Leslie's Guiding History

Robert Baden-Powell

Robert Baden-Powell, 1857 – 1941, was the founder of Scouting.

Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell was born on 22 February 1857 in London, a son of university professor Baden Powell, and his young third wife Henrietta.  Reverend Powell died when Robert was aged 3, and shortly afterwards the family name was altered to Baden-Powell by his widow.  Robert attended Rose Hill Prep School, then followed his brothers to Charterhouse, where he did not shine academically, but enjoyed acting, drawing, sport, and also exploring out-of-bounds woods near the school.

Having failed in several attempts at maths exam resits (both at school and at crammers), it became clear he would be unable to follow his elder brothers to university as he had hoped, so he opted to sit for the army officer entrance exams.  His high marks earned him a direct place in the 13th Hussars as a cavalry officer without having to attend officer training school first.  Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910, mainly in India and Africa (as living expenses were less abroad than in the UK, enabling him to send money to his mother to help maintain the family home). In 1899, Baden-Powell was in charge of the army in the town of Mafeking and organised it’s successful defence during a long siege.  In order to free up men for fighting, an officer working under him had the idea of recruiting the local boys, setting them to work as bicycle messengers, delivering messages between the defence posts around the town (sometimes under gunfire), and everyone was soon impressed by their ability and reliability.  This developed into a regularly-established postal service for civilians as well as soldiers, with specially-made stamps.

Once back in the UK to a hero’s welcome, Baden-Powell soon became involved with the Boys’ Brigade, and also met Ernest Thompson Seton, who had started the “Woodcraft Indians”.  Baden-Powell thought that some of the outdoor activities he had enjoyed in his youth, and in the army, along with many of the ideas he had found in Seton’s woodcraft book and from other sources, could provide useful pastimes for boys such as those in the Boys’ Brigade.  He wrote Scouting for Boys, which was published in 1908, initially in fortnightly installments then in book form.  During the writing process, he tested some of his ideas through a camping trip on Brownsea Island in Dorset with working-class youths from the local Boys’ Brigade in the Dorset area, and sons of his upper-class friends, in August 1907.  (Contrary to the myths, there were definitely no boys from the east end of London present at this camp).

Individual boys and girls bought the new book and spontaneously formed Scout troops of their own, and so the independent Scout movement inadvertently started, first as a national, and soon an international obsession.  Girls as well as boys took up Scouting, and Baden-Powell welcomed them all, noting in a January 1909 edition of “The Scout” magazine that some of the girls were ‘really capable Scouts’.  In September 1909, following a long build-up including many front-page articles in “The Scout” over several issues, the first UK-wide Scout Rally was held at the Crystal Palace in London.  Several thousand Boy Scouts and over 1000 Girl Scouts applied for tickets and attended.  Following some negative publicity given to a small group of Girl Scouts who opted to literally gate-crash the rally because they had failed to apply for tickets, and some general negative reaction to girls participating in mixed-sex activities (a hot topic in that suffragette era), Baden-Powell approached his sister Agnes to create a separate organisation for girls, the Girl Guides, on similar lines to the Scouts, and she reluctantly accepted.

In January 1912, Baden-Powell met Olave Soames, on the ocean liner Arcadian, when heading for New York on one of his Scouting World Tours.  She was 23, and he was 55. They married quietly on 31st October 1912, at St Peter’s Church in Parkstone, Dorset.

At the outbreak of World War I, the 57-year-old Baden-Powell volunteered his services to the army, but was told that he would be of most use organising the Scouts, who were involved in all sorts of war service, including assisting the coastguard with coastal defence patrols.

In 1920, the 1st World Scout Jamboree took place in Olympia, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World.  He was created a Baronet in the 1921 New Year Honours and became Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell, in the County of Essex, on 17 September 1929, Gilwell being the location of the recently-established national Scout training centre. After receiving this honour, Baden-Powell usually styled himself “Baden-Powell of Gilwell”.

At the 5th World Scout Jamboree in 1937, Baden-Powell gave his official farewell to Scouting, as his health was failing.  22 February, the joint birthday of Robert and Olave Baden-Powell, continues to be marked as “Founder’s Day” by Scouts and as “Thinking Day” by Guides.

