisation. Guides had an immediate effect on the lives of girls in 1910, who were often not allowed out without a chaperone. Guides allowed them a space to socialise with their peers, learn new skills and gain confidence. The Guiding movement strove to encourage equality in a heavily divided society, in fact the one of the original guide laws was ‘A guide is a friend to all and a sister to every other guide no matter to what social class she belongs.’ Girl guiding also strove to include all girls, one of the first units was set up in St Mary’s children’s hospital and extension guiding aimed to help girls regardless of how able they were. Girls completed all badges even fire lighting, with the help of asbestos blankets. Rangers was began in 1916, as the original guides grew up and wanted to continue guiding. During both wars Guides showed a commitment to social action, carrying messages for MI5 during the first world war and raising over £50,000 to help the war effort during the second. After the second world war a committee was set up to train Guide leaders to help in the relief effort after the war, known as the Guide international service.

So where is Guiding today? Over 100 years on Guiding is the largest women’s charity in the UK, with over 500,000 members. At the moment, guiding meetings have been suspended. This has not stopped us, in fact working remotely is not new for girl guiding. From 1921 ‘post’ or ‘lone’ guides became common, these units were set up for girls who were housebound, lived in isolated places or attended a boarding school where Guiding was not allowed. The meetings were held over post with girls posting whatever activity they had completed to their leader and awaiting instructions for their next meeting. At 16 these girls could become lone rangers and join with ranger activities.

At the moment we're all Lone Rangers but I think we can take anything from Guides of the past is to keep smiling and singing in all difficulties. I leave you all with a quote from Baden-Powell: 

‘If you can’t find the bright side, polish up the dark one.’ 

Thank you all for reading!