Scouting began in Great Britain when General Baden-Powell returned to England as a National Hero, after defending the town of Mafeking for 7 months from the Boer (pronounced as "bore") troops.

When he returned, he found that many boys and young men were reading his book "Aids to Scouting". This book was intended as a training manual for soldiers and taught techniques such as observation, tracking and initiative.

He was persuaded to write a version of this training manual aimed at teenage boys and he called it "Scouting for Boys".

In August 1907 Baden-Powell and two "Assistant Scoutmasters" held an experimental 11 day camp on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset, based on the ideas in his book.

They took 20 boys from London and Bournemouth who were either volunteers from the Boys Brigade or sons of friends of the General.

They were organised into 4 "troops" called Wolves, Bulls, Curlews and Ravens.

After this successful camp, Scouting for Boys was published in 1908. It was initially printed in six fortnightly parts and sold very quickly.

Scouting for Boys is now in fourth place in the all time "best sellers list" behind the Bible, the Koran and Mao-Tse-Tung's (pronounced as "Mowt Say Tung's") Little Red Book.

Boys bought Scouting for Boys, set themselves up as Patrols of Scouts, and quickly found themselves leaders to train them. It was soon realised that some form of organisation was required to support these Scouts.

At the start Scouting was far from organised. Baden-Powell was still an active soldier, leading the Territorial's in Northumberland, which kept him far from the hub of Scouting, in London.

The Scout Movement slowly evolved, with the Scout Leaders having a fairly free rein with what they did, as long as it was within the ideals of Scouting.

In 1909 the Boy Scout Association opened its first offices in Victoria Road, London and that year, at a rally at Crystal Palace, Baden-Powell came across a Patrol made up of girls, who said they were Girl Scouts.

In 1910 Baden-Powell retired from the Army to devote his time, effort and money (including his royalties from "Scouting for Boys") into Scouting. He also, initially with the help of his sister, Agnes, and then with the help of his wife, Olave, set up the sister movement to the Scouts, which was called the Girl Guides, in 1910.

That year also saw the first census of Scouts in the UK, which showed that there were more than One Hundred Thousand Scouts in the United Kingdom. So, in less than three years, Scouting had established a firm footing.

Baden-Powell spent much of the rest of his life on World tours, initially organising Scouting throughout the world, and later attending the World Jamborees, which have become an integral part of international Scouting. The first of these was in 1920 in London, at Olympia. This was really an exhibition of Scouting, held mostly indoors.

The Second Jamboree, in 1924 in Copenhagen, set the model for the modern Jamboree, as it was a major international camp for Scouts from all over the World.

5,000 Scouts from 34 countries attended.

General Baden-Powell became Lord Baden Powell of Gilwell in 1929.

His health deteriorated to the point that in 1938 he moved to Kenya to spend the last days of his life in Africa. He finally passed away on January 8th 1941.

Scouting did not change significantly until, in 1964, the Boy Scout Association commissioned a General Report to review Scouting in the United Kingdom and look at how it should progress. This introduced big changes to the Boy Scout Association, which were carried out in 1967.

The Association's became known as The Scout Association, the Uniforms were changed and finally the Training Schemes changed.

The changes modernised the movement, to reflect changes in life style and schooling and provide more and different challenges.

The Venture Scout section has, on the whole, not changed much since its introduction with a few minor changes until a controversial decision in 1976, to allow young ladies to join Venture Units. This is the first time that girls had been allowed into the youth of the Scout Movement since Baden-Powell started up the Guide Movement in 1910.

Scout Groups now have the option of whether to allow girls in Scouting in all sections and at the moment approximately 10% of Groups in the Country are mixed.

Only minor changes have been made since about 1983, most noticeably to put traditional Scouting skills back into the core of the programme.

Baden-Powell was the first and only Chief Scout of the World after that no one person held that responsibility. The United Kingdom has seen seven Chief Scouts since Baden-Powell:

Our current Chief Scout, George Purdy, was born and educated in Northern Ireland and joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service in 1960. He retired from the Department of Health and Social Services in 1996 and is also a founder member of his local Rotary Group in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland.

There are more than 28 million Scouters, in 216 countries and territories and the number is still growing. There are 542,000 Scouts in the United Kingdom. Thailand has 1,250,000 Scouts and the United States has Six and a Quarter million, making it the largest single Scout Association.

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) has another nine million members, making it the world's second largest youth organisation, behind Scouts.

The World Organisation of Scout Movements has 151 member organisations. Scouting is now in all but five countries in the world and every four years, a major international camp for Scouts from all over the World is held to increase understanding between Scouts from all over the World. This is called the World Scout Jamboree.

was held at Sattahip, Chonburi province in Thailand from December 2002 to January 2003.

One of our Venture Scouts, Brett Welch, was lucky enough to be selected, along with 3 others from our Scout District to go to that Jamboree to represent West Lancashire.

The Jamboree site in Thailand covered 1,200 Hectares of land. Up to 1998 it was an Air Force Base and in 1997 they started to convert the area to become the Jamboree site. They installed many tremendous structures, including: a 360 Million Gallon Water Reservoir, a Waste Water Treatment Facility to prevent environmental contamination, a Heliport and even a large Hospital.

The site was divided into 24 sub-camps that held 1,250 Scouts each.

In total 30,000 Scouts between the ages of 14 and 17 years old attended the Jamboree.

A further 6,000 Scouters, from all Scouting Nations, aged between 18 and 28 years old made up the General Staff of the Jamboree and they were known as the International Service Team.

The Jamboree lasted for 10 days during which activity modules were undertaken. There was also the opportunity for most Scouts to enjoy a further 10 days Home Hospitality (either before or after the Jamboree) with local Scouts' families in Thailand or neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia or Japan.

The Jamboree gives each Scout the opportunity to experience different cultures, including the small things such as different foods and the big things such as how to communicate when we speak different languages.

Scouts also get the chance to make friends with other Scouts from widely ranging backgrounds.

The World Organisation of Scout Movements set the cost based on the Gross National Product of the different countries. Put simply, the richer countries paid a lot more than people from poorer countries, to allow Scouts from nations such as Albania, Nepal or Rwanda to attend. As a result of this the cost for each British Scout was set at £2500. The Scouts themselves and their families raised funds to cover this cost by giving talks to interested groups, running Quizzes, Raffles, Special Dinners and other events and with the support of their local (Parish) councils.

The next Jamboree - the 21^st - will be held in 2007.

As the year will be the Centenary (the 100^th anniversary) of the start of the Scout movement, the Jamboree will be held in England, where it all began. Each Scout who attends it will be given the opportunity to spend some time on Brownsea Island in Poole harbour, where the first experimental camp was held by Lord Baden-Powell.

The above is a very brief summary of how the Scout Movement began and about Jamborees. If you would like to know more, visit the Scoutbase UK website at http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/index.htm or get a book out of your local library.