Scouts’ founder speaks in Stirling

Founder of the Scout Movement, Sir Robert Baden Powell, was in Stirling 100 years ago this week.

He addressed a rally of 500 scouts and wolf cubs at the King’s Knot and urged them to do all they could to aid the war effort.

The scouts were drawn from Stirling, Cambusbarron, Bridge of Allan, Clackmannashire and Falkirk area.

And Sir Robert, accompanied by Lady Baden Powell, chief commissioner of the Girl Guides, was joined by a large number of dignitaries and many members of the public.

Sir Robert had been making a series of visits of inspection around Scotland and a few days earlier had attended a conference of scout commissioners at Dunblane Hydropathic.

Sir Robert and Lady Baden Powell watched as the 15th Grangemouth troop gave a display of forming a rope bridge while 6th Stirling showed how camp cooking should be done and 1st Stirling performed fire brigade drill.

Sir Robert was pleased to see so many of the assembled scouts wearing badges for proficiency at a variety of tasks and for ‘war service’.

As the Observer reported, the development of the scout movement, formed only six years before the start of the war, had been hit by the number of scoutmasters being called up for Army service.

However, as the war progressed, scouts provided assistance to the military by acting as messengers and helping to guard coastal areas and stations.

With food growing scarce, scouts did their bit by setting rabbit traps, helping on farms and growing vegetables in gardens, back yards and even parks.

Scouts also watched the skies for Zeppelin attacks and sounded their bugles to signal when an air raid was over.

Some stories suggest that British Intelligence officers wanted to use the scouts to carry messages for MI5 but opted instead for the Girl Guides as the scouts turned out to be “too naughty and too talkative.”

Sir Robert told the scouts he was “pleased to meet them under the shadow of the fine old castle where their forefathers had so often, under its walls , fought in the old wars.

“They did their bit for their country and they (boys) were doing it right as well,” he added to great cheers.