FIRST 1919 SCOUTMASTERS TRAINING COURSE
AT GILWELL PARK

1. The Course will commence on Monday 8th September will last till Friday 19th.

2. Members should book to Chingford and must leave Liverpool Street by the 5.5 P.M. train.  A brake will meet this train at Chingford Station.

3.  The Course will be carried out in Camp. Tents, ground sheets, and cooking utensils will be provided there.

4.  A fee of 5/- will be charged for the Course in order to cover incidental expenses. All catering will be arranged by, and the cooking done in, the patrols into which members of the Course will be divided on arrival; these expenses will be shared equally by the members of the patrols.

5.  The Course of instruction will be based on SCOUTING FOR BOYS, and the Chief Scout's book "AIDS TO SCOUTMASTERSHIP," and will include lectures and practical work in campcraft, nature study, general scouting, organization and methods of running patrols and troops.

6.  Those attending the Course should wear correct Scout uniform; shorts and not breeches should be worn except for medical reasons.

7.  The following article: must be brought:

A. SCOUTING FOR BOYS, which should have been read beforehand.
B. Notebook and sketchbook.
C. Blankets, clothing and personal equipment as given in SCOUTING FOR BOYS, pages 109-110.

8.  Applications to attend this Course should be sent to Imperial Headquarters by Saturday 9th August.

(Baden-Powell added a note to some of the announcements, "Your name has been included in the first course, B-P.") 

Sometime in late summer a training course attended by 25 Scouters was conducted by the East London Association, under its own leadership for members of that group.

Although Baden-Powell had outlined the course syllabus, he did not lead the course, but left that to the newly appointed Camp Chief, Francis "Skipper" Gidney.  Gidney was a young man who had served as a captain during World War I and had immense energy and, most important from Baden-Powell's view, tremendous spirit.  His Assistant Scoutmaster was Captain F.S. Morgan, District Commissioner for Swansea.

Baden-Powell visited the camp Friday night and Saturday, together with Major A.G. Wade, Joint Managing Secretary of the Association and the man who was to organize the first World Jamboree the next year. The Founder a gave a talk to the Scoutmasters, and led a tracking demonstration on Sunday morning filled with personal anecdotes. Other distinguished Scouters who served as instructors were Deputy Chief Commissioner Col. Ulick G.C. de Burgh, Deputy Chief Scout Percy W. Everett (who had been a part of Scouting since the Brownsea camp), Hubert S. Martin (later Director of the Scouts International Bureau), R.S. Wood (who ran Gilwell for a time when Gidney was sick), P.B. Nevill, Rev. R. Hyde, and Imperial Headquarters Assistant Secretary D.F. Morgan.

The participants enjoyed good weather, except for one heavy thunderstorm which, as Gidney wrote, "had its instructive value also!" These men had come from different parts of England and Wales, were of various ages and different professions. The roster of the first Wood Badge course follows:

Capt. F. Gidney, Camp Chief, Gilwell Park.
Capt. . F.S. Morgan, Glamorgan.
Maj. the Rev. C.P. Hines, Gt. Yarmouth.
C. Robson, Colchester.
L.J. Berlin, Manchester.
Rev. W.A. Butler, Sussex.
M.F. Bunt, Sussex.
J.R. Davies, Cheshire.
J.F. Wilkinson, Cheshire.
A.W. Todd, Cheshire.
E. Fay, Yorkshire
J. Kent, Essex.
Ronald Firth, Suffolk.
R. Hammond , London.
C.C. Eiffe, London.
Rev. H.W. Nevill, London.
S. Phillips, London.
D. Earle, London.
Rev. W.E. Baker, London.
R. Lang, Cambridge.

The men were organized into three patrols, each one taking his turn as patrol leader, "second," "bottom" and the other turns in the order of patrol jobs, including cooking. Although in some camp schemes a late lunch was the big meal of the day, Gidney scheduled the main meal in the evening, to insure no one missed any of the Scoutcraft instruction.

TOP The program of the first course was summarized by Gidney:

Syllabus of Work

Troop Organisation. - Patrols formed - Practiced calls, etc. - Drill with staves - Troop formation - Patrol formation on the march (by day and night) -- Scouts' pace --Typical investiture - "Erogonyama" chorus -- -How to "break" the flag -- Camp hygiene -- physical exercises (the six from "Scouting for Boys").

Campcraft -- (a) Campsites. Selection -- Sanitation -- Fires -- Pitching and Striking camps (b) Camp expedients. – Illuminations – Kitchen Implements -- Beds and sleeping appliances -- Personal comforts -- Camp tidiness – Tent expedients -- Miscellaneous.

Pioneering. -- (a) Axmanship - Felling – Use of crosscut saw, wedges, grindstone -- Use care of knife. (b) Construction.—Rope and trestle bridge building across water -- Simple and swinging derrick -- Use of tackle.

Woodcraft. - (a) Birds and animals. -- Those found in the locality, their habits and uses -- Use of Nature notebook. (b) Trees, - How to identify them near to and far off during four seasons -- How to get the Scout keen on the subject.

Signcraft. – (a) Signaling – Hand – Whistle -- Smoke - How to teach Semaphore and Morse –Pitfalls to avoid. (b) Nature trails. (c) Sand tracking (carried out by the Chief Scout).

Games. -- (a) Scouting.—Description and actual playing of each type. (b) Camp. - Played for one hour each day.

Fieldwork. -- (a) Measurements.—Personal Distances -- Heights – Areas – River Widths. (b) Mapping. – How to read – making sketch maps. Prismatic compass – Panoramic drawing – Reports.

Study Circle Work. - (a) "Aids to Scoutmastership," (b) Headquarters "Book of Rules." (c) "Rules for Rover Scouts and Wolf Cubs," (d) "Our Aims, Methods and Needs." (e) "Sunday and the Scout."

Pathfinding. - Patrols sent out separately with sealed orders to from various points across Epping Forest, for eight-hour stretch - Leaf collecting - Report of journey - Sketch map of trek - Panoramic drawing from given point,

The first Wood Badge feast was not prepared by the course participants, but was held in London at the Scout's Club, where Everett treated them to lunch. They then enjoyed a tour of Imperial Headquarters, and a final talk the Chief Scout, who encouraged each participant to start a course in his neighborhood using Aids to Scoutmastership as a guide.

Click here for many more details on early Wood Badge, including participants, memories, details on early beads, early camp memories, warrants.

NOTES:

The story of Baden-Powell's early Scoutmaster training efforts and much of the information on the first Wood Badge course can be found in E.E. "Josh" Reynolds the "The Scout Movement" (Oxford University Press, 1950), Reynolds was an early Scouter and come to Gilwell as a Deputy Camp Chief in 1920.

Other sources include two books published by The Scout Association , The Gilwell Book (10th edition, 1965) Gilwell Story (1969), the latter written by The Scout Association's veteran General Editor, Rex Hazlewood, M.B.E., a Gilwell Deputy Camp Chief for more than 30 years.

The information on the staff, weather, and program for the first course is from Gidney's report, "Scoutmasters' Training Course" in the Headquarters Gazette, October 1919, page 189. This material, together with the announcement of the first course, the roster of participants in the first course and facts relating to the Dinizulu beads, comes from the archives of The Scout Association, and was graciously provided by the Archivist, Paul Moynihan, and his predecessor, Graham A. Coombe.

Northeast Georgia Council, Boy Scouts of America

PO Box 399  Jefferson, GA 30549

1.800.699.8806