The Baden-Powells had three children, Arthur Robert Peter (Peter), later 2nd Baron Baden-Powell (1913-1962), Heather (1915-1986), and Betty (1917-2004).  In 1938, he and his wife Olave retired to a cottage he had commissioned on an estate in Nyeri, Kenya, as it was felt that the warm dry climate would benefit his failing health.  Robert Baden-Powell died on 8 January 1941 and is buried in Nyeri, in St. Peter’s Cemetery.  When his wife Olave died, her ashes were sent to Kenya and interred beside those of her husband.

Following his death a ‘final message’ was published.  It read:

“To my brother Scouters and Guiders. 

Cecil Rhodes said at the end of his life (and I, in my turn feel the truth of it), ‘So much to do and so little time to do it.’ 

No one can hope to see the consumation, as well as the start, of a big venture within the short span of one lifetime. 

I have had an extraordinary experience in seeing the development of Scouting from it’s beginning up to its present stage.  But there is a vast job before it.  The Movement is only now getting into its stride. 

(When I speak of Scouting I include in it Guiding also.) 

The one part which I can claim as mine towards promoting the Movement is that I have been lucky enough to find you men and women to form a group of the right stamp who can be relied upon to carry it on to its goal. 

You will do well to keep your eyes open, in your turn, for worthy successors to whom you can, with confidence, hand on the torch. 

Don’t let it become a salaried organisation; keep it a voluntary movement of patriotic service. 

The movement has already, in the comparatively short period of its existence, established itself on to a wide and so strong a footing as to show most encouraging promise of what may be possible to it in the coming years. 

Its aim is to produce healthy, happy, helpful citizens, of both sexes, to eradicate the prevailing narrow self-interest, personal, political, sectarian and national, and to substitute for it a broader spirit of self-sacrifice and service in the cause of humanity; and thus to develop mutual goodwill and co-operation not only within our own country but abroad, between all countries. 

Experience shows that this consumation is no idle or fantastic dream, but is a practicable possibility – if we work for it; and it means, when attained, peace, prosperity and happiness for all. 

The ‘encouraging promise’ lies in the fact that the hundreds of thousands of boys and girls who are learning our ideals today will be the fathers and mothers of millions in the near future, in whom they will in turn inculcate the same ideals – provided that these are really and unmistakably impressed upon them by their leaders of today. 

Therefore you, who are Scouters and Guiders, are not only doing a great work for your neighbours’ children but are also helping in practical fashion to bring to pass God’s Kingdom of peace and goodwill upon earth.  So, from my heart, I wish you God-speed in your effort.

Robert Baden-Powell.”

Agnes Baden-Powell

Agnes Baden-Powell, 1858 – 1945, was the founder of Guiding.

Agnes Smyth Powell was born on 16 December 1858 in London.  She was the ninth child of university professor Baden Powell and his third wife Henrietta Powell, and the third daughter of the family – but the only daughter to survive infancy.  Agnes was 2 years old when Rev Powell died – to honour him, his widow Henrietta changed the family surname to Baden-Powell a few years later.

Despite her mother being an active campaigner for girls’ schools, Agnes did not get to go to school as her brothers did, but was educated at home, and she developed a large number of interests, including natural history, astronomy, beekeeping, carpentry, metalwork and aviation – both by balloon and by aeroplane – along with her younger brother, Baden Baden-Powell.  She also played various musical instruments including violin and piano, and spoke several languages.  With Baden she made balloons – she hand-stitched the silk for the canopies – and they made many flights together. Later she helped him with aeroplane-building and by sourcing and repairing lightweight aeroplane engines in those pioneer aviation days. Agnes was an honorary companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society from 1938.

She was for some years President of the Westminster Division of the Red Cross, and worked for the League of Mercy and Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild, among many other interests.  In addition, a great deal of her time was taken up with looking after her mother, and running the household for her mother and brothers, as was expected of an eldest daughter in those days.

Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting in 1907, organised a gathering of Scouts at the Crystal Palace in London in September 1909. As well as several thousand Boy Scouts, over 1000 Girl Scouts attended.  Some adverse comment regarding the presence of the Girl Scouts forced Robert to move towards setting up a separate organisation for the girls – popular opinion at this time was prejudiced against girls taking part in mixed activities, fearing it would make them immodest, impolite tomboys – and negative publicity risked damaging the growing good reputation of the fledgling Boy Scout movement in an era when the activities of militant suffragettes were regularly appearing in the headlines.  Robert approached his sister to set up the new organisation for girls, Girl Guides, and although Agnes was initially wary of taking on the role, her personality was useful in counteracting the fears of the public. A friend wrote of her:

“Anyone who had come into touch with her gentle influence, her interest in all womanly arts, and her love of birds, insects, and flowers, would scoff at the idea of her being the president of a sort of Amazon Cadet Corps.”  On the other hand, her interests in aviation, cycling, metalwork, telegraphy – and the experience of being brought up as the only girl in a family of brothers – meant she both enjoyed and excelled at the outdoor activities of Guiding such as cycling and camping too – she apparently excelled at bicycling through hoops and other cycle stunts and tricks!

In 1909, Robert and Agnes Baden-Powell published Pamphlet A and Pamphlet B – these were precursors to the handbook and gave an initial outline of how Girl Guide Companies should be set up and run.  Agnes rented a room within the Boy Scout Headquarters, and set up an office to register the Guide units and members – within four months there were 6,000 girls registered as Girl Guides. In 1912, Agnes brought about the formation of the first Lone Company and was the de facto President of The Girl Guide Association, devoting a great deal of time to the organisation, and travelling around the UK to give talks and promote the new movement.

During this time, Agnes also wrote the Guides’ first handbook.  Entitled “The Handbook for the Girl Guides or How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire”, and published in 1912, it was a reworking of the “Scouting for Boys” book written by her brother five years earlier, but fully adapted and rewritten to manage the delicate balancing act of appealling to the girls who had flocked to join Scouts, whilst appeasing the concerns of their parents about unladylike pursuits – it was a great success at both tasks.

It was in 1912 that Agnes first met Olave Baden-Powell, when Robert brought her to meet their mother in the family home.  It is clear from Olave’s biographies that Olave immediately disliked Agnes, from the date of that first meeting onwards, and this seems to have continued.  In 1914 the Rosebud section was started (renamed Brownies a year later).  The Girl Guide Movement was given official recognition in 1915, and Agnes was made President at the same time, officially in overall charge of Guiding.  In 1916, Senior Guides were started, later renamed Rangers, and Guiding was growing rapidly.

In 1916 Olave Baden-Powell, then the comparatively new Sussex County Commissioner (she had been in post for only a few months), was voted into the new role of Chief Commissioner (effectively in charge of UK Guiding), with Agnes’ post of President being reduced from that of working head of the organisation, to a largely honorary role.

In 1917, following pressure from Olave Baden-Powell, Agnes resigned the Presidency in favour of Princess Mary, who was a keen supporter of the Girl Guides.  Agnes continued as Vice-President (although she was often excluded from events she might have expected to be invited to) and she enjoyed camping and outdoor activities up until her death in June 1945.  She was buried in the Baden-Powell family grave in Kensal Green Cemetery, London (although she is not listed on the headstone there).  Unfortunately, many of the records from her time in charge of Guiding were destroyed, and many in Guiding today are not aware of her key role in creating and establishing Guides, Brownies and Rangers, travelling across the UK promoting the movement, establishing the headquarters and setting up the organisation, writing the first handbook, and encouraging the international growth of Guiding in a range of countries. It is sad that our founder is so often unknown to our members.

Olave Baden-Powell, nee Soames

Olave Baden-Powell, 1889 – 1977, was UK Chief Commissioner/Chief Guide from 1916 to 1930, and then World Chief Guide from 1930 to 1977.

Olave Soames was born in Chesterfield, on 22 February 1889.  She was the younger daughter of Harold and Katherine Soames, and had a wandering childhood as the family moved house most years – her parents struggled to find the ‘ideal house’.  She was educated at home by a regularly-changing series of governesses, with her formal education ending entirely when she was 12, and she enjoyed walking, swimming, music and her many pets.  In 1912, her father set off on a lengthy cruise on the RMSP Arcadian, to recuperate after a bout of ill health, and took Olave with him as his companion.  At dinner they were seated next to Robert Baden-Powell (by then famous both for the role he played in the Boer War, and for having founded Scouting), who was on a world tour to promote Scouting.  Soon, despite the 32-year age gap, Robert and Olave were meeting regularly on deck, and exchanging private letters.

