The scouts

Scouts have been part of the fabric of British society since the Movement's founding by Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell in 1907, and Scout training continues to provide young people with 'instruction in good citizenship' to this day.

Beginning with an outline of Baden-Powell's life and influences, Susan Cohen here tells the story of the Scout Movement and its growth from an experimental camp held on Brownsea Island, Dorset, attended by a handful of boys, into a multi-cultural, multi-national movement involving (in 2011) some 400,000 young people (including 60,000 girls) in the UK and millions of others across the world.