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Doing your bit!

By 1914 Robert Baden-Powell’s Scout Movement had been in existence for six years.  Its popularity had spread not only in Britain but across the world.  Wide spread membership meant many boys and young men had gained a range of useful skills from field-craft and camp cooking to signalling and sailing.  Skills which as the First World War broke out would be put to very practical use.

 

As Britain entered the war on 4 August 1914 Baden-Powell considered how his Scouts could support the war effort.  Older Scouts and their leaders could join the Armed Forces.  Baden-Powell felt that the younger boys could also ‘do their bit’, not in a military role but in supporting essential services.  As these letters show many Scouts were keen to take on war work.  As the war progressed the tasks the boys took on diversified and as the posters below show Scouts were seen to be playing a crucial role in supporting the war effort.

 

 

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