Shortly after both had returned from the cruise, Olave visited Robert’s mother in London, and also met Agnes, who looked after her mother – Olave took an instant dislike to Agnes.  Robert and Olave were married quietly in Dorset, in October 1912 (six weeks before the date which had been advertised, to avoid excessive media attention).  They had 3 children, Arthur Robert Peter (known as Peter) in 1913, Heather in 1915, and Betty in 1917.  Olave and Robert moved into Ewhurst Place, near Robertsbridge in Sussex, in April 1913. Olave accompanied Robert on many of his Scouting tours and to events during this time. During 1915 Olave assisted directly with the war effort in France – Robert had seen the usefulness of the YMCA’s recreational huts for soldiers and persuaded the Mercers’ Company to pay for a hut at Val-de-Lievres, Calais.  It was staffed by adults connected with Scouting, and Olave was a member of the staff team who worked there.  She persuaded her mother to (reluctantly) look after the children for the time she would be away.  Olave left for France on 7 October 1915, when Heather was 3 months old.  Olave’s work included serving cocoa and cigarettes and chatting to those who came in.  During this time, Robert organised the Scouts to sponsor another hut.  Olave and two others started up this Scout hut at Etaples after Christmas 1915, but at the end of January 1916 Olave was ordered home due to sickness.

Although she is most famously connected with the Girl Guides, Olave’s first offer to help them, in 1914, was turned down due to her inexperience – she had never been involved with Guides, but after this setback set up a Scout unit with some of her household staff.  After the reorganisation of the Guides in 1915, she offered her services again, this time obtaining the post of County Commissioner for Sussex, and she then immediately started both organising Guiding within the County, and also writing to her friends to encourage them to apply to become County Commissioners in other Counties, and then seek places on the management committee, which several successfully did. In October 1916, the first national conference for County Commissioners was held, and it was here that the Commissioners voted in Olave as Chief Commissioner, ousting Agnes Baden-Powell from the head of the movement.  In 1918, Olave was acclaimed Chief Guide, a title she much preferred to that of Chief Commissioner.  She was also presented with a gold version of the Silver Fish award.  Olave was elected as World Chief Guide in 1930, at which point she relinquished her role as UK Chief Guide (hence in all pictures after this time she is seen in the special uniforms she designed for the role, rather than in UK uniform). As well as making a major contribution to the development of the world Guide/Girl Scout movement over the following years, during lengthy international tours she visited 111 countries, attending Jamborees and visiting national Guide and Scout associations to promote the movement.

In October 1938, Olave and Robert had moved to Nyeri, Kenya, as it was felt the climate would benefit his failing health; he died there on January 8, 1941.  In 1942 she returned to Britain, and as her house had been requisitioned for the duration of the war, she was granted a grace-and-favour apartment in Hampton Court Palace (in which she lived from 1943 until she moved to a nursing home in 1976).  Through World War II she toured Britain regularly, and as soon as she could after D-Day, went to France and on through Europe, where she was greeted by crowds of newly-liberated Guides.  The decades thereafter were filled with international travel as she visited her Guide family around the world by train, plane and boat.

She suffered a heart attack in 1961, and was finally banned from international travel in 1970 when diagnosed with the diabetes from which she died on 25 June 1977, at Birtley House nursing home in Surrey where she had spent her last year.  Her ashes were taken to Kenya to be placed on her husband’s grave.  She was survived by her two daughters (her son having predeceased her in 1962 from leukaemia).

Lady Delia Peel – UK Chief Commissioner 1926-1930

Lady Adelaide “Delia” Margaret Peel DCVO (née Spencer; 26 June 1889 – 16 January 1981) was an English courtier and member of the Spencer family. She was born in London, the eldest child of the 6th Earl Spencer and his wife, Hon. Margaret Baring, daughter of Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke. Her mother died in childbirth in 1906 during the birth of her sister Lady Margaret Douglas-Home.

Delia studied at the Royal College of Music and played the piano and cello. In 1914 at Althorp, she married the Hon. Sidney Peel, third son of the Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel, Speaker of the House of Commons and grandson of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. They had no children, but she adopted her husband’s nephew David, after his father, Hon. Maurice Berkeley Peel, was killed in 1917 in the First World War. Maj. David Arthur Peel was killed in the Second World War while serving with the Irish Guards.

