OCTOBER 4, 1883

Through the use of semi-military discipline and order, gymnastics, summer camps, and religious services, young men would be shaped.

That was the theory of William Alexander Smith, the son of a distiller, who would form the Boys’ Brigade in Glasgow, October 4, 1883.

Smith, originally from Thurso, volunteered for the Army at 19, which instilled a discipline in him which he would later use as the basis of the organisation.

The first meeting, at Free Church Mission Hall on North Woodside Road, Glasgow, was to promote “Christian manliness” in the boys. Despite being scoffed at in Victorian Britain, the idea took hold and companies sprang up across the rest of the country. Three years after its inception, Smith introduced camping as a regular feature of the Brigades’ activities, the first expedition taking place at Tighnabruiach.

Within 15 years it had a Royal patron via the Duke Of York, and Robert Baden-Powell was so impressed he started the Scout movement based on the Boys’ Brigade. By 1910 there were around 2,200 companies around the world. These days there are 750,000 Boys’ Brigade members in 60 countries which, if you were to compare it to real armies, nestles somewhere between India and Pakistan’s manpower.

Smith was knighted for his services to children in 1908 and the organisation he founded continues to thrive.