The Girl Guide movement followed the formation of the Boy Scout organisation established by Lord Robert Baden-Powell in 1907. Some girls decided to register to be “Boy” Scouts using their initials rather than their Christian names, hiding the fact that they were girls. Some Boy Scout leaders were unaware of these ‘girl’ scouts until they turned up for the Crystal Palace Boy Scout Rally in 1909! In fact at this point there were 6,000 girls registered in the Boy Scout movement!
Baden-Powell was facing a dilemma. His first thoughts were to include them into the Boy Scout movement as Girl Scouts., with their own uniform - blue, khaki or grey shirt (as with the boys) and blue skirt and knickers. However, he decided to set up a separate organization and scheme. He also decided ‘Scout’ was an inappropriate name and chose ‘Guide’ from the famous Khyber Guides of India. The scheme was ‘to make girls better mothers and guides to the next generation. In his mind though, it was to be fairly similar in structure and activity as the boys - ‘Girls must be partners and comrades rather than dolls’.
In 1910 Baden-Powell asked his sister Agnes (pictured below) to organise a
Movement for girls. He loaned her £100 to set it up and allocated her a separate
office at the new Boy Scout Headquarters, Victoria, London. When the
registration book was opened in May 1910, 8,000 Girl Scouts become Girl Guides.
A few years later, his wife Olave (1889-1977) – pictured below - became involved and, in 1918, was appointed Chief Guide.
When Girl Guides first began, only older girls could join (11+). In 1914 young girls (7 – 11) were allowed to join a new movement called “Rosebuds. Their recruitment badge was a brown acorn in a brown circle. They had to be able to tie knots, know the make-up of the Union flag and do certain bending exercises. The young girls did not like this name so Robert Baden-Powell thought about it, and he remembered a fairy tale about magical people called Brownies who helped other people. He chose the name Brownies for the girls, and in 1968 they became Brownie Guides.
The Rainbow Guides were formed in 1987 for junior girls.
Today there are some 650,000 guides in the UK, being part of a 10,000,000 worldwide membership!