Following her husband’s death in 1938, she became Woman of the Bedchamber, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth from 1939 until 1952.

She was active with the Girl Guides, the Women’s Institute, and county choirs. She was created Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1947 Birthday Honours, and Dame Commander of the same order in 1950. She died aged 91 at her home in Barton Turf, Norfolk.

In 1984, Priscilla Napier published a biography, A Memoir of the Lady Delia Peel, born Spencer, 1889–1981.

1930 – 1939 Mrs Percy Birley (Mary) – UK Chief Commissioner 1930-1939

1939 – 1942 Mrs St John Atkinson – UK Chief Commissioner 1939-1942

1942 – 1949 Finola, Lady Summers – UK Chief Commissioner 1942-1949

The Lady Stratheden and Campbell (Jean) – UK Chief Commissioner 1949-1956

Jean Helen St. Clair Campbell, Lady Stratheden and Campbell CBE served as the Girl Guide Chief Commissioner for the British Commonwealth. She was a recipient of the Silver Fish Award, the highest adult award in Girlguiding, awarded for outstanding service to Girlguiding combined with service to world Guiding.

Born in 1902 in Edinburgh, Scotland as Jean Helen St. Clair Anstruther-Gray she was the daughter of William Anstruther-Gray and Claire Jessie Tennant. In 1923 she married Brigadier Alistair Campbell, 4th Baron Stratheden and Campbell and they had three daughters.

From 1948 until she retired due to ill-health in 1956, Campbell was Chief Commissioner of Girl Guides Association. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1954. She died on 9 August 1956 at an Edinburgh nursing home.

Miss Anstice Gibbs – UK Chief Commissioner 1956-1966

Dame Anstice Gibbs, DCVO, CBE (1905, in Hertfordshire – 7 February 1978, in Hampshire) was the Chief Commissioner of the Girl Guides Association in the UK for ten years, and vice-chair of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) from 1957 to 1960.

Anstice Rosa Gibbs and her twin brother, Bernard, were born on 2 January 1905 in Aldenham to the Venerable Hon. Kenneth Francis Gibbs, Canon of St. Albans, and Mabel Alice Gibbs née Barnett. They were the youngest of six siblings. The family moved to the Old Rectory, Hatfield, then after her father’s death in 1935, to Leicester, briefly, then to Redbourn, Hatfield. By the 1950s Gibbs was living in Oakham, Rutland. From the 1960s until her death, she lived in Brimpton Common, Berkshire. After her death, a service of thanksgiving was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

Gibbs spent more than 70 years as part of the Girl Guide movement. In 1922 she started Guiding in Paris, aged 17. She had one regret: “I was never a Brownie”. By 1923 she had been made Lieutenant of 1st Hatfield Guide Company, Hertfordshire, becoming Guider in Charge in 1925. She became District Commissioner for Hatfield in 1937, leading local Guiding throughout the Second World War. During the war, she started a Guide Company for evacuated girls, and assisted Rosa Ward, OBE, in raising money for the GIS. In 1943 she was Hertfordshire County’s Camp Advisor, running Guide and Ranger camps.

In 1945 she become the vice-chairman of the Imperial Executive Committee, and in 1947 was one of ten people selected to represent the Girl Guide movement at the wedding of the future Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

In 1948 she attended the Girl Scout World Conference at the Edith Macy Training School in Mount Pleasant, New York. She spent 1948–1950 in Canada as Lady-in-waiting to the Viscountess Alexander of Tunis, all the while remaining active within Guiding in Ottawa.

Between 1952 and 1960 Gibbs was a member of the Committee of WAGGGS and became Deputy Chief Commissioner for International Guiding for the Girl Guide Association in 1954. She was elected both Chief Commissioner and Chairwoman of the British Commonwealth Girl Guides Association in 1956, holding both roles for a decade. She was elected vice-chair of WAGGGS from 1957 to 1960, and in 1963 she was elected chair of WAGGGS World Conference.

In 1972 Gibbs was elected Chair of The Guide Club in London. Gibb’s final role in Guiding was as Chair of the UK’s Planning Committee for WAGGGS’ 22nd World Conference held in Sussex in 1975.
Gibbs was a member of the Council of The Victoria League, which promotes friendship education and understanding among the people of the Commonwealth, for ten years, becoming Deputy President.

