Patriotism; or, Our Duties as Citizens

Abstract

The final documents in this volume demonstrate the ways in which youth organisations of the period were underpinned and indeed inspired by the Empire. The Boys’ Brigade (BB) and the Boy Scout and Girl Guides movements encouraged the youth to demonstrate patriotism and self-discipline, and to acquire skills that could be used in the colonial context. The BB was founded in 1883 as a Christian youth movement by William Alexander Smith (1854–1914). Smith had been a Sunday School teacher and a member of the rifle volunteers. The aim of the BB was ‘The advancement of Christ’s kingdom among Boys and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-respect and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness’. It introduced boys to semi-military discipline, gymnastics, summer camps and religious services. Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) became a vice president of the BB in 1903 and there were close links between the BB and the scout movement before 1914. Robert Baden-Powell was also on the committee of the Duty and Discipline Movement which Meath founded just before the outbreak of the First World War. Baden-Powell was very much an imperial figure, serving in the British army, travelling to India, Afghanistan, and East Africa, and participating in the South African War, taking great credit during the siege of Mafeking. During the war he had utilised boy messengers and this proved to be the origins of the scout movement. As was noted in Baden-Powell’s obituary, scouting was seen as a system of education which combined ‘chivalry and patriotism’. His book Scouting for Boys, which appeared in the Edwardian era, can be seen as a founding document of this youth movement, a movement which then also encompassed girls as the Girl Guides were founded in 1910 by Powell’s sister Agnes. Both movements were subsequently established across the British Empire.