Honours and awards: 1945 – Awarded the Silver Fish, Girl Guiding’s highest adult honour, for exceptional service to the Guide movement. 1960 – Awarded CBE. 1967 – Invested as Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO), an award given personally by the Queen.

Mrs Ann Parker Bowles – UK Chief Commissioner 1966-1975

Dame Ann Parker Bowles DCVO CBE (née de Trafford; 14 July 1918 – 22 January 1987) was a British aristocrat and Girl Guides leader.

Ann de Trafford was born in 1918 in London, the eldest daughter of millionaire racehorse owner Sir Humphrey de Trafford, 4th Baronet, and the Hon. Cynthia Hilda Evelyn Cadogan, a daughter of Henry Cadogan, Viscount Chelsea. Ann de Trafford was a Commissioner of the Commonwealth Girl Guides Association. For these and other services to the Commonwealth she was invested as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1972, and, five years later, as a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) in 1977.

On 14 February 1939 she married Derek Henry Parker Bowles, son of Eustace Parker Bowles (born Eustace Parker) and Wilma Mary Garnault Bowles, only daughter of Sir Henry Ferryman Bowles, 1st Baronet. They had four children. Her eldest son Andrew was the first husband of Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom.

1975 – 1980 Mrs Sheila Walker – UK Chief Commissioner 1975-1980

Lady Patience Baden-Powell – UK Chief Commissioner 1980-1985

Patience (Helen Mary) Baden-Powell (Batty), Baroness Baden-Powell, CBE
Birth: October 27, 1936, Gweru, Gweru, Midlands Province, Zimbabwe
Death: December 18, 2010 (74), Farnham, Surrey, England, United Kingdom

She was the wife of Robert and Olave’s Grandson Robert.

Dr June Paterson-Brown – UK Chief Commissioner 1985-1990

June Paterson-Brown, née Garden CVO CBE (1932 – 6 December 2009) was a Scottish medical doctor, early family planning advocate, Chief Commissioner of the Girl Guides Association, and the first female Lord Lieutenant in Scotland.

June Garden was born on 8 February 1932 in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was the daughter of Jean Mallace and Thomas Garden, Wing Commander CA. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1955.

After graduation, she became employed at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, where she worked as a junior houseman. In 1956, she transferred to East Fortune Hospital where patients were treated for tuberculosis. In 1957, she married Peter Neville Paterson-Brown, a general practitioner, and moved to Hawick in the Scottish Borders.

Paterson-Brown became increasingly involved in family planning advocacy beginning in 1960 when she started to give talks at family planning clinics. Because family planning was a sensitive topic at the time, she gave talks “in virtual darkness with one light illuminating the blackboard,” which helped to provide attendees a degree of anonymity. She continued providing support and guidance related to family planning for years, and was publicly praised for her work assisting “generations of expectant mothers.”

Following a long-time interest in the Girl Guides, Paterson-Brown held a number of leadership positions. In 1963, she was appointed District Commissioner for Hawick North, and in 1969, she was appointed County Commissioner for Roxburgshire. She went on to hold the title of Scottish Chief Commissioner from 1977 to 1982, and Chief Commissioner of the Girl Guides Association from 1985 to 1990. In 1989, she was awarded for her exceptional 30 years of service to the Girl Guides with the Silver Fish, the organisation’s highest honour.

Paterson-Brown died in Hawick on 6 December 2009.

Mrs Jane Garside – UK Chief Commissioner 1990-1995

JANE Garside CBE devoted her life to the Guiding Association. Originally from Colne Valley, Mrs Garside joined Golcar Church Brownies aged eight.

In 1952, she was one Golcar’s first two Queen’s guides and then went on to become a Sea Ranger in Slaithwaite. She was appointed brownie leader and for three years she was a member of the Leeds University Scout and Guide Club.

From 1960 she worked as a badge tester, district badge secretary and a district assistant until her appointment as the Huddersfield North District Commissioner in 1973.

She was chairman of the Huddersfield Ladies Circle and a valued member of the Inner Wheel, The Tangent Club and the Marsh branch of the NSPCC.

She took on the role of West Yorkshire South County Commissioner and Huddersfield North District Commissioner and spent five years, “clocking up 51,000 miles” in her role as the Chief Commissioner for North-East England. She received the prestigious Laurel Award for outstanding service and even appeared on TV’s Children in Need Appeal.

In 1990, Mrs Garside became Guides’ Chief Commissioner for the UK and Commonwealth. She told the Huddersfield Examiner in 1990: “I am not a feminist in the Germaine Greer sense of the word, I just believe in everyone getting the same chances. “Guiding is about helping the generations of tomorrow and giving girls the chances that they might never otherwise have had.”

Mrs Garside was revolutionary in the movement and helped to modernise the Girl Guides. Membership to the guides rose 22,000 in one year of her role as Chief Commissioner. In 1995, she was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for her services to guiding. In 2004, she replaced Lady Juliet Townsend as President of the Trefoil Guild.

She was a Huddersfield magistrate and company director at her husband, Adrian Garside’s family business, Highfield Funeral Service. Mrs Garside, who died aged 74, was mother to three children – Simon, Jonathan and the late Rachel – and grandmother to Liam, Sam, Julian, Maya and Alla. She leaves husband Adrian.

1995 – 1996 Ms Margaret Wright – UK Chief Commissioner 1995-1996

A former Guide Guider, District and Division Commissioner, County Commissioner, and Region Chief Commissioner for Midlands Region, as well as a member of The Council. A former computer programmer, she worked professionally as a company secretary for an engineering company, alongside her husband.

She lived in Staffordshire with her Scouter husband, had one son, and wanted to focus on supporting Leaders in her term of office. Her main hobby was golf,

She took over as Chief Guide in May 1995. Unfortunately she suffered ill health from March 1996, with exhaustion symptoms. As a result, in May 1996 a Deputy Chief Commissioner, Bridget Towle, was appointed to share the load. But it didn’t suffice, and in August 1996 she resigned due to ongoing ill health.

Dr Bridget Towle CBE DL BA FRSA – UK Chief Guide 1996-2001

Bridget Towle comes from a Leicestershire family. After graduating from Exeter University in Economics, Law and Politics she taught in Uganda on VSO. Returning home she joined the family knitwear and hosiery company based in Loughborough, first studying textile technology at Leicester Polytechnic, later followed by management courses. She was involved with marketing and product design for the company, becoming Joint Managing Director of Towles plc in 1980.

Having been involved with local Girlguiding for many years on ceasing employment she was elected in 1996 for a five year term as Chief Guide and chair of trustees of Girlguiding in the UK and Commonwealth. She then became a trustee of the RAF Benevolent Fund and also the College of Optometrists where she chaired the Lay Advisory Panel. In 2000 she joined the Council of the University of Leicester, becoming Treasurer in 2009 and Chair of Council from 2013-2019.

She was appointed CBE for services to Girlguiding and received honorary doctorates from Exeter and Loughborough Universities. She is a Deputy Lieutenant of Leicestershire and Vice President of Girlguiding UK.

Ms Jenny Leach – UK Chief Guide 2001-2006

She began as an adult leader of 4th Rastrick Guides in 1973. She went on to hold various roles, including County Ranger Adviser, District and County Commissioner and then Chief Commissioner for the North East. She became Chief Guide in 2001. Mrs Leach said: “I have worked for 30 years with totally committed adult volunteers and that’s been hugely enjoyable and very rewarding.”

Ms Liz Burnley – UK Chief Guide 2006-2011

Elizabeth Burnley CBE (born 1959), née Elizabeth Harrison, was the Chief Guide of Girlguiding UK between 2006 and 2011.

At the University of Nottingham, she completed a BSc in Psychology, then an MSc in Occupational Psychology. She worked in Human Resources for British Rail Engineering Limited and Boots UK, and became a programme director for Common Purpose UK in 2007.

Burnley first got involved with Guiding as a Brownie and she was also a Guide. She has previously held the post of International Commissioner within Girlguiding UK.

In a webchat in September 2006, she said her most memorable experience as a Guide was “an “incident hike” – our team got lost on a moor, capsized our raft and missed the casualty we were meant to rescue – but amazing fun!” Burnley was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.

2011 – 2016 Ms Gill Slocombe – UK Chief Guide 2011-2016

2016 – 2017 Ms Valerie Le Vaillant – UK Chief Guide 2016-2017

2018 – 2023 Ms Amanda Medler – UK Chief Guide 2018-2023

2023-present Ms Tracy Foster – UK Chief Guide 2023-present